Dow wins sustainability product of the year award for second year running

The Dow Chemical Company (Dow) has won the ‘Sustainability Product of the Year’ for the second consecutive time in the Business Intelligence Group’s Sustainability Awards Program.

Dow won the award for its VORAGUARD Polyol, a ComfortScience technology for mattresses with built-in safety properties and a sustainable environmental profile.

VORAGUARD is a patented polymer polyol for flexible polyurethane foam production designed to exhibit inherent flammability resistance properties and good load-bearing.

It also displays very-low volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emission characteristics.

Foams made with VORAGUARD do not need halogenated flame retardants to meet fire safety standards, reducing the potential formation and release to the atmosphere of certain hazardous compounds during the combustion process.

VORAGUARD has been designed to offer an advantaged environmental profile compared to alternative materials used to manufacture combustion-modified polyurethane foams and the sustainability features stem from the fact that many post-consumer mattresses are incinerated to avoid land fill and capture energy.

As the raw materials do not require heating or cooling and produces significantly lower amounts of scrap during production, energy required is reduced.

“VORAGUARD was judged to have made significant technical progress since 2017, which is why we were eligible to resubmit it for competition again this year," said Paul Cookson, senior R&D manager for ComfortScience at Dow Polyurethanes.

“We challenged ourselves to remove the halogens from the foam, while retaining flame retardancy, and to make new formulation developments that would expand the use of VORAGUARD further into traditional mattress and furniture foams.”