Sustainability
Water Management
Worldwide, water is becoming an increasingly scarce resource. The sustainable use of water and worldwide conservation of natural water resources are therefore of concern to us. We are committed to responsible water use along the entire value chain and at the watershed level. We are contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goals for water and acknowledge the human right to water and sanitation.
Sustainable Water Management
Sustainable water management has been a central element of our strategy to use water responsibly for many years. BASF aims to protect water as a resource, continuously improve water use efficiency and consistently reduce emissions.
We set ourselves a global target: By 2030, we want to establish sustainable water management at all production sites in water stress areas and at our Verbund sites. We focus on four principles: sustainable water abstraction, maintaining good water quality, preserving conservation areas, and ensuring continuous improvement processes, also in cooperation with third parties, i.e. local authorities, municipalities and other water users in a catchment area.
CDP Water Disclosure
Since 2010, we participate in CDP’s program for reporting on water. In the CDP assessment for Water Security, BASF achieved grade “A-” and thus Leadership status. The assessment takes into account how transparently companies report on their water management activities and how they reduce risks such as water scarcity. CDP also evaluates the extent to which product developments can contribute to sustainable water management for customers of the assessed companies.
Water Protection
We aim at continuously reducing emissions to water from our production processes and have water protection concepts in place. These concepts involve evaluating wastewater in terms of risk and drawing up suitable water protection measures.
The supply, treatment, transportation and recooling of water requires energy. With technical measures and improved operating methods, we are continually optimizing our global energy consumption.
In the treatment of our wastewater, we rely on central measures in wastewater treatment plants as well as on the selective pre-treatment of individual wastewater supply streams before the wastewater treatment plant.
We protect soil and groundwater by preventing leakages via global process safety standards.
Key Figures Comparison: Emissons to water (BASF Online Report 2022)
Working Together
Our commitment to sustainability extends to our value chains. We are assessing our partners and support them in improving environmental conditions with the TfS initiative (Together for Sustainability). We are also working with our customers to constantly innovate and develop water-related solutions which are engineered to achieve substantial contributions to sustainability (Accelerator products).
Our commitment to local and worldwide partnerships in the field of sustainable water management enables us to improve our knowledge and share our expertise with others. We are member of the Alliance for Water Stewardship, a global organization, aiming at sustainable water use and promoting collective action to address shared water challenges. In South America, we are promoting sustainable development activities with the Fundação Espaço ECO, including in the area of water.
More information about the Alliance for Water Stewardship
More information about the Fundação Espaço ECO (in Portuguese)
Engagement against Plastic Waste
It is unacceptable that plastic waste is discarded in the environment, and we are concerned about related environmental and social impacts. At BASF, we engage on several levels in company-specific as well as cross-industry initiatives to prevent and reduce the accumulation of plastic waste in the environment – be it research and innovation in new materials, business models and processes, housekeeping processes or the development of better waste infrastructure.
BASF supports numerous initiatives to address the global challenge of mismanaged plastic waste, such as the Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW), the World Plastics Council and Operation Clean Sweep (OCS).
More information about BASF's engagement against plastic waste