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Chemical Industry Excellence Award Winner Dow Chemical
Technology Category
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Database Management & Storage
- Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Data Management Platforms
Applicable Industries
- Chemicals
Applicable Functions
- Discrete Manufacturing
- Quality Assurance
Use Cases
- Predictive Maintenance
- Process Control & Optimization
Services
- Data Science Services
- System Integration
The Challenge
Dow Chemical, a leading producer of plastics, chemicals, and agricultural products, was faced with the challenge of managing its environmental reporting across hundreds of facilities in the United States. The company had been using multiple legacy systems for regulatory reporting, but these systems were no longer sustainable, varied between sites, and required duplicate resources for support. The need for regulatory reporting compliance and technology replacement led to the initiation of the Dow Environmental Reporting Project in 2004. The project aimed to provide a cost-effective, high-quality, multi-media environmental reporting solution.
About The Customer
The Dow Chemical Company is one of the world’s leading producers of plastics, chemicals, and agricultural products. With 46,000 employees, the company operates in more than 175 countries. Dow is widely recognized as a model of corporate citizenship and best practices in business sustainability. In 2007, the company celebrated the success of its landmark Environmental Reporting Project – the largest emissions management program of its kind. The project was a powerful example of the results that can be achieved by expert managers who unify and streamline information processes enterprise-wide using Sphera software.
The Solution
The Dow Environmental Reporting Project team first engaged stakeholders, received leadership endorsement, and then proceeded with the selection of a unified software platform. After an internal review and third-party validation of several commercially available software solutions, they chose Sphera Essential Suite™, which had already been used successfully at selected Dow facilities since 1999. A joint Dow EHS, Dow IS, CH2M Hill, and Sphera team was assembled to implement the system company-wide due to the breadth and complexity of the project. The team designed and built interfaces, templates, uploaders, ad hoc query tools, and reports to meet the needs of the project. The new environmental reporting work processes defined roles and responsibilities consistently across U.S. sites and created a centralized support structure.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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