Spray Foam Roofing Featured in Dow YouTube Video

MIDLAND, MI - November 17, 2011 - A video now circulating on YouTube depicts a bright future in sustainable building, and also shows viewers how spray foam roofing fits into the equation.

The viral short is a showcase of Dow’s green roofing solutions. The roofs that Dow constructs are, in fact, literally green. The video depicts sprawling industrial landscapes peppered with grassy rooftops. A voice-over from Mike Kontranowski, a representative of Dow Building Solutions, mentions a time before urbanization, when an abundant natural land boasted trees and plant life.

“With a green roof, all we are doing is lifting that up a few hundred feet off the ground and putting it on top of the building,” he explained.

Another key component of “green roofs”, he said, is to use the right insulation to minimize the amount of energy being used. Enter spray foam.

“What we’re trying to do is look at products like spray foam urethane products. These are great for both the retrofit market as well as new construction,” Kontranowski said. “If you get the building envelope- the enclosure of that building- tighter and more efficient, then as you start to add renewable-type energy sources, they’re going to be more effective for that project.”

He explained that using spray foam benefits the customer’s bottom line with savings, and also benefits the environment. Everybody wins.

The video is part of a larger campaign, Dow Solutionism, which showcases Dow’s commitment to energy efficient progress across the globe.

Dow Solutionism has employed advertising tactics as fresh and innovative as the ideas they promote. A stunning print advertisement for green roofing depicts a city skyline full of kites being flown from the lush, green rooftops of skyscrapers.

In September, another unorthodox awareness effort came in the form of a 46-foot giant chalkboard erected in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City. Throughout one week, lines of an elaborate equation were inscribed piece by piece on the board. The equation combined complicated mathematics with numbers that are significant to scientific achievements throughout human history. People were invited to a Web site and Twitter page constructed by Dow to guess the answers and discuss the equation, until the final answer was revealed to be 7 billion, which represents the impending world population. Explained Dow on the site www.giantchalkboard.com:

“Whether you’ve realized it or not, Giant Chalkboard has been telling the story of what science and humanity can achieve when they work together. Every number in this equation is significant to discoveries, accomplishments, and advances that live at the intersection of science and humanity.

And that total is 7 billion. That’s all of us together. As our 7 billionth member of the world’s population is born at the end of next month, let’s celebrate and remember that together, the elements of science and the human element can solve anything. That’s solutionism. The new optimism.”

About Dow Building Solutions: With the invention of STYROFOAM Brand Extruded Polystyrene Foam Insulation more than 60 years ago, Dow was at the forefront of the green movement, beginning to mine and align the essential elements of today's energy-efficient designs with insulation, innovative systems and a growing portfolio of spray polyurethane foam products and application-specific solutions for foundations, walls, roofs and more. In 2010, Dow had annual sales of $53.7 billion and employed approximately 50,000 people worldwide. The Company’s more than 5,000 products are manufactured at 188 sites in 35 countries across the globe.