E2 Pollution Prevention

Strategy and Governance

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Explanations of our overarching policies in respect of scope of application, accountability, impacts in the value chain, global applicability, accessibility to stakeholders and engagement thereof, see General Disclosures in our Sustainability Statement. These include, among other things, our Responsible Care Management System and, as part of this, our global standards in terms of environmental protection, process safety, product safety and transportation safety as well as emergency and crisis management. BASF’s position on water protection, our risk-based sustainability management for procurement and the Supplier Code of Conduct can also be found there.

Environmental protection in our production

With its “Winning Ways” strategy, BASF intends to continue to drive forward the transformation of its production operations and its product portfolio. In order to prevent or reduce negative environmental impacts due to regular emissions to air and water, as well as due to potential product spills and leakages into water, a holistic approach is needed to ensure efficient and resource-saving production and continuous monitoring to protect the environment.

We have therefore established comprehensive management and control systems for our own production. BASF is actively involved in the International Council of Chemical Associations’ (ICCA) global Responsible Care^® initiative. Our Responsible Care Management System, based on the eponymous initiative, not only encompasses occupational health and safety requirements and standards (see S1 Occupational safety and health), but also environmental protection. We aim to further reduce emissions to air from our production by means of process improvements and new technologies. Similarly, we strive to reduce negative impacts on water quality as part of responsible handling of water as a resource and sustainable water management. This is also set out in our position paper on water protection.

• More information on our position paper on water protection

We have defined our global standards for emissions to air and water in Group-wide requirements, the implementation and compliance of which is the responsibility of the sites and Group companies. The requirements also cover the aspects of process and transportation safety in order to prevent production and transportation-related product spills and leakages into air and water as effectively as possible (for more information, see Process, product and transportation safety). For example, these stipulate that water protection concepts must be implemented at all production sites in order to prevent unforeseen emissions and the pollution of surface or ground water. We continuously update our requirements and guidelines, which can be accessed via an internal BASF database. To this end, we also exchange information with authorities, associations and international organizations. We also exchange information, experiences and practical examples via the global BASF network of experts.

Our emissions to air and wastewater are subject to stringent controls. We assess their impact carefully and in compliance with applicable laws and regulations. In this context, we also evaluate whether regulatory developments concerning emissions to air and water require investments in our infrastructure and the further development of our systems. The chemical industry is facing substantial risks due to changes to and reforms of regulatory requirements or approval conditions, including in relation to the areas of environmental protection, biodiversity and ecosystems. More stringent regulations may limit the approval, use or marketing of certain chemicals. BASF plans to respond to regulatory changes with a combination of proactive and reactive measures. These include continuous monitoring, analysis of the regulatory framework and steering of our product portfolio using the TripleS (Sustainable Solution Steering) method. We also invest in research and development in order to continuously develop chemicals with improved toxicological and ecotoxicological properties and thus meet the new requirements. Moreover, BASF is committed to working closely with stakeholders and regulatory bodies to ensure that company practices comply with the latest standards.

Continuous monitoring, documentation and control of emissions to air and water as well as the implementation of measures for improvement are an integral part of our environmental management. The Corporate Center unit Corporate Environmental Protection, Health, Safety & Quality monitors this regularly by means of Responsible Care audits. We pursued a risk-based approach in the 121 audits carried out in 2024. In addition, responsible local authorities regularly inspect whether the analyses and safety precautions at our sites comply with internal and legal requirements.

In developing our business strategies, we also consider the resilience of our business models with regard to economic, ecological and social aspects, as well as their impacts, risks and opportunities. As part of our opportunity and risk management system, strategic risks connected with material economic, ecological and social matters are evaluated, among other things (for additional information, see Opportunities and Risks). The strategies of our business units are updated on a regular basis. This is done either individually at business unit level or as part of the overarching operating division strategy, and involves specialists from the business unit or operating division concerned and from our central strategy unit. In 2024, we have piloted a method to address material topics in the strategies of the business units over the next ten years. Depending on the extent of the strategy revision, resilience reviews, regulatory aspects and stakeholder expectations can be included to estimate future market developments. Upstream and downstream value chains can also be taken into account. In addition, we use our TripleS method to review the resilience of our product portfolio with regard to environmental and social aspects.

