Product stewardship

For us, product stewardship does not end at the factory gates. We review the safety of our products along the entire value-adding chain – from our raw materials suppliers to our own production and finally to our customers’ use of the products. Our highest priority is to ensure that our products pose no risk to people or the environment when they are used responsibly and in the manner intended.

Strategy

We ensure uniformly high standards for product stewardship worldwide which often go beyond legal requirements. These are based on our Group-wide directives on product stewardship, with voluntary commitments and global goals for this area. They apply to all of BASF’s operative decision makers around the world, who are responsible for implementing them. We inform our customers and the public about the properties of our substances with the help of a global database containing constantly updated environmental, health and safety data on our substances and products. Safety data sheets on all our chemical sales products are available in 39 languages. Our global emergency hotline network provides information around the clock. If required, we train our customers in the safe use of our products, such as crop protection products.

With our global goals for risk assessment, we are also supporting the implementation of the Global Product Strategy (GPS) of the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA). GPS is establishing global standards and best practices to improve the safe management of chemical substances. In 2010, BASF took a leading role in creating ICCA’s new Chemical Information Search portal. It contains more than 1,600 GPS Safety Summaries, which include relevant information about chemicals and products.
For more on auditing of suppliers, see Minimizing risks
More on Stakeholder engagement
More on Global Product Strategy