S3 Affected Communities

Strategy and Governance

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The acceptance and support of our stakeholders is crucial for our business success. We pursue the principle of coexisting well with affected communities by reducing negative impacts of our business operations and maximizing positive impacts. As such, we want to contribute to an improved quality of life for everyone.

The protection of affected communities is a central concern and we are committed to producing safely for both people and the environment. Our environmental protection, health, safety and quality management system, which builds on the guiding principles of the Responsible Care^® initiative, quality management and other relevant management standards, serves to protect the environment and the health and safety of our employees, third-party workers and neighbors. The Corporate Center unit Corporate Environmental Protection, Health, Safety & Quality, which reports directly to the Board of Executive Directors, determines the Group-wide management and control systems and monitors compliance with internal requirements and legal guidelines (for additional information on the responsibilities of the Corporate Center units in the Board of Executive Directors, see Management and Supervisory Boards). At the same time, the sites and Group companies are responsible for implementing the stipulated guidelines at local level.

It is fundamentally important to us to respect human rights and not to violate them through our business activities at any time. We record compliance risks, including those related to communities that could potentially be affected by our business activities, by means of regular risk assessments of our operating divisions and Group companies worldwide (see General Disclosures, Corporate Due Diligence). Based on the BASF Group’s Policy Statement on Human Rights, we are committed to respecting the human rights of local communities and vulnerable groups and strengthening these rights along the entire value chain. This includes, among others, Indigenous peoples as a particularly vulnerable group. We are committed to acting responsibly and entrepreneurially in accordance with the following international standards:

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations (U.N.)
• Both U.N. Human Rights Covenants
• Core labor standards of the International Labour Organization (ILO)
• Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy
• Ten Principles of the U.N. Global Compact
• U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights
• OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises
• Responsible Care^® Global Charter of the International Council of Chemical Associations

We have anchored our human rights responsibility in our BASF Code of Conduct and our Supplier Code of Conduct (see S2 Strategy and Governance). We expect all our partners to comply with international human rights standards. Where necessary, we support them in meeting their due diligence obligations. We strive to meet our responsibility along the entire value chain and are willing to face the associated opportunities and risks. Respect for human rights is systematically integrated into our corporate governance and decision-making processes. The global BASF Code of Conduct is binding for all employees and we track compliance with its guidelines by means of our control and monitoring systems.

Our contribution to the positive development of communities follows our societal engagement policy. This policy is also based on the BASF Code of Conduct and falls within the responsibility of the Corporate Center unit Corporate Strategy & Sustainability.

For 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.

We review the resilience of our business models in relation to various sustainability aspects as part of the development of our business strategy. The strategies of our strategic business units are updated on a regular basis in conjunction with experts from the business units and the Corporate Strategy & Sustainability unit. We have also integrated social and human rights-related assessments within our governance and decision-making processes, for example for investment, acquisition and divestiture projects. We involve key stakeholders in decisions on future investments at an early stage. These may also include representatives of affected communities.

The business strategy of our Agricultural Solutions division and its contribution to food supply are outlined here.

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Material impacts of BASF on affected communities

In the following section, we explain in more detail our strategy in relation to the four material impacts of BASF on affected communities.

Potential adverse effects on health due to our business activities

As a global chemical company, BASF is aware of the risks associated with the use and manufacture of chemicals. These may also include adverse effects on the health of affected communities, for example due to contaminated drinking water. Impacts may also arise due to the production of chemicals at our sites and in our upstream and downstream value chain.

We aim to ensure safe production through our environmental protection, health, safety and quality management system. It is our responsibility to protect, in particular, the health and safety of our employees, customers and neighbors by continuously identifying potential hazards and minimizing risks (see S1 Occupational safety and health).

We strive to prevent potential adverse effects on health along our value chains and use our insights to take appropriate measures to avoid any repetition of potential negative impacts on affected communities. Our global standards and guidelines, for example on handling the natural resource of water, are clearly defined in Group-wide requirements. Our sites and Group companies are responsible for implementing and complying with both the Group-wide requirements and local guidelines. By means of regular audits, the Corporate Center unit Corporate Environmental Protection, Health, Safety & Quality monitors compliance with the guidelines.

