Dow Canada’s primary concern in our day-to-day operations is the safety of employees and the communities in which we operate. We are constantly working to improve the operating safety of our facilities, and the handling, storage, transport and security of our products and the materials used to make them.
Community and Workplace Safety
Dow Canada is a member company of Responsible Care®, a voluntary initiative of the Canadian Chemical Producers Association which emphasizes the safe management of chemical products from their creation through to disposal. Responsible Care practices emphasize public transparency, including clear reporting of safety and environmental data. For example, Dow’s 2015 Sustainability Goals aim to make safety assessments for all of our products publicly available worldwide by 2015.
We have made major strides in reducing our impact on the environment. From 1996-2005, our Canadian operations reduced emissions of priority compounds—29 compounds listed as persistent, toxic, bio-accumulative, carcinogenic, ozone-depleting or high volume toxic substances—by 94 percent.
Emergency Response and Transportation Safety
All Dow Canada sites maintain an emergency response team that takes action in the case of a safety or environmental incident to mitigate any negative impacts on human or environmental health.
Our teams work in cooperation with municipal first responders and as part of joint industrial emergency response organizations like the Northeast Region Community Awareness and Emergency Response (NRCAER) organization in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta. Periodically, Dow’s emergency response teams participate in “dry run” simulations to build preparedness for actual events.
Since we act as stewards of our products until they reach the customer, Dow Canada works with its logistics partners to evaluate the effectiveness of their security and safety programs. In the case of a transportation emergency, Dow emergency response teams will assist our logistics partners in minimizing any possible impacts.
In addition, Dow has been a global leader in chemical industry security, including the development of “next generation” railroad cars, customer screening and information security.
®Responsible Care is a certification mark of the Canadian Chemical Producers' Association and Dow Canada is a licensed user of the certification marks.
