Automotive & Transportation
VerdiumTM Recycled Metal:
Setting a New Standard
All Eyes on ESG
The spotlight on companies’ environmental, social, and governance (ESG) efforts is intensifying as stakeholders – investors, employees, customers, and regulatory bodies – increasingly scrutinize corporate sustainability efforts. Mounting pressure is spurring businesses to demonstrate their commitment to ESG principles.
Regulatory shifts, such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and California’s Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act, are also driving companies to adopt more transparent practices. These regulations reflect a global consensus on the urgent need for environmental responsibility, propelling companies towards innovative sustainability solutions. To answer the rising demand for climate impact disclosures, automotive, chemical, and catalyst companies, among others, are setting ambitious sustainability goals that encompass all their activities, including those upstream in the form of Scope 3.1 Greenhouse Gas Emissions targets.
With its customers’ decarbonization goals in mind, BASF Environmental Catalyst and Metal Solutions (ECMS) used its expertise in metals and deep experience in recycling to develop VerdiumTM, a new brand of 100% recycled Platinum Group Metal (PGM) based on a mass balance method. Verdium sets the standard for third-party audit in the PGM space as it is validated by UL Solutions, a leading global safety science company. This enables customers who purchase Verdium to certify their carbon reduction in Scope 3.1 disclosures.
How Verdium Works
Developed in close collaboration with customers, Verdium caters to the multitude of industries reliant on PGMs, offering versatility in applications such as mobile emissions catalysts, fuels and chemicals production, Hydrogen electrolyzers and fuel cells, and other fabricated products.
With Verdium, customers receive the same quality metal they rely on from BASF ECMS and can verify carbon reduction with lower emissions by up to 97%, in comparison to refining primary materials, for recycled PGM purchases, including PGMs attributed to select end products. The certification by UL Solutions ensures complete chain of custody throughout the entire manufacturing lifecycle of catalysts. Verdium provides an unmatched solution in the market for PGM consumers, like OEMs, chemical companies, and other industrial users looking to lower their product carbon footprint (PCF) without sacrificing material quality.
“From a physical perspective, what we are offering is identical to what we’ve provided our customers with for many years. What we’ve done now is certify that flow, so we have end-to-end visibility from spent catalyst all the way through to fresh catalyst production and fabrication. We can attest to every link in the chain, and we did that together with our verification partner, UL Solutions.”
By notably validating not just the physical process, but the tracking and administrative processes involved, Verdium provides customers peace of mind and documented confidence that BASF ECMS products will help them reach their sustainability goals. Verdium is available to BASF ECMS customers now for sponge, mobile emissions catalysts, and precious metal chemicals, broadening the scope for sustainable options for various applications.
The Importance of PGMs and Recycling
BASF ECMS has supplied PGMs and Precious Metal Chemicals, and produced automotive emissions catalysts for decades, helping provide clean air to breathe and ensuring efficient production of chemical products and fuels through chemical catalysts. PGMs are essential for catalyzed reactions to clean the air of harmful pollutants from exhaust systems, for example. Despite their relatively minor volume in final products, PGMs have a large carbon footprint due to their extraction process. Recycled metal, on the other hand, has a significantly smaller carbon footprint—one kilogram of recycled metal saves up to thirty metric tons of carbon[1]. Recycling also supplies a significant portion of the overall metal supply, helping to close the loop to maintain a circular economy.
[1] Sphera Solutions GmbH (2022): GaBi Database Edition 2022, SP37
Always Looking Forward
For 50 years, BASF ECMS has been at the forefront of sustainability in the automotive industry, marked by the development of the first automotive catalytic converters. BASF ECMS maintains high standards and responsible sourcing practices for both their customers and their own operations, with a strong emphasis on mass balance efforts to advance the sustainable metals market. The company has helped lead the charge in material recycling with unique insights through its visibility into the entire metal value chain, and Verdium was created with the recognition that certifying those efforts is essential for progress.
“Right now we work with PGM customers who lead their industries in sustainability. The Verdium claim allows them to capture the benefits of PGM recycling in their Scope 3 reporting. We plan to extend the range of products offered with Verdium so that we can reach more customers.”
Verdium represents a strong step in sustainability efforts within the PGM industry, setting a new benchmark for recycled metal standards. By offering a validated, traceable solution for the physical, tracking, and administrative processes of recycled PGMs, Verdium meets the rising demand for transparent climate impact disclosures. As the future unfolds, Verdium’s certification and comprehensive lifecycle traceability will enable BASF ECMS customers to achieve their goals with confidence, fostering a more environmentally conscious world for all.