Contributor: Dave Myers, Environmental IT Specialist | The Dow Chemical Company

Dow’s Environmental Remediation & Restoration (ER&R) business manages a vast global portfolio of 163 remediation sites, each with its own data complexities, consultant relationships, and regulatory requirements. To streamline operations, improve collaboration, and gain greater strategic flexibility, Dow adopted EarthSoft’s EQuIS across its remediation program. 

Results at a glance: Faster consultant transitions, stronger governance, improved pricing transparency, fewer data errors, and significant cost savings supported by measurable outcomes shared directly by Dow. 

Boosting Collaboration and Operational Flexibility 

Dow reports that its use of EarthSoft EQuIS “has enhanced collaboration and given Dow more operational flexibility in its Environmental Remediation & Restoration business.” 

EQuIS serves as the central foundation for managing environmental data across numerous remediation projects, enabling smoother transfer of responsibilities, standardized workflows, and consistent execution across global teams. 

Streamlined Transfer and Reallocation of Responsibilities 

Dow frequently transfers or reallocates responsibilities among consultants at its remediation sites. With EQuIS, these transitions move significantly faster and more efficiently. 

“Dow Midland site transition Operations and Monitoring responsibilities resulted in 50% reduction in transition time and effort.” 

This measurable improvement shows how standardizing data, reporting, and tools within EQuIS reduces the effort required to onboard new teams or restructure scopes of work. 

Familiarizing New Consultants Faster 

Dow notes that EQuIS tools help consultant teams quickly become familiar with site‑specific characteristics, enabling immediate productivity and reducing knowledge gaps. 

This benefit becomes especially important during large-scale contract renewals, when Dow must: 

• transfer services to new consultant groups, 

• divide responsibilities across teams, and 

• help new firms rapidly understand complex historical data. 
  

Enhanced Efficiency and Better Utilization of Consultant Strengths 

With all consultants operating from the same governed data environment, Dow can better align work with each team’s strengths. The standardization also promotes consistency: 

“Consistency in governance allows all sites to be viewed through the same lens.” 

This unified view enables Dow to optimize consultant roles, eliminate redundancy, and improve overall program performance. 

A Level Playing Field for Consultant Bidding and Negotiations 

Because EQuIS provides equal access to accurate, consolidated site data, Dow can run fair and transparent contract competitions. 

Dow explains that “EQuIS access ‘levels’ the playing field during competitive bidding… All bidding consultants see the same data and can construct their bid accordingly.” 

Consultants have validated this improvement with one commenting that “having EQuIS enabled them to construct a bid with confidence and expeditiously.” 

This transparency yields more competitive pricing, better alignment of expectations, and improved outcomes for Dow. Dow also cites “better pricing granularity” during negotiations as a direct benefit. 

Strengthened Data Governance and Reduced Errors 

EQuIS enforces Dow’s global data standards, ensuring that environmental data from commercial labs and consultants is delivered consistently and accurately. 

Dow’s mandated EQuIS electronic data deliverable format, Dow_EQEDD, is uniformly applied, and commercial labs are contractually required to submit data using this format. 

The impact is substantial. Dow’s “last data audit showed 28% reduction in data errors due to EQuIS standardization and governance.” 

Better governance means fewer corrections, more reliable analytics, and improved regulatory interactions.

Data as a Strategic Asset 

Dow’s environmental team views high quality data as a core business advantage. This perspective extends beyond compliance or reporting requirements. Dow views environmental data as an asset and uses data to assess economic liability on Dow sites. They also use similar data to evaluate non-Dow sites for where Dow sees economic advantage in obtaining the site and managing the remediation process. 

EQuIS strengthens this strategy by offering governed, accessible, high-quality data that supports both risk evaluation and growth-oriented decision making.  

Significant Cost Savings Through EQuIS‑Informed Insourcing 

EQuIS enables Dow to own all work products generated in the platform (dashboards, reports, Collect forms, and automated workflows), which drives strategic flexibility. 

Dow states, “Since we possess this intellectual property, we have the flexibility to make strategic decisions, including insourcing work previously handled by our consultants.” 

This approach already delivers measurable value: 

• A recent project resulted in $100,000 annual cost saving. 

• Dow’s 1,000‑page quarterly agency report fully automated with EQuIS yields cost savings of $25,000 quarterly. 

• Automation enabled regulatory approval of paperless reporting, saving thousands of printed pages each year. 

Conclusion: A More Connected, Efficient, and Strategically Enabled Remediation Program 

By adopting EQuIS as the foundational platform for its remediation program, Dow has strengthened collaboration, operational flexibility, and data governance across its global Environmental Remediation & Restoration portfolio. The unified system has delivered measurable improvements, including: 

• 50% faster consultant transitions 

• More efficient onboarding and knowledge transfer 

• Greater operational agility through standardized tools and workflows 

• A level playing field that improves competitive bidding and pricing accuracy 

• A 28% reduction in data errors through consistent governance 

• Significant cost savings—$100,000 annually plus $25,000 each quarter 

• Full ownership of dashboards, reports, and workflows for long– term strategic control 

• The ability to leverage high quality data as a strategic asset for both liability and opportunity evaluation 

Dow summarizes the system-wide benefits clearly, “EQuIS workflow implementation enhances efficiency, improves quality, drives collaboration, and enables AI tools to use a well-structured data set.” 

Through standardized data, transparent collaboration, and ownership of intellectual property, Dow is not only improving current remediation performance but also building the foundation for future innovation including advanced automation and AI enabled remediation strategies.

To learn more about EQuIS digital workflow solutions, contact one of our representatives today. Please write info@earthsoft.com for further information.