Global Battery Alliance

When sourcing materials and processing them, a business must think about the impact it has – economically, environmentally, socially. As they are more standardized, economic impacts and even environmental ones, like on landscape, biodiversity or carbon footprint, are somewhat easier to address compared to social topics, such as values and human rights. Social topics need global societal alignment and governance. One attempt is the UN Global Compact, of which BASF is a founding member. It calls on companies to align their strategies and operations, covering human rights and anti-corruption. Translating international standards into business practice is key and an integral part of our work at BASF.

Chemistry is part of the solution to environmental and social challenges, but it's also part of the problem. Our processes are still too intensive in terms of fossil energy and CO2 emissions. Besides driving innovative technologies, it’s important to properly manage input and output into our chains to sustainably develop our products and services. And: We see a growing demand for sustainable products. Soon, sustainability will be a precondition for staying in business.

We are constantly screening our chains – which aren’t really chains but networks of interactions with suppliers and customers – to identify sustainability impacts. Our Supplier CO2 Management Program, makes carbon footprints of all our suppliers transparent. With more than 70,000 suppliers, that’s a big task to carry out. We are also training our suppliers and guiding our customers. Beyond what we are doing as a single company, it is all about alliances and partnerships to live up to our responsibility.