Social Commitment

• BASF as a responsible neighbor

We support the implementation of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals with our social commitment around the world.

We promote social, educational, cultural, academic and sports projects as part of our social engagement strategy. We focus on projects that will have a lasting impact on specific target groups and offer learning opportunities for participating cooperation partners and BASF. Projects are developed, and impact-related targets defined together with partners from civil society.

As a responsible neighbor, BASF strives to create a livable community for our sites’ neighbors, employees and their families. In Germany, we support regional focus areas in Ludwigshafen and the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region such as strengthening participation and integration among disadvantaged groups or promoting research and discovery. Examples include the Gemeinsam Neues schaffen program to foster cooperation between nonprofit organizations, a new approach to promoting cultural events called Tor 4, with which BASF aims to promote discourse on relevant social issues through cultural projects, or a pilot program to integrate people with immigrant or migrant backgrounds.

We also foster social integration, particularly of young low achievers and refugees. Programs in the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region include Start in den Beruf, Anlauf zur Ausbildung and Start Integration. In 2018, 241 young people in the BASF Training Verbund participated in these programs in cooperation with partner companies. The goal is to prepare participants for a subsequent apprenticeship within one year, and ultimately secure the long-term supply of qualified employees for BASF and in the region as a whole. Since being launched at the end of 2015, BASF’s Start Integration program has supported around 350 refugees with a high probability of being granted the right to remain in Germany, helping to integrate them into the labor market. We spent around €5.6 million on the BASF Training Verbund in 2018.

In North America, BASF supported various charitable organizations to provide relief for the damage caused by hurricanes Michael and Florence in states such as Florida, North Carolina and Virginia in the fall of 2018.

We also aim to create long-term value for BASF and society with new business models and cross-industry partnerships. Our company- wide Starting Ventures program helps people with precarious livelihoods to improve their income-earning opportunities and their quality of life. At the same time, the program provides access to new markets and strengthens our contribution to reaching the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. One project in Egypt, for example, helps tomato smallholders to increase their tomato crop yields. A digital early warning system developed by BASF sends an alert via SMS or voice message to inform them of any outbreaks of plant diseases.

In the area of international development work, we support the BASF Stiftung, an independent nonprofit organization, through donations to its projects with various U.N. organizations. In 2018, BASF supported a project spearheaded by the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to promote inclusive education in Peru with its annual year-end donation campaign to the BASF Stiftung. BASF doubled all donations by employees of participating German and South American Group companies, bringing the total amount benefiting the children in Peru to €567,926.64.

The BASF Group spent a total of €38.4 million supporting projects in 2018; we donated 39% of this amount (2017: €56.0 million, of which 57% were donations).

BASF Group donations, sponsorship and own projects in 2018¹