With our commitment to product stewardship under Responsible Care^® and the initiatives of the International Council of Chemical Associations, we are committed to minimizing the negative effects of our products on health, safety and the environment, and to continuously improving the safety of our products. Before our products are launched on the market, they undergo various tests and assessments – depending on their application profile and legal requirements. By conducting these tests, we aim to identify potential hazard indicators, as well as health and environmental risks, at an early stage. Based on these findings, we devise suitable preventive and protective measures and develop recommendations on secure handling – from production and application through to disposal.

To ensure product safety, we have established global management systems in our downstream value chains. For example, we set global guidelines on the safe transportation of hazardous goods for our logistics service providers and, where necessary, advise our customers on product safety to ensure that our products, when used responsibly and for their intended purpose, do not pose any risk to either humans or the environment (for more information, see E2 Actions in the value chain).

The right of Indigenous peoples to free, prior and informed consent

BASF opposes all forms of human rights violations and, through the BASF Group’s Policy Statement on Human Rights, has committed itself to respecting and promoting the human rights of local communities and vulnerable groups along the entire value chain (see Global targets). This also includes implementation of the principle of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) for Indigenous peoples.

Where our activities could impact Indigenous peoples in particular, we seek dialog with nongovernmental organizations before we even invest; this may, for instance, take the form of establishing an environmental, social and governance (ESG) advisory council on a case-by-case basis (see Involvement of our stakeholder groups). We record compliance risks, including those related to communities that may potentially be affected by our business operations, by means of regular risk assessments of our operating divisions and Group companies worldwide.

We systematically evaluate the sustainability performance of our suppliers and have set ourselves the target of achieving concrete improvements for suppliers who score poorly in this evaluation (see S2 Global targets). Our purchasing organization has also established a global risk-based management system for our upstream supply chain in order to implement our due diligence processes. We have defined our standards in a global requirement. Where we source renewable raw materials, we also consider social factors such as working conditions and food security. We seek regular dialog with our stakeholders to avoid conflicting goals and include recognized certification standards in our decisions.

This applies, for example, when purchasing palm oil and palm kernel oil, two of our most important renewable raw materials: We mainly use these to produce ingredients for the cosmetics, detergent, cleaner and food industries. Based on our global Supplier Code of Conduct, we have defined our expectations of suppliers in the palm-based value chain in a supplementary procurement policy (BASF Palm Sourcing Policy). This addresses not only certification standards, traceability and environmental aspects, but also the respect of workers’ rights and the rights of Indigenous peoples as well as the inclusion of smallholder structures. We expect, for example, that the right of Indigenous and local communities to grant or refuse their free, prior and informed consent is respected in relation to land-use changes associated with the sourcing of palm oil. This pertains to all groups of people who hold inherent or social rights in accordance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and the social guidelines of the High Carbon Stock Approach (HCSA) (see E4 Sourcing of renewable raw materials).

We have also established dedicated processes for the procurement of mineral raw materials to trace the origin of conflict minerals in the supply chain and ensure that they come from conflict-free sources. In this way, we want to minimize negative impacts on the part of BASF.

We have implemented the EU’s Conflict Minerals Regulation, for example by carrying out a compliance check for the import of conflict minerals in our ordering system. This regulation defines supply chain due diligence for tin, tantalum, tungsten and their ores as well as gold (3TG¹) imported into the EU from conflict-affected and high-risk areas (CAHRAs²).

• More information on our guidelines in connection with conflict materials

In addition, we place importance on certifications such as the LBMA certificate³ for gold, the LPPM certificate⁴ for platinum group metals, and the Responsible Minerals Initiative’s Responsible Minerals Assurance Process. Furthermore, BASF is committed to responsible and sustainable global supply chains for other mineral raw materials. These include cobalt, a key component in the production of battery materials. We have organized our cobalt supply chain according to established sustainability guidelines such as the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals. Our goal is to not purchase cobalt from artisanal mines as long as responsible labor, social and environmental standards cannot be verified.

Food supply through our products 

As one of the world’s leading companies, we offer products and innovations for agriculture and support the sustainable transformation of the agricultural and food system. Our crop protection products, our seeds and our digital solutions help to ensure that crops produce a high yield so that people benefit from an adequate food supply.