Process, product and transportation safety

In particular, the reliable and safe operation of our plants, which form the core of our business, represents a key element of our Responsible Care Management System. We take extensive preventive measures in order to counteract incidents at our plants – such as product spills and leakages into water – and continuously improve our production processes. Opportunities arise in particular in the automation and digitalization of processes.

The topic categories of product and transportation safety, emergency response and remediation, soil and groundwater also form part of our Responsible Care Management System. With comprehensive safety concepts and globally binding standards and requirements, we aim to prevent resulting environmental damage to the best extent possible, such as product spills and leakages into air and water. Here, we rely on comprehensive preventive measures and clearly defined responsibilities. We review the guidelines by means of regular audits. We continuously further develop our production and logistics processes as well as our approach to product stewardship.

As a chemical company, we also transport dangerous goods. We want to ensure that our products are loaded, transported and handled in accordance with the relevant regulations and their hazard potential, thereby minimizing the risk along the entire transportation chain. To this end, the managers responsible and their employees are regularly trained, advised and supervised by our transportation safety experts, and the reliability of logistics partners is regularly reviewed. All BASF products intended for transportation must be clearly identifiable, classified, securely packaged and labeled.

Should a crisis situation, however, be caused by process safety incidents, product spillages or other emergencies, we wish to be as well prepared as possible at global, regional and local level. We have established structures and processes for emergency preparedness and emergency response that enable an effective response. Our emergency and crisis management focuses on the protection of our employees, contractors and neighbors, the safety of our plants and the protection of the environment. Unusual incidents are recorded and reported centrally in accordance with a standardized Group-wide procedure (e-Rapid Incident Report). The aim is to identify risks at an early stage and, if necessary, initiate appropriate remedial and communication measures. Incidents are followed up on to identify potential for improvement, which is integrated into existing concepts as needed.

We continually invest in reducing the impact of our actions on the environment. By means of Responsible Care audits in the areas of “Organization and management system,” “Product stewardship,” “Transportation safety,” “Process safety,” “Environment (air, water, waste)” and “Emergency response,” we are able to verify compliance with our policies. We also establish appropriate provisions for environmental protection measures, including provisions for the remediation of contamination at our sites (for additional information, see Note 22 to the Consolidated Financial Statements).

Emissions to soil were not material in the reporting year (see Results of our double materiality assessment). Nevertheless, contamination exists at former and active sites, and/or at sites for which we have taken on responsibility in connection with acquisitions. It is our principle to manage these contaminated sites in close consultation with the responsible authorities in such a way that no negative impacts arise on the environment. We develop remediation solutions that aim to balance nature conservation and climate protection concerns, costs and social responsibility. These site and case-specific measures take into account the legal frameworks and currently available technology. We document contamination risks and the status of soil and groundwater for our sites worldwide in a database. Ongoing remediation work continued on schedule in the reporting year and planning was completed for further measures.

In order to minimize the impact of substances of concern and substances of very high concern on human health and the environment in the downstream value chain, such substances are used in accordance with statutory requirements, such as the EU’s REACH regulation. In addition, our TripleS method for steering the sustainability performance of our product portfolio (see General Disclosures, Sustainable steering of our product portfolio) takes into account substances of concern and of very high concern with a view to proactive portfolio and substitution planning.

For more information on substances of concern or of very high concern, as well as their potential impact on human health and the environment, see Substances of Concern or of Very High Concern.

Responsibility in our value chain

We are also committed to our responsibility for environmental protection throughout our entire value chain in order to reduce the impacts of regular emissions to air and water and potential product spills and leakages. Alongside production at our plants and the activities at our sites and warehouses, this also applies to the procurement and transport of our raw materials as well as the distribution and usage of our products.

For our upstream value chain, our procurement organization has established guidelines in a global risk-based management system that define how we implement our due diligence processes. We have defined corresponding standards in a global requirement. We continuously enhance this requirement and our structures and processes in order to adapt to changing conditions. Procurement requirements and targets are set centrally and are binding for all employees with procurement responsibility worldwide. We endeavor to ensure compliance with these guidelines using a multistage control process. The unit-specific risk management systems of our business units are supported and monitored during implementation according to minimum standards set by the Corporate Center units. The Corporate Audit unit, as the third instance involved, monitors the effectiveness of and compliance with risk management. Our management processes are activated in the event of specific incidents (see S2 Assessing and growing our suppliers and S2 Dealing with specific incidents). We expect our suppliers to comply with internationally recognized environmental standards. Our expectations are set out in our global Supplier Code of Conduct (see S2 Strategy and Governance), which is part of our risk-based management system and integrated into our procurement conditions. It is based, among other things, on the Ten Principles of the United Nations Global Compact initiative and ICCA’s Responsible Care^® program and also includes emissions to air and water.

