BASF honored with a German Sustainability Award for resource efficiency

BASF (Ludwigshafen, Germany) was recently presented with a special award for “Resource Efficiency” at the ceremony for the prestigious German Sustainability Award 2015. The German Sustainability Award was established in 2008 to encourage the acceptance of social and ecological responsibility and to identify role models in this area. Awards are presented to cities, companies and individuals that consistently and extensively implement the principles of sustainability to a high standard. The award is endorsed by the German Federal Government, local and business associations as well as numerous non-governmental organizations, among them UNESCO Paris) and UNICEF (New York City).

The awards are intended to promote the idea of a sustainable society by Chancellor Angela Merkel or other members of her cabinet.

The award’s jury recognized BASF’s Verbund concept, which promotes efficient raw material and energy use and the development of innovative business models for sustainability. BASF’s Verbund concept has set the benchmark in the chemical industry in this area for decades.

Among the achievements commended by the jury was BASF’s use of the “mass balance” method. This method uses renewable raw materials from the very beginning of the value chain in the existing Production Verbund. Savings of fossil resources are calculated for each product.

BASF was also nominated in the category “Most Sustainable Large Companies” and was among the three leading companies. The German Sustainability Award recognizes companies which make significant contributions to sustainable development on a national and international basis.

The German Sustainability Award is a "green event”—from the competition and further organizational issues throughout the whole year to the very concrete production of the German Sustainability Day. Accordingly, congress and award ceremony are climate neutral events; unavoidable carbon emissions (including journeys of guests and participants) are accounted and offset. Every year, the German Sustainability Award supports ecological and social projects by means of donations.