Conditions

Our global process safety standards provide the framework for the safe construction and operation of our plants as well as the protection of people and the environment.

Safety through uniform standardization

The BASF Responsible Care Management System comprises the global polices, requirements and guidance documents for environmental and health protection, safety and security. We constantly supplement or update these and regularly check their implementation via audits. Our global binding requirements regarding process safety regulate the safe design, construction and operation of our plants.  The requirements define the use of specific methods, which are further described in guidance documents for the individual topics/elements of process safety.

Our experts have developed a protection plan/ concept with the appropriate safety inspections for every plant that considers the key aspects of safety, health and environmental protection – from conception to startup – and stipulates specific protection measures.

In order to maintain the highest level of safety at our plants across their entire life cycle, we review the implementation of our protection plans or concepts in all facilities at intervals depending on risk potential, and we also review the timely implementation of these plans or concepts and the resulting safety-related measures arising from these implementation checks. We regularly update our plants’ safety and security concepts in line with changing technologies, as necessary.

Qualification measures

To foster compliance with our global uniform safety standards, we give a high priority to the practice-oriented training of our employees. The main focus here is on prevention. We defined global recommendations for qualification measures concerning process safety. In addition, we introduced training methods, such as a case study on the construction and start-up of a plant. Our training methods are constantly refined and enhanced to increase risk awareness.

Process safety is also a particular focus of our Global Safety Initiative. 

We demonstrate, for example, the critical importance of the timely identification of potential hazards and the correct assessment of the consequences of unsafe actions for the safe operation of plants. 

Further Development

We play an active role in improving process safety around the world in a global network of experts, through our involvement in organizations such as the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA), and by fostering dialog with government institutions.