As part of our supplier management, we review compliance with our required criteria when selecting suppliers and assessing new and existing supplier relationships. We instruct our suppliers to reduce regular emissions to air and water and to prevent product spills and leakages in upstream processing. We arrange for third parties to evaluate suppliers with a high sustainability risk. Supplier assessment is mainly performed as part of the chemical industry’s Together for Sustainability initiative (TfS), either through on-site audits by TfS-approved auditors or through sustainability assessments based on online assessments via the rating agency EcoVadis. Depending on business requirements, we perform our own Responsible Care audits at selected contract manufacturers if material risks have been identified with respect to environmental protection. This also includes emissions to air and water.

In our downstream value chain, we continuously want to collaborate with our customers on the development of innovations and solutions that are designed to enable their green transformation and make a significant contribution to sustainability (for more information on steering the sustainability performance of our product portfolio using the TripleS methodology, see General Disclosures, Sustainable steering of our product portfolio). We offer our customers a wide range of products that enable them to reduce regular emissions to air or water, from industrial process catalysts and fuel additives to high-performance plastics for manufacturing ultrafiltration membranes and the precursors used to produce coagulants for water treatment.

We have also established relevant global management systems in our downstream value chain. We address the safe handling and application of our chemical raw materials and products as part of our product and transportation safety management, for example. BASF regards product stewardship as an integral component of all business processes, as a key element of our risk management system and as a vital pillar of our commitment to Responsible Care^®. We aim to continuously minimize negative impacts on humans and the environment and to improve the safety and sustainability of our products on an ongoing basis.

Before our products are launched on the market, they undergo various tests and assessments – depending on legal requirements and their application profile. These tests enable us to identify potential hazard characteristics as well as health and environmental risks at an early stage. On the basis of the results, we devise precautionary and protective measures and develop recommendations on safe handling – from production to application through to transport and disposal – in order to prevent potential product spills in downstream processing, for example.

By systematically implementing external and internal requirements, we also aim to ensure in the downstream value chain that our customers receive their goods in harmless condition as well as in safe packaging and transport containers. To this end, we rely on the qualified selection, approval and clear labeling of packaging and transport containers as well as the accompanying transport documents and multiple checks. We communicate product safety information via our safety data sheets. These contain, for example, information on the physicochemical, toxicological and ecotoxicological properties of our products, as well as on potential hazards, first aid measures, measures to be taken in the case of accidental release and disposal, and on safe handling. We also wish to contribute to the prevention of leakages and emergencies and to mitigating and limiting their impacts. Should an emergency occur, however, we provide our customers with the support of our expert network.

Actions

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Our actions for avoiding and minimizing environmental pollution often entail decentralized activities, projects and initiatives. They have not been assigned to any centrally managed action plan. Instead, they – like our management and monitoring systems – aim to ensure continuous optimization and further development and fall within the responsibility of the sites and Group companies concerned. This goes hand in hand with the BASF approach to sustainability steering (see General Disclosures).

Actions in our own production

Our activities for avoiding and minimizing environmental impacts due to regular emissions to air and water take effect right at the start of the product life cycle: We invest continuously in research and development (for additional information, see Innovation) in order to design products in such a way that their impacts on the environment are as minimal as possible. Drawing on TripleS – an instrument used to steer our product portfolio based on the sustainability performance of our products – we review our relevant global product portfolio continuously, but at least every four years (for more information, see General Disclosures, Sustainable steering of our product portfolio).

Moreover, we evaluate the effectiveness of our actions as part of our Responsible Care audits in the categories of “Organization and management system,” “Product stewardship,” “Transportation safety,” “Process safety,” “Environment (air, water, waste)” and “Emergency response.”

Thanks to our focus on operational excellence (see also E1 Operational excellence), we continuously design our plants and processes to be more efficient and resource-saving. This creates direct incentives for investing in efficiency projects and contributes to reducing emissions. Corresponding projects address all levels of the mitigation measure hierarchy: Prevent, reduce, recapture and reuse, restore and regenerate. We therefore further reduce regular emissions to air through various actions, such as lowering the emission of nitrogen oxides using catalysts and feed waste gases back into the production process.