Our innovation-driven strategy for agriculture focuses on selected crops and their appropriate cultivation systems: Soy, corn (maize) and cotton in the Americas; wheat, canola (oilseed rape) and sunflower in North America and Europe; rice in Asia; and fruit and vegetables globally.

In our Agricultural Solutions division, we are working to strike the right balance between economic, environmental and social value creation for future-oriented and highly efficient agriculture. In light of the increasing global population, demand for food and feed, renewable raw materials and energy continues to rise, whereas land suitable for agriculture is limited. Accordingly, even more efficient farming is essential. It must be balanced and needs to ensure that sufficient quantities of healthy and affordable food can be produced. At the same time, it is extremely important to reduce negative impacts on the environment and potential adverse effects on health connected with the production and use of crop protection products to acceptable levels.

We leverage our expertise in research and development and our deep understanding of the way individual growers manage their farms to provide offers across technologies. These include novel solutions for seeds, traits, fungicides, herbicides, insecticides, biological solutions and digital products tailored to regional farming needs and crop systems.

Contribution to the positive development of communities

Through our activities, we aim to strengthen the communities surrounding our sites worldwide, contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and have a long-term positive impact on the environment and society. We have a positive impact on local communities through the business activities at our sites. We create jobs and contribute to local value creation. Through our societal engagement, we aim to improve people’s quality of life through the prevention and combating of illnesses (health), promote educational equity, employability and economic participation (skills) and safeguard natural resources (resources) (see Actions).

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Continuous dialog with our stakeholder groups and their involvement represent integral components of BASF’s corporate responsibility. Therefore, responsibility for the central governance, quality assurance and ongoing development of our engagement with societal stakeholders lies with the Corporate Strategy & Sustainability unit, which is part of the Corporate Center and is assigned the direct responsibility of the Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors. The insights gained as part of the dialog are of considerable importance and are included in relevant strategic decisions. A company-wide group of involved employees ensures the exchange of insights and experiences as well as the ongoing improvement of our measures and approaches.

In order to be able to better assess our impacts on, and risks for, affected communities, we have structured our stakeholder engagement in such a way that we consider the feedback of affected communities in our business activities. As part of our Responsible Care management (see E3 Strategy and governance), we aim, for example, to safeguard the right of residents at our sites to access clean water.

We bear a particular responsibility toward the neighbors of our sites. We promote continuous dialog between residents and our site management and strengthen trust in our activities with community advisory panels. The globally applicable guidelines for these forums are based on the U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in relation to grievance mechanisms. In this way, individuals and groups, such as NGOs and associations, have the opportunity to raise concerns directly and on a regular basis. The forums are active for an indefinite period.

The interests of Indigenous peoples are included on three levels comprising dialog with human rights experts, direct dialog with representatives of the Indigenous peoples and dialog with nongovernmental organizations representing Indigenous peoples. In this regard, we observe our Group-wide requirements on interactions with representatives of civil society.

We address current and important issues on certain topics with advisory councils. This enables BASF to gain a better understanding of the impacts of its business activities on society and the environment. The insights gained facilitate sound decisions, both in relation to operational projects and strategic development. The relevant Corporate Center units, such as the Sustainability Relations and Trends unit, are responsible for ensuring regular and appropriate interactions.

In 2023, BASF set up an advisory council for issues surrounding the protection of biodiversity and ecosystems – the Nature Advisory Council (NAC) – to receive an independent societal perspective on our activities in relation to nature and biodiversity topics. The aim is to obtain constructive feedback and specific advice on nature-related topics and our strategic approach as well as our contributions to a more sustainable future. The NAC will remain active for an indefinite period and, at the end of 2024, comprised five members from scientific fields, relevant value chains and multilateral organizations. It met most recently in November 2024 and discussed the approach to biodiversity taken by BASF with relevant experts and leaders.

The Human Rights Advisory Council (HRAC), established in 2020, provides a trust-based and constructive dialog to enable us to better meet our role and responsibility, particularly in situations that are challenging in terms of human rights. It comprises independent international human rights experts and meets regularly, thus enabling us to obtain additional human rights expertise. The HRAC helps us to better understand different perspectives on human rights, address conflicting aims and take into account the rights of Indigenous peoples and the limits of corporate due diligence. The Council also contributes to building on our human rights-related strengths and identifying potential improvements. It meets up to three times a year and is active for an indefinite period. The meetings held in 2024 were attended by representatives from Corporate Compliance and Corporate Strategy & Sustainability, plus other experts from the operating divisions.

