BASF adds social impact to sustainability index

Ludwigshafen, Germany – BASF AG has added a social dimension to its process for assessing sustainability, called SEEbalance (socio-eco-efficiency balance), which encompasses the social impact of its products and processes.

According to BASF, the measure will enhance its “eco-efficiency analysis” which covers a range of costs and environmental impact factors such as energy and raw material consumption and emissions.

The analysis is designed to enable BASF and its customers identify products and processes that are most suitable for their applications in both economic and environmental terms. SEEbalance broadens this to include criteria such as numbers of employees and trainees, risk of occupational diseases and accidents, expenditures for investment and research, and wages and salaries.

“Long-term success calls for sustainable enterprise,” said Ernst Schwanhold, head of the Environment, Safety & Energy competence center at BASF. “We help customers develop more sustainable product solutions and enable them to differentiate themselves from their competitors.”

In developing SEEbalance, BASF worked with various research institutes, for example the Institute for Geography and Geoecology at the University of Karlsruhe, the Ökoinstitut e.V. and the University of Jena. The project is part of the Sustainable Chemistry of Aromatics research project sponsored by the German Ministry of Education and Research.