When it comes to emissions to water, our approach is to reduce wastewater volumes and contaminant loads at the source in our production processes and to reuse wastewater and material flows internally as far as possible. To treat wastewater, we use both central measures in wastewater treatment plants and the selective pretreatment of individual wastewater streams before these are sent to the wastewater treatment plant. We use different methods depending on the type and degree of contamination – including biological processes, chemical oxidation, membrane technologies, precipitation or adsorption. At our Verbund site in Freeport, Texas, we commissioned a membrane bioreactor for treating wastewater in 2023, which improved the capacity and cleaning performance of the wastewater treatment plant. In the medium term, the treated wastewater is to be reused, thereby reducing the need for freshwater. Depending on the local situation, we also implement actions together with other stakeholders. For example, at the Tarragona site in Spain, we are working with our water supplier AITASA and other companies to further expand wastewater reuse in the medium term.

As part of our water protection concepts, we regularly conduct risk assessments of our wastewater, evaluate it in terms of its risks and derive suitable monitoring measures.

In order to take preventive action against environmental impacts due to potential product spills and leakages, such as into water, we set demanding safety standards when planning, building and operating our plants around the world. These meet and, in some cases, go beyond local legal requirements. Our experts develop a safety concept for every plant that takes into account the key safety, occupational health as well as environmental protection aspects – from plant design to the end of production – and stipulates corresponding protective measures. In order to maintain a high level of safety at our plants worldwide over their entire life cycles, we carry out implementation checks at regular intervals and dependent on the risk potential to verify the implementation of our safety concepts. We regularly update the safety and protection concepts of our plants. Here, we particularly take new findings, technological opportunities and regulatory developments into account.

To reduce process safety incidents, we focus in particular on technical measures, digital solutions and on a leadership culture that places even greater focus on process safety and dealing openly with mistakes. We use the rate of High Severity Process Safety Incidents (hsPSI) per 200,000 working hours as a reporting indicator (for information on the external validation of metrics, see General Disclosures). By 2030, we aim for a rate of no more than 0.10 High Severity Process Safety Incidents per 200,000 working hours.¹ In 2024, we recorded a global rate of 0.03 hsPSI per 200,000 working hours (2023: 0.05). The rate of process safety incidents (PSI rate; number of process safety incidents per 200,000 working hours) was 0.22 in 2024 (2023: 0.29). In addition, we are continually refining our training methods and offerings to increase risk awareness and strengthen our safety culture. In North America, a campaign was launched in 2023 with the aim of promoting behaviors that contribute to responsible and competent safety practices. To engage their teams in discussions on these topics, leaders have specific tools at their disposal. One example is an instrument known as the “Safety Moment”: short, illustrative presentations with thought-provoking ideas on safety, which can be used routinely to kick off meetings and events. In internal and external networks, through our involvement in associations such as the ICCA, the European Process Safety Centre (EPSC) and the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS), as well as through our dialog with authorities, we make an active and continuous contribution to improving process safety around the world.

In the event of process safety incidents, their handling initially falls within the remit of local crisis organizations and/or local emergency response. We have implemented precautionary organizational measures with clearly defined responsibilities and procedures at all sites for this purpose. The employees responsible receive regular training. This includes safety and emergency drills, which vary in scope and the number of people involved. Depending on the situation, we also involve business partners and our sites’ communities, such as cities or neighboring companies, both in drills and in the event of an emergency. Additional teams may be called in for emergencies, depending on the development of the damage extent. The Global Crisis Management Support Team (GCMS), led by a member of the Board of Executive Directors, is activated in the event of a global crisis situation. It provides the strategic direction for crisis management and is supported by issue-specific and specialist working groups.

We use a range of tools to minimize transport risks, such as impacts on the environment due to potential product leakages. For every dangerous good, we verify whether the packaging has been approved for that product and is suitable for the type of transport. We conduct digital dangerous goods checks before shipping orders are released. Vehicles are subjected to a thorough dangerous goods check prior to loading and rejected if there are any issues. Above and beyond this, we use our global requirements to specifically assess the safety and environmental risks of transporting and handling raw materials and sales products with high hazard potential. This is based on the guideline Safety Risk Assessment for Chemical Transport Operations of the European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC). We stipulate worldwide requirements for our logistics service providers and assess them in terms of safety and quality. Our experts use our own tools as well as internationally approved schemes for evaluation and monitoring. These include the ship inspection reports issued by the Chemical Distribution Institute (CDI). We remain involved in external networks, which quickly provide information and assistance in emergencies. These include the Intervention in Chemical transport Emergencies (ICE) initiative and the German Transport-Accident-Information and Emergency-Response-System (TUIS), in which BASF plays a coordinating role. We apply the experience we have gathered in the course of this involvement to improve our own processes and set up similar systems in other countries.