In 2023, the Sustainability Lab, another stakeholder engagement format, was held for the first time. Here, around 100 internal and external experts discussed specific issues concerning sustainable development from a variety of perspectives (for more information, see General Disclosures, Interests and views of our stakeholders).

A new format is our Civil Society Forum, which was established in Berlin in March 2024 and includes representatives of the operating divisions affected by the topics concerned as well as representatives from the Corporate Center. It facilitates a confidential dialog with representatives from civil society and trade unions. The aim of the forum is to actively explain the company’s activities in relation to current and potential projects and its positioning in this regard. As such, the Civil Society Forum offers a platform for feedback from civil society. The subsequent incorporation of external feedback into internal strategic management systems aims at finding feasible solutions for all stakeholders.

Where necessary, we use the format of an ESG Council as an instrument for case-by-case engagement with stakeholders, such as affected communities. In this way, the viewpoints of relevant stakeholders can also be incorporated at an early stage in the decision-making process on future investments. We employed this instrument, for instance, in the context of a potential investment in a nickel/cobalt refinery complex in Weda Bay, Indonesia.⁵ We also review current investments on the basis of the sustainability criteria on an ongoing basis and employ suitable dialog formats on a case-by-case basis to incorporate societal perspectives.

Our engagement in multistakeholder and other initiatives represents a key component of our strategic approach in relation to affected communities and all human resources in the value chain. BASF engages in networks such as Cobalt for Development, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, the Global Battery Alliance and the Responsible Lithium Partnership, which is scheduled to run until 2025.

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The BASF compliance hotline is publicly accessible to everyone as a grievance mechanism; as such, it can also be used by affected communities worldwide and their representatives. More information on how the issues raised and addressed are tracked and monitored can be found here.

Should concerns be raised or a violation identified in relation to our own activities, we immediately take the action required in order to appropriately address and end the violation. Whenever human rights violations on the part of our direct suppliers or in our supply chains come to our attention, we expect and demand that our direct suppliers immediately end the violations or investigate them appropriately. Where necessary, we support our suppliers in overcoming the associated challenges and in making improvements to their sustainability performance. At the same time, we also reserve the right, as a last resort, to seek out potential alternatives and to terminate supplier relationships in the event of continued violations of our standards.

In the 2024 reporting year, we were notified of one case of potentially serious incidents relating to our palm oil supply chain. Specifically, the case concerned allegations of disproportionate use of force against affected communities by security forces of an indirect supplier. We immediately suspended this supplier.

Beyond that, we take reports of problems in connection with affected communities seriously and investigate them. in 2024, three cases were brought to our attention in which allegations of unlawful land confiscation were made to the detriment of affected communities in the palm oil supply chain. These cases were also the subject of legal proceedings in the reporting year. One of these three cases concerns a direct supplier that is certified in accordance with the standards of the multistakeholder program Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). RSPO investigations have not confirmed the allegations. We have also been informed that no relevant rights violations were found in the official investigation conducted in the context of the legal proceedings. The other two cases relate to indirect suppliers. The investigation and legal proceedings are still ongoing, based on which we will consider the next steps.

In our view, the reports regularly received in all regions – both from the company’s employees and third parties, such as NGOs – confirm the functionality and effectiveness of this complaint channel.

Actions

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In order to mitigate negative impacts and risks while simultaneously seizing opportunities in connection with affected communities along our value chains, we take concrete actions, which we explain below on the basis of the material subtopics for this chapter. These actions often entail decentralized measures, projects and initiatives that are not assigned to any centrally managed action plan. Instead, they – like our management and monitoring systems – aim to ensure continuous improvement 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).

We use various dialog formats and bodies and incorporate the insights gained into our business operations and strategic planning. Fundamentally, we distinguish between direct engagement with affected stakeholders, such as through our community advisory panels, and indirect engagement via representatives on our advisory councils (see Involvement of our stakeholder groups).

