Germany-based chemicals giant BASF, which celebrated its 150th anniversary last month, is using its anniversary year to collaborate with all stakeholders and expose them to sustainability practices across the value chain.

BASF VP and South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa business centre head Joan Maria Garcia Girona says the collaboration drive aims to develop solutions to global challenges with customers, and more broadly with universities, experts, industry and even competitor companies. Co-creation activities focused on urban living, food and smart energy challenges will benefit not only the global population but also the future sustainability of both BASF and its stakeholders.

“As an innovative research and development-focused company, we are exploring new ways of innovating. Working together in formal and informal networks, where individuals and organisations can provide input and share knowledge through unstructured and structured collaboration, is a good way of including stakeholders and clients in the development of solutions.

“The BASF collaboration initiative, therefore, has significant strategic and corporate purposes and helps BASF to determine its research focus and development of new products. Throughout the history of BASF, collaboration has been a cornerstone of our research and development, and this initiative is a continuation of this practice on a wider scale.”

Sustainability is the fundamental principle of this initiative.

BASF emerging markets senior VP Laurent Tainturier warns that while creating chemicals for a sustainable future is important, sustainability must be assessed scientifically and across the full value chain, from concept to product end-of-life, to yield a result that is both desirable and practical.

“Sustainability starts at the concept stage of product development, but no one owns the whole value chain; enabling other parts of the value chain to assess their sustainability scientifically will improve the sustainability of our products and the operations of our stakeholders, customers and product end-users.”

BASF’s efforts will remain focused on the three pillars of sustainability: societal, economic and environmental challenges. In creating chemistry, the organisation hopes to addresses inconsistencies and improve the quality of life of the global population.

To quantify and further develop sustainable actions, these three pillars must be measured using one common methodology.

“BASF has been measuring its sustainability using this multifaceted method since 1995. Further, we have been assessing the sustainability of our suppliers’ processes and products and can, thus, provide our clients with a comprehensive account of the environmental impact and sustainability of our products,” says Tainturier.