Actions in the value chain

We are committed to minimizing the impacts of regular emissions to air and water as well as of potential product leakages into water throughout our entire value chain. To this end, we work together with our suppliers and numerous partners. Ongoing initiatives serve the purpose of continuous optimization and further development.

In the upstream value chain, we take a closer look at suppliers in critical supply chains, such as those for mineral and renewable raw materials and a range of pigments, using a risk-based approach. Upstream stages of the value chain are assessed in respect of serious sustainability risks, with suitable remedial measures instigated where necessary (see S2 Assessing and growing our suppliers and S2 Dealing with specific incidents). In shared initiatives with suppliers and other partners, we also develop and test approaches to making the supply of raw materials more sustainable. We work continuously to switch to more sustainable alternatives for raw materials and to reduce the use of raw materials in the manufacture of our products, such as by means of more efficient processes and innovative technologies.

This also enables us to provide our customers in the downstream value chain with more sustainable solutions and reduce emissions.

With TripleS, we have established a steering tool for our product portfolio based on the sustainability performance of our products (for more information, see General Disclosures, Sustainable steering of our product portfolio). Based on this, we review our relevant global product portfolio continuously, but at least every four years. In 2022, we updated the TripleS method in order to further steer our product portfolio toward climate protection, climate neutrality and circular economy. In addition to implementing new regulatory requirements, we are actively driving forward the adaptation and further development of our production processes with the aim of reducing the environmental footprint of our products. Criteria for mitigating environmental impacts, such as reducing emissions to air and water or new approaches to water purification, also form part of the evaluation process. If products with sustainability concerns are identified, we classify them as part of TripleS either as Monitored, or in the case of significant concerns, as Challenged. A description of potential actions is mandatory for both categories. In the event of significant challenges, we develop action plans to optimize the products or replace them with alternative solutions. These include research projects and reformulations to optimize products or replace them with alternative products. To consistently make our portfolio more sustainable, we are generally phasing out all Challenged products within five years of their initial classification.

• More information on TripleS

Together with partners and in dialog with stakeholders in the food value chain, we continuously drive projects aimed at promoting sustainable agriculture. Improper use of our crop protection and seed products may have a negative impact on human health and the environment. We are therefore focusing our smart stewardship activities on education and continuously improving our solutions for farmers through the use of digital tools and innovative technologies. Alongside aspects such as efficacy and productivity, this includes also safe use by our customers and impact on the environment. All of BASF’s crop protection products can be used safely under local farming conditions if the information and directions on the label are followed. If they have any questions, complaints or issues, our customers can contact us through various channels, for example, by calling the telephone number printed on all product labels, using the contact forms on our websites or by approaching our sales employees directly. We record all product incidents relating to health or the environment that come to our attention in a global database. If necessary, we take appropriate measures on the basis of this information to minimize preventable incidents. These include updating the instructions for use on product labels. We communicate these changes and general recommendations on the safe use of our products through channels such as our global training and education activities.

• More information on smart stewardship

In order to protect the water as a resource, deepen our knowledge and share our expertise with others, we cooperate with numerous partners along the value chain and from civil society. We are, for example, a member of the Alliance for Water Stewardship, which, with its Strategy 2022–2030, calls for collective action to tackle shared water challenges. In addition, we are continuously involved in networks such as the Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW), the World Plastics Council and Operation Clean Sweep^® to prevent waste from plastic production from entering water bodies. In South America, we support sustainable development activities, including in the area of water, through Fundação Eco+.

Global Targets

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In our global sustainability-related corporate targets (for additional information, see Targets and Target Achievement), we see effective levers in terms of environmental protection in general. These include our climate targets to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, our target of closing loops, our TripleS target, our sustainable water management target and our responsible procurement target.

We also endeavor to minimize potential incidents impacting the environment through our targets for resource-efficient and safe production, particularly our process safety target. A process safety incident, however, does not necessarily have a negative impact on the environment. From 2025 onward, the environmental impacts from process safety incidents will – as is already the case for transportation incidents with significant environmental impacts – be systematically recorded in a global database.

