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Newsletter |
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April 2005 |
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Our newsletter "Sustainability and BASF" reports on related projects, workshops and other news and will now appear three times a year.
If you would like to receive this free newsletter by mail, simply drop us a line.
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BASF workshop for African textile and leather manufacturers
With its training workshop for African textile and leather manufacturers in December 2004 in Casablanca (Morocco), BASF is continuing its joint project with UN agencies UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization) and UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) to promote sustainable business in African textile and leather companies. At the workshop, UNIDO staff from five African countries were taught how to use BASF’s eco-efficiency analysis. The software, specially developed by BASF in order to calculate and compare both the costs and the environmental impact of products and processes is intended to help the African entrepreneurs to manufacture and finish textiles and leather goods in both a cost-efficient and environmentally friendly way. For the mostly small and medium sized enterprises it is difficult to gain access to modern technologies and methods. Therefore, among UNIDO staff there were several Moroccan textile and leather manufacturers participating at the BASF workshop. In the run-up to the workshop, UNIDO staff were trained in how to apply eco-efficiency analysis at BASF’s Ludwigshafen site.
http://corporate.basf.com/en/sustainability/global_compact/projekt_morocco.htm
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Stakeholder project in collaboration with Forum for the Future
In order to strengthen relations and engage in constructive dialogue with its stakeholders, BASF’s Fine Chemicals Division cooperated with the British nongovernmental organization Forum for the Future. As a first step, key stakeholder groups of the Division were identified and further cooperation with them was planned. In order to strengthen links to non-governmental organizations as an important stakeholder group, workshops with NGOs were organized, focusing on issues relating to the environment and organic food.
The result: the stakeholder project has led to an understanding of our target groups’ needs but also changed these groups’ expectations of BASF.
www.berichte.basf.de/en/2004/unternehmensbericht/06_gesellschaft/072_stakeholder
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New Corporate Report
The new Corporate Report shows how economic success is combined with environmental protection and social responsibility in order to achieve long-term growth and create value for all stakeholders. The Report focuses on three issues that are of particular importance for the company’ s future:
- What approach is BASF taking to achieve sustainable success together with its customers?
- What is BASF doing to find answers to the urgent questions of global energy management?
- How is BASF using the opportunities presented by the global division of labor?
We also report on the current stage of implementation of our long-term environmental goals. In 2002 the company set itself numerous environmental protection and safety goals which it wants to achieve by 2012.
www.basf.de/corporate-report
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Eco-efficiency analysis on floor
Where do the various floor coverings stand in terms of eco-efficiency? How does laminate flooring perform in comparison? In order to answer these questions, the European Producers of Laminate Flooring (EPLF) commissioned an eco-efficiency study from BASF. The results showed that laminate flooring had an impressive environmental profile. The assessment criteria were energy balance, consumption of resources, greenhouse gas potential and recycling effectiveness. In order to develop detailed potential for improvement, BASF designed a special software program for EPLF member companies, the eco-efficiency manager. The program allows future product developments to be assessed according to sustainability criteria. EPLF and BASF are open to expanding and particularizing the study in collaboration with other floor covering interest groups and organizations.
http://corporate.basf.com/en/sustainability/oekoeffizienz/projekte/laminat.htm
Award for eco-efficiency analysis
At its meeting at the end of February 2005, the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) chose BASF’s eco-efficiency analysis as winner of this year’s ‘Design for Sustainability Award’. SPE, an international organization with 20,000 members in 70 countries, had invited companies and other institutions to submit entries to compete in six different sustainable environment categories. The ceremony honoring the prizewinners was held in Atlanta, Georgia, as part of the Global Plastics Environmental Conference. BASF’s eco-efficiency team had submitted an analysis of the economic and environmental advantages of disposable and reusable dishes. What convinced the SPE jury was above all the life-cycle concept that is factored into eco-efficiency analysis. The evaluation encompasses the entire lifespan of a product from manufacture to disposal.
http://www.sperecycling.org
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Revised Values and Principles
BASF’s Strategy 2015 highlights the direction the company wants to take over the next few years. One of the four strategic guidelines that describe this path states: “We ensure sustainable development”. This commitment to sustainability means that our Values and Principles have now been supplemented by an additional commitment to globally recognized labor and social standards as well as the repudiation of child and forced labor. We will begin systematically monitoring compliance with our Values and Principles in 2005.
