Audits

Acting responsibly according to the guidelines of Responsible Care is a long-term investment for BASF to continuously improve our environmental, health and safety performance and to monitor this progress. Regular environmental, health and safety audits at all of our sites worldwide help us to accomplish this objective.

Audits are a key tool in the effort to make our sites and plants even safer. They help make us a trustworthy partner for employees, neighbors, customers, and public authorities.

On behalf of the Board of Executive Directors, experts for safety, environment, occupational health and medicine monitor all of our sites and plants. Using clearly defined criteria, audits help to track how our standards are implemented locally. Safety and environmental audits and occupational medicine audits are conducted separately at all BASF sites and majority-owned subsidiaries. The results of these audits are then tallied, giving a standardized and comprehensive performance profile for every site.

Scrutinizing our performance

When performing their audits, our international audit teams begin by assessing the performance of a site or plant to protect the environment and ensure health and safety. This performance assessment ranges from occupational/medical safety to the effectiveness of the site´s organizational structure. Next, the audit team conducts an assessment of the hazard potential or health risk at a facility. The numeric risk potential at a facility is based upon the materials handled, the nature of the processes and the site´s immediate surroundings.

Regular audits help ensure uniform standards of excellence within the BASF Group for environmental protection, ergonomics, industrial hygiene, process safety, security, and employee health and safety. We carry out audits at all BASF sites and at companies in which BASF is a majority shareholder. We have defined our rules for Responsible Care audits in a global requirement. During our audits, we create an environmental, safety and security profile which shows whether our performance is sufficient to properly address the existing hazard potential at a facility. If this is not the case, we agree on corrective actions and conduct follow-up audits on their implementation soon thereafter. Our internal Audit system is certified according to ISO 9001 standard.

The risk matrix is the key

In order to determine whether a site’s environmental, safety or health performance is adequate, the audit results are illustrated by means of a risk matrix. Audit results depicted on this matrix clearly show whether and how urgently corrective action needs to be taken. Corrective actions range from on-the-spot improvements to longer-term projects. If the auditors identify an elevated level of risk at a plant, follow-up audits are arranged to monitor whether the measures are being addressed and/or enforced.