In 2024, we had no transportation incidents with significant impacts on the environment.

BASF does not have a specific reduction target for emissions to air (excluding GHG) and water in the topic category Pollution Prevention. All relevant indicators are monitored and published on a regular basis (see Metrics). The ways in which we track the effectiveness of our policies is discussed in the section Strategy and Governance.

We discuss the sustainability topics that are material for BASF at regular meetings with external stakeholders, forming part of our strategic stakeholder engagement activities, and in discussions with investors. Through this, the expectations of our stakeholders are continuously taken into account when setting potential targets.

Metrics

Emissions to air and water

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For a description of our measurement methods on determining the quantities of substances emitted in connection with environmental pollution and a description of the data collection process for accounting and reporting in connection with the reduction of environmental pollution, as well as general information on the estimation or rounding of individual sustainability metrics, see General Disclosures in our Sustainability Statement.

Substances of Concern or of Very High Concern

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Substances of concern or of very high concern may represent an integral component of the chemical raw materials used for production or of chemical products. To this extent, a portion of our products, which are key input products in further industrial or professional value creation or application, contain substances of concern or of very high concern. We address the safe handling and usage of chemical raw materials as part of our product safety. BASF understands product safety to be an integral part of all business processes, as an important element of our risk management and as an essential pillar of our commitment to Responsible Care^®.

We continuously work on ensuring our products – including those that may contain substances of concern or very high concern – pose no risk to people and the environment when they are used responsibly and in the manner intended. A thorough safety and risk assessment enables us to serve markets with innovative and more sustainable products that meet regulatory requirements while still responding to trends.

We aim to comply with all relevant national and international laws and regulations. The guidelines, requirements, processes and responsibilities described above in this chapter under Strategy and Governance, also pertain to the handling of substances of concern and of very high concern.

We document and evaluate the safety, health and environmental information for our substances and products in a global database. We update this information on an ongoing basis. The database forms the basis for communicating this information via our safety data sheets, which we provide to our customers in around 40 languages. These include information on physicochemical, toxicological and ecotoxicological properties of products, potential hazards, first aid measures, measures taken in the case of accidental release and disposal. Our global emergency hotline network enables us to provide information around the clock. To ensure that people who buy, sell, use, transport or dispose of our products can quickly find information about the products and their associated hazards, we use the Globally Harmonized System (GHS) to classify and label our products around the world, provided this is legally permissible in the country concerned. We take into account national or regional adaptations within the GHS framework if applicable, such as the EU’s regulation on the classification, labeling and packaging of substances and mixtures (CLP Regulation).

If necessary, we advise our customers on product safety. We set global requirements on the safe transport of dangerous goods for our logistics providers (see Actions in our own production). We also train our employees worldwide on the proper handling and usage of selected products with special hazard potential. In associations and together with other manufacturers, BASF supports the establishment of voluntary global commitments to prevent the misuse of chemicals. We are also involved at national and international level in various initiatives to further develop risk assessments, such as that of the European Centre for Ecotoxicology and Toxicology of Chemicals (ECETOC).

With such efforts, we aim to ensure that these substances or products containing these substances with very high hazard potential are safely handled and to ensure that impacts on human health and the environment can be prevented.

Substances of concern and of very high concern are subject to strict regulatory supervision, and the list of restricted substances with hazardous properties is continuously growing. When a substance is added to a regulatory list, this can change both the future availability of raw materials and the market behavior of customers and consumers. Normally, such changes are planned well in advance and transparently, allowing the industry to prepare by taking suitable measures, such as substitution planning or the implementation of derogations. Our proactive TripleS steering instrument, for example, makes a substantial contribution to planning a sustainable portfolio. A potential material risk for value chains, which would, however, not specifically affect BASF, could only arise in the event of an unforeseen proliferation of regulatory measures.

The substances of concern or of very high concern deployed by BASF in global value chains in the 2024 business year are stated in the following tables. As an integrated chemical company, BASF manufactures a broad portfolio of products, many of which are further processed by customers in the chemical industry. We handle the substances in our production appropriately and supply our customers with products that can be used safely if handled properly. As a B2B company, we market only a very small portion of our products directly to consumers and end users. The values listed in the tables also include multiple counts if several main hazard classes apply to a substance. The values therefore do not correspond to the total tonnages actually introduced into the downstream value chain.