Designing Innovative Corporate Water Risk Management Strategies from an Ecosystem Services Perspective
Multidisciplinary Action Project

Authors: Daniel Gerding (’14), Berry Kennedy (’14), Makely Lyon (’14), Joshua Rego, and Emily Taylor (’14)
Advisor: Don Scavia, Ph.D.

Abstract: In January of 2012, we teamed up with representatives from the sustainability department at The Dow Chemical Company with the goal of creating a viable, creative solution that would advance The Company’s efforts to address the risk associated with freshwater scarcity. With uncertainty surrounding the impacts of climate change and other environmental threats, it is becoming increasingly important for corporations to fully understand and incorporate the value of the benefits nature provides into strategic decisions. The focal ecosystem service of our project was freshwater provisioning. Freshwater is critical to life and a key ingredient to many economic activities, such as power generation, agriculture and industrial processes. Water scarcity is of particular interest to Dow, given that 20 percent of The Company’s global production comes from the Freeport, Texas facility on the water-stressed Brazos River. Read more