http://www.corporate.basf.com/en/ueberuns/vision/grundwerte
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BASF Fire Department helps colleagues in Caojing
For the past six months, Joachim Koob from the Ludwigshafen site’s Fire Department has been traveling regularly to this BASF China site to train the local fire-fighters. "The colleagues there have good firefighting skills - but they need a little more experience in emergency response specifics for chemical plants", says Koob. As a result, the emergency response specialist flew to Caojing last October to pass on his Ludwigshafen expertise. BASF is currently building several production plants in the city.
Partnership between BASF and UN-HABITAT
With a letter of intent signed at the end of March 2005, BASF has laid the foundation for a partnership with UN-HABITAT, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, in the field of sustainable urban development. Along with the exchange of best practice examples in employee accommodation, urban development and regional administration, the partnership will also include sustainable reconstruction projects in crisis areas, for which BASF plans to offer its expertise in sustainable housing refurbishment as well as in energy and eco-efficiency. BASF hosted a conference on sustainable urban development in its ‘Feierabendhaus’ in Ludwigshafen in September 2003, at which both BASF and UN-HABITAT presented numerous projects for sustainable cities of the future.
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Identification of critical building blocks and tools for sustainability in the United States
BASF was one of 100 industrial, academic and government participants in a workshop hosted by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences on February 7-8, 2005, in Washington D.C. The goal of the workshop was to identify national research priorities that will enable a transition towards sustainable products, processes, and systems for the chemical industry. Participants focused on four areas: promoting sustainability science literacy and education, enabling technologies to drive the application of green chemistry and engineering, developing alternatives to fossil fuels as the source of chemical feedstocks, and reducing the energy intensity of the
chemical process industry. An additional priority identified was better use of life cycle analysis. Here BASF demonstrates industrial leadership thanks to the Eco-efficiency and SEEBALANCE® analyses. The results of the workshop will be summarized in a report issued to the sponsors of the conference, including the American Chemical Society, Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy, and other science and technical community members.
http://www.corporate.basf.com/en/sustainability/oekoeffizienz
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Project ‘Mata Viva’ at BASF’s Guaratinguetá site in Brazil
To mark World Water Day, BASF S.A. organized a training excursion on March 19, 2005 at its site in Guaratinguetá, Brazil, for teachers of the city’s municipal training network. The aim of the excursion was to sensitize the educators to the importance of water for the rainforest’s ecosystem. The group traveled to the source of the Paraibuna River, one of Brazil’s most important sources of fresh water, in the surrounding rain forest region. BASF has been involved in rainforest reforestation schemes around its Guaratinguetá site since 1984. BASF’s ‘Mata Viva’ (living forest) project is intended to mobilize the local population into supporting this ecosystem by providing momentum in local education and training. 1,200 students visited the area last year.
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USA: Wastewater nitrogen removal patent donated
In the course of BASF’s implementation of its global goals to reduce nitrogen in wastewater, wastewater experts from various BASF sites have developed a new ‘Timeswitch’ technology. This technology allows nitrification and denitrification of wastewater to be conducted cost-efficiently in a single treatment tank. As the technology developed for the Freeport site was not implemented there, BASF Corporation donated the patent to the Water Environment Research Foundation in the U.S.A. in December 2004.
http://www.basf.com/corporate/121604_werf.htm
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‘Knowledge Factory’ to make Germany more competitive as a business location
On January 26, 2005, BASF and eight other leading German companies founded the ‘Knowledge Factory’ with the aim of taking concrete measures to strengthen Germany’s knowledge-based competitiveness. In 2005, the twin focus will be on ‘promoting knowledge’ and ‘promoting entrepreneurial spirit’. The scheme’s sponsors form partnerships with schools and other educational institutions in their respective regions to systematically promote basic skills and scientific thinking. The ‘Knowledge Factory’ members also offer their expertise and decentralized mentoring programs to budding entrepreneurs. The knowledge platform hopes to have at least 100 sponsors in the medium term.
www.wissensfabrik-deutschland.de
Contact:
Dr. Brigitte Dittrich-Krämer
BASF SE
Sustainability Center
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