Dow Canada in Fort Saskatchewan: Protecting Health and the Environment
Dow is committed to a “Vision of Zero”—zero incidents, injuries, illnesses and zero environmental harm. Every Dow employee is accountable for achieving this goal. If the Vision of Zero is achieved, we will have returned home safely each night and protected the health and well-being of the communities surrounding our Fort Saskatchewan site.
Worker and process safety is emphasized at all Dow Canada sites, including Fort Saskatchewan. Over the past few years, Fort Saskatchewan has had solid worker safety performance and we are constantly working to develop improvements to our safety procedures.
We work extensively to limit our impact on the environment. Over 450 acres of the Fort Saskatchewan site are dedicated to the Dow Wildlife Greenbelt, which has continually met the high recertification standards of the Wildlife Habitat Council. The area includes remnant marshes, wetlands, wooded corridors and manicured grounds. Over 16,000 trees and shrubs have been planted in the Greenbelt, which is open to the public during summer daylight hours.
Dow is committed to keeping the air clean and safe. We are active members in the Fort Air Partnership (FAP), a multi-stakeholder group that works to provide credible and comprehensive air quality data to the public and the government. Two air-monitoring stations near Dow’s manufacturing site provide real-time data on air emissions and air quality.
When faced with environmental challenges, we honour our commitment to Responsible Care® and strive to do the right thing. In 2002 Dow Canada implemented a five-year environmental performance management agreement in cooperation with the federal government to reduce 1,2-dichloroethane (EDC) emissions at our Fort Saskatchewan and North Vancouver, British Columbia facilities. The agreement established an innovative environmental approach that successfully reduced EDC emissions at these sites by approximately 70 per cent, well exceeding the 50 per cent target.
As part of Dow’s 2015 Sustainability Goals, we are working to improve our environmental performance even further. We have set the global goal of reducing our energy intensity by 25% between 2005 and 2015. This means that we will use 25% less energy per pound of production within 10 years. By reducing energy intensity and the corresponding greenhouse gas emissions, Dow Canada will have contributed to a solution for climate change.
