The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW) today issued its 2012 Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Sustainability Report with UN Global Compact Communication on Progress. Dow utilizes GRI's reporting guidelines to communicate the Company's sustainability efforts and achievements. Through a consistent and balanced summary on progress on Dow's 2015 Goals, this report underscores the Company's commitment to addressing social and environmental challenges through chemistry and innovation.

"We continue to evolve our execution of the GRI framework to deliver maximum disclosure and transparency," said Mark Weick, Dow's director of Sustainability Programs. "It's an important cornerstone of our sustainability communications, and the practice of tracking, measuring and collecting our performance on all the GRI dimensions strengthens the company's culture of sustainability. You can't underestimate the value of going through this process - for external and internal stakeholders alike."

For the sixth year in a row, the report achieved an "A+" designation. The "A" signifies that the report reaches the highest level of completeness and the "+" assures stakeholders of the report's accuracy through verification by an external third-party. The GRI framework assists reporters in basing their communication on the following principles: balance, comparability, accuracy, timeliness, clarity and reliability.

GRI is the globally recognized sustainability reporting framework with a mission to make sustainability reporting a standard practice for all organizations. This year marks the tenth time Dow has published a report using the GRI framework.

A new research report conducted earlier this year by the iCompli division of BPA Worldwide and IRAS scored Dow's 2011 report highest among Fortune 100 companies when it comes to applying the Global Reporting Initiative's Guidelines for Sustainability Reporting.

A summary of the 2012 report is also available, which highlights 2012 progress and many of the metrics used to track Dow's 2015 Sustainability Goals.

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