The Dow Chemical Company today issued its 2009 Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Sustainability Report with UN Global Compact Communication on Progress. The Report earned Dow an "A+" from the GRI for the third year in a row.
Dow utilizes GRI's reporting guidelines to communicate the Company's sustainability efforts and achievements. This report presents a consistent and balanced summary of progress on Dow's 2015 Goals, and underscores the company's commitment to addressing energy, climate change and other world challenges.
"Living our corporate values - Integrity, Respect for People, and Protecting the Planet - includes transparency in reporting," said Neil Hawkins, Dow's vice president of Sustainability and EH&S. Besides our own rigorous voluntary reporting disciplines, we are pleased to participate in the Global Reporting Initiative each year. The GRI is a catalyst for the conversations we must all engage in to bring about sustainable transformations in business models, behaviors, and transparency."
The GRI report is the most widely used sustainability reporting framework that includes the principles and indicators global organizations use to measure and report economic, environmental and social performance. This year's report is the seventh GRI report Dow has submitted since reporting began in 2003.
The "A" signifies completeness of the report, based on topics described in the GRI reporting guidelines, and the "+" denotes that the report was verified by an external third-party. An increasingly common step in GRI reporting, third-party verification elevates stakeholder confidence in reporting accuracy.