Dow Achieves Sustainability Milestone with BETAMATE™ Structural Adhesives; Third “Breakthrough to World Challenges”

BETAMATE™ Structural Adhesives have been named Dow’s (NYSE:DOW) third “Breakthrough to World Challenges,” meeting a milestone set by the Company as part of its 2015 Sustainability Goals. A recent recipient of a 2014 R&D 100 Award and two 2014 PACE Awards, BETAMATE Structural Adhesives are used to bond the body structure of automobiles during assembly which enables improved vehicle safety and durability while optimizing weight reduction and providing greater design flexibility.

With its newest “Breakthrough” Dow delivers on a target established in 2006 as part of Dow’s 2015 Sustainability Goals, an aggressive set of 10-year targets that seeks to improve sustainability in seven core areas: Sustainable Chemistry; Addressing Climate Change; Energy Efficiency and Conservation; Product Safety Leadership; Contributing to Community Success; and Local Protection of Human Health and the Environment. Dow’s “Breakthrough” commitment identifies products and technologies that deliver significant contributions to society over time.

“Today, we celebrate a milestone in Dow’s sustainability journey – fulfilling our commitment to deliver at least three Breakthroughs to World Challenges in areas like food and nutrition, fresh water, and energy and climate change,” said Neil Hawkins, Dow Corporate Vice President, EH&S and Sustainability. “As our society faces these increasingly complex challenges, Dow is proud to be part of the solution – putting our science and technology expertise to work to deliver real, high-impact innovations in these essential areas for society.”

To be selected, each of Dow’s three breakthrough technologies – Omega-9 Oils, DOW FILMTEC™ ECO Reverse Osmosis Elements and, now, BETAMATE Structural Adhesives – were subjected to a rigorous evaluation process. The process evaluates many candidates in Dow’s business portfolio against a variety of criteria, from positive impact on millions of human lives, to minimal environmental impact throughout the product’s lifecycle.

Read more – What makes a breakthrough?

BETAMATE™ Structural Adhesives

A challenge of enhancing fuel efficiency in vehicles by replacing heavy steel structures with lighter weight materials like aluminum and composites is maintaining the strength of the vehicle structure. BETAMATE Structural Adhesives are an enabling technology for optimized steel structures and dissimilar material assembly, where traditional joining techniques such as welding and riveting are limited in their applicability.

“BETAMATE Structural Adhesives address energy and climate change, as well as safety and health – two of the pressing world challenges that Dow has committed to help solve as a part of the 2015 Sustainability Goals,” said Steve Henderson, president of Dow Automotive Systems. “Since their introduction in 1999, BETAMATE Adhesives have already contributed to an estimated 23.3 billion kilograms (kg) of CO2 emission avoidance and 2.65 billion gallons of gasoline savings.”

“As customers around the world purchase more fuel-efficient vehicles and more rigorous emission standards are implemented, sustainability has increasingly come to the forefront as a key consideration in vehicle design and production,” Hawkins added. “BETAMATE Structural Adhesives are a game-changer for lightweight vehicle assembly, using existing manufacturing processes to improve fuel efficiency and reduce emissions.”

Structural adhesives also enable increased load-bearing capability and improved static and dynamic stiffness, leading to improved safety and crash behavior, reduced vibrations and noise, optimized ride, excellent driving and handling, and enhanced durability for extended vehicle life span and long-term value.

DOW FILMTEC™ ECO Reverse Osmosis (RO) Elements

With large-scale, positive sustainability impact, Dow named FILMTEC™ ECO RO Elements as its second breakthrough technology this March. FILMTEC ECO Elements are a breakthrough in polymer chemistry that surpasses the last three decades of incremental change in RO technology, representing some of the most advanced water purification science available today designed to help fight global water scarcity. The technology has also won Edison and R&D 100 Awards.

Delivering 40 percent better purification with 30 percent less energy in industrial operations, Dow anticipates that as the new technology is adopted it will deliver trillions of metric tons of clean water, billions of kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy savings, and reduce CO2 emissions by more than a million metric tons in its first 10 years of use alone.

Omega-9 Oils

Named in 2012, Dow’s first Breakthroughs to World Challenges – Omega-9 Oils – play a critical role in enhancing nutrition and lifestyle. While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has required food labeling of trans fats since 2006, many processed foods still contain unhealthy levels of trans fats and high levels of saturated fat. Nutrition experts correlate these trans and saturated fats in diets as contributing to increased risk of heart disease and Type 2 diabetes.

Derived from Dow’s NEXERA™ Canola and Sunflower Seeds, Omega-9 Oils have zero trans fat and are among the lowest in saturated fat. Since 2005, the use of Omega-9 Oils has eliminated more than 1.5 billion pounds of trans and saturated fat from the North American diet. Omega-9 Oil is widely used across the food service and packaged foods industries.

About Dow

Dow (NYSE: DOW) combines the power of science and technology to passionately innovate what is essential to human progress. The Company is driving innovations that extract value from the intersection of chemical, physical and biological sciences to help address many of the world's most challenging problems such as the need for clean water, clean energy generation and conservation, and increasing agricultural productivity. Dow's integrated, market-driven, industry-leading portfolio of specialty chemical, advanced materials, agrosciences and plastics businesses delivers a broad range of technology-based products and solutions to customers in approximately 180 countries and in high growth sectors such as packaging, electronics, water, coatings and agriculture. In 2013, Dow had annual sales of more than $57 billion and employed approximately 53,000 people worldwide. The Company's more than 6,000 products are manufactured at 201 sites in 36 countries across the globe. References to "Dow" or the "Company" mean The Dow Chemical Company and its consolidated subsidiaries unless otherwise expressly noted. More information about Dow can be found at www.dow.com. For additional information about progress against Dow’s 2015 Sustainability Goals, visit the Dow 2013 Sustainability Highlights Report.

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