Task Force member – Data Preparer

Mary Draves

Chief Sustainability Officer and Vice President of Environment, Health & Safety
Dow Midland, Michigan, U.S.A.

As chief sustainability officer and vice president of Environment, Health and Safety (EH&S) for Dow, Mary Draves is passionate about using science, innovation and collaboration to drive transformative and sustainable change. She leads corporate EH&S governance and Dow’s ambitious 2025 Sustainability Goals. Priority areas include solutions for a circular economy, climate change, sustainable chemistry and incorporating nature into business decisions.

Draves previously led Dow’s groundbreaking Valuing Nature Goal, which represents the firstever commitment by a corporation to formerly factor nature into its business decisions. Under her leadership, Dow has enjoyed a highly productive collaboration with The Nature Conservancy (TNC). Together with TNC, she and her team have helped pioneer tools and create a cultural shift that are enabling Dow sites to make a compelling business case for adopting nature-based project solutions. Dow’s aim is to identify $1 billion worth of value to Dow from projects that enhance nature by 2025. Since launching the goal in 2015, the Company has realized about $275 million of value in nature-based decisions.

She also was responsible for Dow’s global remediation organization, in which she implemented the Company’s global remediation strategy and developed environmental standards and guidelines to support Dow’s global operations and minimize environmental risk. In this capacity, she aligned Dow business processes, resources and regulatory standards with compliance policies to ensure safe and reliable operations worldwide.

Draves joined Dow in 1989 and has held several manufacturing and EH&S leadership roles. During her three decades at Dow, Draves has built a reputation for being an effective and collaborative leader who helps inspire commitment in her teams and attain results. She is a recipient of the Olympus Award, Dow’s highest recognition for excellence in people leadership. Her commitment to collaboration and transparency extends beyond Dow to her relationships within the industry, including with regulators and non-governmental partners such as TNC.

She also contributes her leadership skills to her community, where she is a board trustee for The Nature Conservancy of Michigan, the Saginaw Valley State University Foundation, the Michigan 4H Foundation, is a member of the Isabella Bank’s Eastern Region Board, and is a board member of the Midland Business Alliance. She often credits growing up in a family with a small business for shaping her work ethic and her commitment to serve others.

Draves holds a Bachelor of Science degree in biology and Master of Science in technological processes from Saginaw Valley State University. She resides in Midland, Michigan, with her family.