Portfolio management based on sustainability performance

• Sustainable Solution Steering^® method to manage our product portfolio

A significant lever for the steering of our product portfolio, based on the sustainability performance of our products, is the Sustainable Solution Steering^® method.

By the end of the 2017 business year, BASF had conducted sustainability assessments and ratings for 97.5% of its entire relevant portfolio¹ of more than 60,000 specific product applications – which account for €58.4 billion in sales. We consider the products’ application in various markets and industries. Because of increasing sustainability requirements on the market, we regularly conduct reassessments of existing product categories as well as of the relevant portfolio.

Accelerator products make a particular contribution to sustainability in the value chain. That is why we want to increase the proportion of sales from Accelerator products to 28% by 2020.

Transitioners are products with specific sustainability challenges that are being actively tackled. We are developing plans of action for all products classified as challenged, even in the case of portfolio revisions and product reassessments. These action plans include research projects, reformulations or even replacing one product with an alternative product. At the end of 2017, action plans had been created for 100% of challenged products.

Sustainable Solution Steering^®: How BASF’s products contribute to sustainability

We played a leading role in the development of a cross-industry framework for portfolio sustainability assessments published by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) in November 2017, contributing our many years of expertise in the application of this method.