Stakeholder Management and Our Societal Engagement Approach
Our stakeholders include customers, employees, investors, suppliers, the communities surrounding our sites, and representatives from industry, academia, politics and society. Parts of our business activities, such as the use of certain new technologies or our environmental impacts, are often viewed by stakeholders with a critical eye. We take these questions seriously, initiate dialogs and participate in discussions. We are in ongoing exchange with our stakeholders through a variety of formats. This helps us to even better understand what matters to groups of society, what they expect of us and which measures we can pursue in order to establish and maintain trust, build partnerships, and increase societal acceptance for and the sustainability of our business activities. For important topics, we systematically identify key stakeholders at an early stage to discuss critical questions with them. Relevant considerations here include their topic-specific expertise and willingness to engage in constructive dialog.
We already established an external, independent Stakeholder Advisory Council (SAC) in 2013 and the Human Rights Advisory Council (HRAC) in 2020. In the SAC, which is led by the Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors, international experts from academia and society contribute their perspectives to discussions with BASF’s Board of Executive Directors. Focus topics in 2022 were climate protection and the energy transformation, as well as the significance and aspects of the societal dimension of sustainable development. The HRAC is an advisory body comprising external human rights specialists and internal experts. It helps us critically reflect on our positions and address potential for improvement.
We have a particular responsibility toward our sites’ neighbors. We promote open exchange between residents and our site management and strengthen trust in our activities with established community advisory panels. Our globally binding requirements for community advisory panels are based on the grievance mechanism standards in the United Nations’ Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. We keep track of their implementation through the existing global database of the Responsible Care Management System.
Our political advocacy is conducted in accordance with transparent guidelines and our publicly stated positions. The same applies to our activities in associations. Our Industry Associations Review compares the energy and climate protection positions of BASF and the most important associations of which we are a member, with explanations on our approach.
BASF does not financially support political parties, for example, through donations in cash or in kind. This is codified in a global guideline. In the United States, employees at BASF Corporation have exercised their right to establish a Political Action Committee (PAC). The BASF Corporation Employee PAC is an independent, federally registered employee association founded in 1998. It collects donations from employees for political purposes and independently decides how these are used, in accordance with U.S. law.
- More information on dialog with stakeholder groups
- More information on our guidelines for responsible lobbying
- More information on the Industry Associations Review
- More information on the Human Rights Advisory Council
- More information on the Stakeholder Advisory Council
- More information on our stakeholder activities
Stakeholder demands and expectations of BASF
Our societal engagement approach
Our societal engagement is an important part of the implementation of our sustainability strategy and our corporate social responsibility. Our activities are bundled in three action areas globally across all levels of the BASF Group. We want to improve people’s quality of life by preventing and combating disease (health), promoting educational equality, employability and economic participation (skills), and conserving natural resources (resources). We want to foster societal cohesion with our portfolio and our competencies. In accordance with our societal engagement policy, our actions are in line with our compliance policy, BASF’s strategy and our sustainability commitments.