In line with Responsible Care®, the worldwide chemical industry initiative, we aim to systematically improve our performance in terms of environmental protection, health and safety. Our global environmental goals and the BASF Responsible Care Management System will help us to do just that.
We have a worldwide network of Responsible Care experts who coordinate our environmental protection, health and safety activities. These experts work in teams to develop our worldwide standards. We have established detailed global safety directives for the planning and construction of new plants, for transportation, for storage of chemical goods, and for product safety. On a decentralized level, our experts ensure that regional and local requirements are taken into account.
With the aim of further improving our performance in the area of environmental protection, health and safety, and standardizing the associated organizational processes worldwide, we began in summer 2007 to implement our Responsible Care Management System. This means that we now have a tool that brings together existing regional management systems throughout the BASF Group. The system defines responsibilities and minimum requirements, taking into account all aspects of safety, environmental and health protection – from 24 hour emergency service and wastewater management through to data collection. In conjunction with our global environmental goals, the system enables us to conduct efficient environmental and safety management.
More information can be found at: corporate.basf.com/rc-center
Transparency through audits
Our goal is to continuously improve safety at our sites and plants. Thus, our experts for safety, the environment and occupational medicine regularly monitor all our sites and plants. We track the implementation of our standards using a verification catalog. We use the results to establish a comprehensive site profile, which is then used to determine any necessary measures.
In 2007, 107 environmental and safety audits were carried out at 78 BASF sites. We also conducted occupational medicine and health protection audits at 22 sites.
More information on occupational medicine and health protection can be found under "Health Protection".
Our international BASF Audit Group meets annually to standardize and further develop auditing systems worldwide.
Promoting safety at service providers and suppliers
Our global guidelines on safety, health and environmental protection also apply to employees of other companies who work at our sites. If we detect shortcomings, we offer companies support in eliminating them – we consider this to be part of our responsibility for the supply chain. In return, we expect partner companies to monitor adherence to regulations and take appropriate measures where necessary. All BASF companies and joint ventures in which we hold a majority stake are committed to assessing and promoting the performance of partner companies in this area. For this reason, we also assess companies that produce on our behalf.
More information can be found under "Supply Chain".
Security management
Knowledge of chemical procedures and the products manufactured using these procedures is extremely important for our long-term success. With a view to protecting this knowledge as a corporate value, BASF is currently implementing an integrated information protection strategy. The main focus of this strategy is on measures to protect IT systems and associated networks. The strategy also includes rules for employees who handle sensitive information. In parallel, BASF takes suitable technical and personnel measures to prevent unauthorized parties from accessing BASF sites.
AUDITS OF NEW SITES
In 2007, our audits “safety & environment” mainly focused on the assessment of sites acquired in the previous year. All in all, we investigated 31 new sites in the Construction Chemicals and Catalysts divisions and we established what needs to be modified in order to achieve compliance with our safety and environmental standards at all sites.
CERTIFIED SITES
In a review in 2002, auditing company Deloitte & Touche confirmed that our internal auditing system complies with the standards and criteria of external auditing procedures. A total of 119 of our sites are certified in accordance with ISO 14001 or EMAS.
A list can be found at: corporate.basf.com/certified.
