Sustainability News

The footwear specialist for ultrarunning and long-distance shoes, Mount to Coast, Hong Kong, China, and BASF, Ludwigshafen, Germany have entered into a strategic partnership to explore high-performance, sustainable solutions for runners. CircleCELL™, an innovative midsole, is the first footwear technology the collaboration has produced. Based on BASF’s new biopolymer ecoflex® BMB, the new midsole is 90% more durable while showing the same energy return as midsoles made of polyether block amide (PEBA), a material widely used for performance running shoes. Biomass-balanced ecoflex® supports Mount to Coast in increasing the use of renewable feedstocks in its unique process of foaming the CircleCELL™ midsole while preserving the characteristics performance shoes require, most importantly, durability.

Vulcan and BASF have signed a memorandum of understanding in the presence of Daniela Schmitt, Minister of Economic Affairs, Transport, Agriculture and Viniculture for Rhineland-Palatinate, to explore the use of geothermal energy at the chemical company’s Ludwigshafen site as part of a strategic partnership. The partners aim to jointly evaluate opportunities for harnessing natural heat from deep geothermal sources to supply BASF’s largest site with renewable energy capable of meeting base load power requirements in the future. The surrounding urban centers of Frankenthal and Ludwigshafen also stand to benefit from the sustainable heat and are participating in the necessary seismic surveys as a first step. In order to make optimal use of synergy effects from the project, Vulcan plans to build a lithium extraction plant for the production of green lithium.

The Board of Executive Directors of BASF SE has decided on the following personnel changes:

BASF announced today that it will invest in additional production capacity for its X3D^® technology, a new additive manufacturing technology for catalysts based on 3D printing. The plant will produce catalysts on an industrial scale and is expected to be operational in 2026. 

The globally recognized climate change organization and product carbon footprint (PCF) verifier “the Carbon Trust” has verified the BASF products 1,6-hexanediol (HDO), formic acid (FA), propionic acid (PA) and neopentyl glycol (NPG). The products have therefore achieved the Carbon Trust label and Lower than Market claim. This confirms that the products have a cradle-to-gate PCF that is demonstrably lower than the market average for fossil-based equivalent products. The verification is valid until May 2026. For PA and NPG, the verification only applies to the European production.