BASF has announced that it has
achieved transparent emissions data for its entire portfolio of approximately
45,000 products. The company can now provide its customers with the carbon
footprint — or total value of CO~2~ emissions — for each of its products.
Demand is increasing for companies to be able to calculate the environmental
impacts of
products and to make that data widely accessible.
BASF’s Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) comprises all product-related
greenhouse gas emissions that occur until the product leaves the factory gate
for the customer — from the raw material to the use of energy in production
processes.
“By calculating the CO~2~ footprint, we create much greater transparency for our
customers regarding the specific emissions for each BASF product,” says Dr.
Martin Brudermüller, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF SE.
“This enables us to develop plans together with our customers to reduce
CO~2~ emissions along the value chain up to the final consumer product.”
BASF has been a leader in quantifying the impacts of its massive portfolio of
products. In the past few years, the company has developed a number of
innovative frameworks — including the Sustainable Solutions Steering
Method,
which BASF used to systematically review and evaluate the sustainability aspects
of its product portfolio; the biomass balance
approach,
in which fossil-based ingredients are replaced by renewable raw materials to
reduce impacts; and even a way to measure a business’s contribution to
society.
The chemical giant says it will start making PCF data available for selected
product and customer segments in the coming months, with data for the entire
portfolio to be available by the end of 2021.
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“Climate protection issues are also becoming increasingly important for our
customers. In the future, we will be able to support them with reliable data so
that they can achieve their climate targets,” said Christoph
Jäkel,
Head of Corporate Sustainability. “With the help of PCFs, our customers can
identify where the levers for avoiding greenhouse gas emissions are. We are
already offering them the opportunity to reduce the carbon footprint of selected
products by using alternative raw materials and renewable energies.”
BASF highlights the need for product-specific guidelines for the calculation of
PCFs in the chemical industry, in order to create an industry-wide level playing
field and comparability for products.
“We are working with various partners to promote standardization,” Jäkel says.
Read more about the Product Carbon
Footprint here.
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Sustainable Brands Staff
Published Jul 30, 2020 2pm EDT / 11am PDT / 7pm BST / 8pm CEST