Our Organizational and Management Structures
Together with decentrally organized specialists, the units Corporate Strategy & Sustainability and Corporate Finance are responsible for integrating sustainability into decision-making processes and for steering and reporting on sustainability topics. The Corporate Strategy & Sustainability unit is also responsible for the global steering of climate-related matters. The Net Zero Accelerator unit plays a key role in achieving our climate protection targets by accelerating and implementing projects related to low-emission production technologies, circular economy and renewable energy. The Corporate Finance unit reports to the Chief Financial Officer, while the other two units report to the Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors.
Sustainability topics are discussed and managed by the Board of Executive Directors. When making its decisions, the Board of Executive Directors considers the results and recommendations from sustainability evaluations of business processes. It makes decisions with strategic relevance for the Group and monitors the implementation of strategic plans and target achievement. The Supervisory Board is regularly briefed on the development of individual sustainability topics by the Board of Executive Directors.
The Chief Human Rights Officer is responsible for further embedding human rights aspects in decision-making processes. He reports directly to the Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors (see In Focus: Responsibility for Human Rights, Labor and Social Standards).
We systematically evaluate sustainability criteria, including the effects of climate change, as an integral part of decisions on investments, acquisitions and divestitures in property, plant and equipment and financial assets. In this way, we not only assess economic dimensions, but also the potential impacts on areas such as the environment, human rights or the local community. We evaluate both the potential impacts of our activities here as well as how we are affected.
If we identify potential negative impacts, for example, in planned investments, these are presented transparently in the internal decision-making process together with possible mitigation measures.
In our Sustainable Finance Roundtable, experts from departments such as Finance, Corporate Strategy, Investor Relations and Communications discuss new legal or capital market-driven requirements. The interdisciplinary group analyzes the steadily growing requirements, assesses the impacts on BASF and drives forward the necessary change processes as well as the concrete implementation of measures.
The Sustainability Reporting and Controlling Committee is the central decision-making body for questions relating to internal and external reporting and the controlling of sustainability topics. This committee of managers from the relevant Corporate Center and operating units facilitates rapid decisions to ensure that external and internal requirements for sustainability-related information and data are met immediately and in the best possible way.