Dow Spotlights Innovations In Addressing Water Resource And Supply Challenges

Infrastructure Week 2015 Brings Business, State and Academic Leaders to Downtown Minneapolis

Although roughly 70 percent of the Earth’s surface is water, we can only use less than 1 percent of it, which makes water scarcity an increasing global concern. As a leader in innovations addressing our nation’s water scarcity and infrastructure challenges, Dow Water & Process Solutions, a business unit of The Dow Chemical Company joined the Value of Water Coalition to host a panel for Infrastructure Week 2015, May 11-15 in Minneapolis.

The panel took place on May 15 and more than 50 representatives from greater MSP businesses, academia and government attended to listen to leaders discuss advancing water preservation and sustainability and solving the growing issue of water scarcity. During the national reflections panel moderated by Radhika Fox, director of the Value of Water Coalition, Snehal Desai, global business director for Dow Water & Process Solutions, spoke on Dow’s efforts to renew, reuse and recycle water and highlighted different examples throughout the world. Brock McEwen, global technology director of the Water Business Group at CH2M Hill, and Desai also addressed popular Infrastructure Week topics including the cost vs. value of water and advancing progress towards a circular economy.

“As a whole, water technology is on the rise with local and national organizations working together to lead these efforts,” said Desai. “Our panel discussion in Minneapolis and all the events surrounding Infrastructure Week are bringing us closer to preserving our most precious resource and solving this global crisis though innovation and collaboration.”

The event was hosted by Faegre Baker Daniels and also included a local innovations panel featuring Jason Willett, director of finance and energy for the Metropolitan Council, Paige Novak, Civil Engineering professor at University of Minnesota and Jeremy Lenz, principal at Lenz Consulting. The topics focused on treating impaired water for reuse, the need for policy to help expedite the adoption of water treatment technologies and continued collaboration via public-private partnerships.

“Dow Water and Process Solutions has taken the lead in creating innovative solutions to our water technology challenges,” remarks Radhika Fox, director of the Value of Water Coalition. “While communities across the country are looking for answers to solve pressing water problems, the hopeful news from Infrastructure Week is that our challenges are large, but our capacity to overcome those challenges is greater.”

For more information about the efforts and technologies of Dow Water & Process Solutions, please visit www.dowwaterandprocess.com. To learn more about the global issue and how you can help, please visit thevalueofwater.org. 

About Dow Water & Process Solutions 
The global leader in sustainable separation and purification technology, Dow Water & Process Solutions is making real progress in the world. We’re helping to make water safer and more accessible, food taste better, pharmaceuticals more effective and industries more efficient and spearheading the development of sustainable technologies that integrate water and energy requirements. Dow Water & Process Solutions offers a broad portfolio of ion exchange resins, reverse osmosis membranes, ultrafiltration membranes, fine particle filters and electrodeionization products, with strong positions in a number of major application areas, including industrial and municipal water, industrial processes, pharmaceuticals, power, oil and gas, residential water and waste and water reuse. For more information, visit www.dowwaterandprocess.com.

About Dow
Dow combines the power of science and technology to passionately innovate what is essential to human progress. The Company is driving innovations that extract value from the intersection of chemical, physical and biological sciences to help address many of the world's most challenging problems such as the need for clean water, clean energy generation and conservation, and increasing agricultural productivity. Dow's integrated, market-driven, industry-leading portfolio of specialty chemical, advanced materials, agrosciences and plastics businesses delivers a broad range of technology-based products and solutions to customers in approximately 180 countries and in high-growth sectors such as packaging, electronics, water, coatings and agriculture. In 2014, Dow had annual sales of more than $58 billion and employed approximately 53,000 people worldwide. The Company's more than 6,000 product families are manufactured at 201 sites in 35 countries across the globe. References to "Dow" or the "Company" mean The Dow Chemical Company and its consolidated subsidiaries unless otherwise expressly noted. For more information, visit www.dow.com.

About The Value of Water Coalition
The Value of Water Coalition builds national will for investment in water infrastructure and water resources. The Coalition has come together to advance positive solutions to our nation’s pressing water challenges.