As a leading and global petrochemical company, Dow has a long track record in setting corporate sustainability goals. In 2025, we will renew our 10-year objectives for the 3rd time. Fighting climate change and stop the waste will probably stay important pillars in our Path2Zero. Both come back in the circular economy where we strive to make the feedstock transition and the energy transition happen to become net-zero by 2050. In my presentation, I will highlight some of the key achievements so far, as well as the challenges that we still face to realize our ambitions. It is beyond doubt that these challenges exceed (far) beyond the technical space.

Matthijs Ruitenbeek is Principal Scientist Circular & Renewable Solutions at Dow. He is leading the development of novel sustainable technologies with a focus on circular economy, examples being the Steel2Chemicals project and Dow’s advanced plastic recycling efforts. Matthijs has been active in the chemical industry for more than 25 years and joined Dow in 2009 as a senior research scientist in the Alternative Feedstock domain. Since then, he has led several projects in the field of syngas conversion and carbon recycling and helped developing young scientists as an R&D manager. He is an active member of the Dow Benelux Think Tank, which co-developed the Dow Benelux sustainability agenda by developing novel concepts and value chains to reduce CO₂ emissions and improve resource efficiency. Before joining Dow, Matthijs worked at DSM and Sabic Europe, both in Geleen (Chemelot). He holds an MSc degree in physical organic chemistry from Utrecht University and a PhD degree from the same university in inorganic chemistry & catalysis.