{"id":2065,"date":"2018-12-07T09:40:59","date_gmt":"2018-12-07T13:40:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/?p=2065"},"modified":"2018-12-07T09:40:59","modified_gmt":"2018-12-07T13:40:59","slug":"dows-collaborative-blueprint-for-unlocking-carbon-reductions-by-stephanie-erwin-and-katie-ellman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/2018\/12\/07\/dows-collaborative-blueprint-for-unlocking-carbon-reductions-by-stephanie-erwin-and-katie-ellman\/","title":{"rendered":"Dow’s Collaborative Blueprint for Unlocking Carbon Reductions–By Stephanie Erwin and Katie Ellman"},"content":{"rendered":"

To date, Dow Olympic & Sports Solutions<\/a> has delivered 3.64 million tons of CO2e reductions, and it\u2019s on track to exceed 6 million tons by 2026. This unique partnership between Dow and the International Olympic Committee uses sport and the Olympic brand as platforms to demonstrate how science and technology can help the transition to a lower-carbon future.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Nicoletta Piccolrovazzi, Global Technology & Sustainability Director for Dow Olympic & Sports Solutions<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The collaboration leverages Dow\u2019s materials science expertise, technologies, and science-based solutions to deliver climate benefits\u2014and, in the process, to provide actionable lessons learned to organizations across sectors.<\/p>\n

As Global Technology & Sustainability Director for Dow Olympic & Sports Solutions, improving the world through sport is more than an Olympic Movement philosophy, it\u2019s a way of life for Nicoletta Piccolrovazzi<\/a>.\u00a0Piccolrovazzi helps organizing committees, bid cities, large-scale events, business partners and other key stakeholders address technology and sustainability-related needs with Dow solutions.<\/p>\n

Bard MBA\u2019s Stephanie Erwin<\/a> spoke with Piccolrovazzi about how sports and the Olympics fit into Dow\u2019s larger structure, business and strategy.<\/p>\n

The following Q&A is an edited excerpt from the Bard MBA\u2019s <\/em>December 7th <\/em>The Impact Report<\/em><\/a> podcast. The Impact Report brings together students and faculty in <\/em>Bard\u2019s MBA in Sustainability<\/em><\/a> program with leaders in business, sustainability and social entrepreneurship.<\/em><\/p>\n

Reprinted from GreenBiz.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

ERWIN: MOST PEOPLE DON’T THINK OF SUSTAINABILITY OR SPORTS WHEN THEY THINK OF DOW CHEMICAL. YOUR MISSION STATEMENT TALKS ABOUT CREATING INNOVATION AT THE INTERSECTION OF CHEMISTRY, BIOLOGY AND PHYSICS. HOW DO SPORTS AND THE OLYMPICS FIT INTO THE ORGANIZATION’S STRATEGY?<\/p>\n

Dow is a world-leading materials science company. We often talk in very technical terms, and people sometimes struggle to understand what we do. This is really why we\u2019ve embarked on a sports partnership\u2014to help us communicate about our science and technologies, and to help them become more visible for consumers.<\/p>\n

Our chemistry touches consumers in many ways throughout their daily lives, from the mattresses they wake up on, to the insulation material that makes their homes more comfortable, to packaging solutions that keep their food fresh. Our chemistry also enables many industries. For instance, in the automotive industry, we\u2019re helping achieve the light-weighting of transportation by binding different materials together. We use our sports partnerships to make this chemistry more visible.<\/p>\n

Sustainability is really part of what we do at Dow. It\u2019s become part of our business strategy, our Corporate Sustainability Goals<\/a>, and our corporate values, which are integrity for people and protecting the planet. It\u2019s a theme that\u2019s really embedded in how we do work.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

ERWIN: HOW DO BOTH SPORTS AND DOW’S INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE CARBON PARTNERSHIP INSPIRE CHANGE TOWARD A MORE SUSTAINABLE FUTURE?<\/p>\n

Dow has actually been delivering technology solutions since the 1980s to different sports venues. These have included solutions like insulation materials or heat processes that went into the venues. So, in many different applications, our technologies were already present.<\/p>\n

Then, in 2010 we became the official chemistry company of the Olympic movement, and that gave us continuous opportunities to participate with our technologies in different projects. We also began to talk about the contributions of our science, and we very quickly realized that we could bring more than just our technologies to the plate.<\/p>\n

So, we started to expand our focus to our sustainability expertise and other capabilities. With the Sochi Games, we became the official carbon partner of the Games, and since 2017 we have been the official carbon partner of the International Olympic Committee<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

ERWIN: HOW DOES THIS PARTNERSHIP TRANSLATE TO DOW’S LONG-TERM SUSTAINABILITY GOALS?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s great to see that the business case behind sustainability is better understood today than it was in the past. For instance, the Business Commission report Better Business, Better World<\/a> estimates a twelve trillion dollar opportunity from the implementation of programs related to the Sustainable Development Goals, so there\u2019s good knowledge about the business case.<\/p>\n

However, while technologies exist and the business case is understood, adoption of technologies is still lacking. We\u2019re looking at the partnership with the IOC to see how we can use sport to drive engagement and drive the adoption of differentiated technologies that need, on the one hand, to reduce CO2 <\/sub>emissions, and on the other hand to better understand the next generation of solutions. This is how our partnership with the IOC connects the sustainability focus with the power of sports to engage people and deliver a project that leads to lower CO2 <\/sub>emissions.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

ERWIN: WHAT HAVE BEEN SOME OF THE BIGGEST BARRIERS TO THE SUCCESS OF THIS WORK?<\/p>\n

We sometimes think that the barriers are financial, but quite often they\u2019re really around the adoption of technologies. Through our programs, we\u2019re trying to drive technologies that are beyond current business solutions, beyond current business practices. This doesn\u2019t mean that they\u2019re completely new technologies, but they need to be better than the incumbent.<\/p>\n

When it comes to people adopting these technologies, we often see that there\u2019s an activation barrier that we need to overcome. So, we\u2019re using the Olympic brand to help us engage people to overcome these activation barriers.<\/p>\n

Similarly, I think that climate change is a very difficult problem for people to grasp. It\u2019s a global problem and carbon emissions aren\u2019t visible, which adds up to a challenge to implementing programs. Plus, sometimes the narrative isn\u2019t very positive, so that\u2019s another of the reasons why we use sport. It helps us make this narrative more positive and engage both our customers and the partners that we need to implement projects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To date, Dow Olympic & Sports Solutions has delivered 3.64 million tons of CO2e reductions, and it\u2019s on track to exceed 6 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":267,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,535],"tags":[18,13,626,627,628,630,629,631,299],"class_list":["post-2065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-the-impact-report","tag-carbon","tag-climate-change","tag-dow","tag-dow-olympic-sports-solutions","tag-ioc","tag-materials-science","tag-olympics","tag-piccolrovazzi","tag-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/267"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2065"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2067,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2065\/revisions\/2067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}