As part of our due diligence, for example, we are in regular contact with our South African platinum suppliers, including Sibanye-Stillwater.⁶ In order to gain a comprehensive picture of the situation on the ground and address relevant issues, we engage in continuous dialog with relevant stakeholder groups. Most recently, BASF invited the stakeholder groups involved to an in-person meeting in Germany in September 2024. At this meeting, representatives of our suppliers and of NGOs from South Africa and Germany, as well as other experts, held a constructive discussion on the environmental and human rights-related situation.

Moreover, we take further measures designed to minimize BASF’s negative impacts on affected communities and support positive impacts.

Actions to avoid potential adverse effects on health

We take numerous actions to design products in such a way that their impacts on the environment and on society are as small as possible along their entire value chain (see General Disclosures, Sustainable steering of our product portfolio).

In order to minimize negative impacts and risks in the upstream value chain, we rely on open dialog with our suppliers as well as their assessment and development. We support preventive and local initiatives to improve the working conditions of our suppliers’ employees. Our management processes are activated in the event of specific work-related incidents (see S2 Actions).

To prevent work-related incidents and their associated impacts on employees and their relatives, we support and demand safe and risk-aware working practices, learning from events and the regular sharing of experiences among our employees. In addition, employees at our production sites receive regular training on how to handle chemicals safely and how to use personal protective equipment correctly (see S1 Occupational safety and health). Moreover, teams of experts at all our sites deal with health, occupational safety and environmental protection matters. The Corporate Environmental Protection, Health, Safety & Quality unit in the Corporate Center conducts regular audits to monitor compliance with internal requirements and legal guidelines at regular intervals (see S1 Occupational safety and health and E2 Process, product and transportation safety).

We also aim to minimize potential incidents impacting the environment through our targets for safe and resource-efficient production, particularly our process safety target (see E2 Actions in our own production). In order to reduce the number of process safety incidents, we draw on technical measures, digital solutions and a management culture that puts process safety and an open approach to errors even more to the fore. In addition, we are continually refining and expanding our training methods and offerings to increase risk awareness and strengthen our safety culture.

Due to our focus on operational excellence (see also E1 Operational excellence), we continuously design more energy- and resource-efficient plants and processes. This helps to reduce emissions. We thus take a wealth of measures to reduce emissions to air, for example by using catalysts to lower nitrogen oxides and feeding waste gases back into the production process. When it comes to emissions into 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. As part of our water protection concepts, we also conduct regular hazard assessments of our wastewater, evaluate it in terms of its risks and derive suitable monitoring measures.

In order to safeguard water as a resource, we are involved in the Alliance for Water Stewardship, as well as networks such as the Alliance to End Plastic Waste and Operation Clean Sweep^® to ensure that waste from plastics production does not enter bodies of water.

Misuse 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. Alongside aspects such as efficacy and productivity, this also encompasses the safe use of our products and reducing their impacts on the environment. Our commitment to safety includes not only our employees, but also our suppliers and customers. Crop protection products must be used responsibly and require safety measures to protect farmers and other professional users against hazards. We therefore launched the Global Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Initiative in order to put the safety of users center stage. The Suraksha Hamesha (translation from Hindi: “Safety all the time”) program of BASF in India is designed to train farmers and other users in the safe and responsible use of crop protection products and focuses on risk minimization measures.

The traceability and assessment of our actions with respect to their efficacy in protecting affected communities in the areas around our own production sites are, among other things, based on our global targets for safe and resource-efficient production (for additional information, see Targets and Target Achievement). By systematically evaluating the sustainability performance of our suppliers and, where there is a need for improvement, by working closely with our partners, we can verify whether negative impacts on health are being effectively prevented in our upstream value chain (see S2 Assessing and growing our suppliers).

Actions to respect the right of Indigenous peoples to free, prior and informed consent

Through our business operations, we are connected with a huge number of people worldwide who are either directly or indirectly influenced by our activities. We meet our responsibility to respect human rights throughout our entire value chain in order to honor and promote rights, particularly in relation to vulnerable groups (see The right of Indigenous peoples to free, prior and informed consent).

We regard the implementation of human rights-related due diligence processes as a comprehensive endeavor that we can only achieve if all employees and leaders work together. That is why we have embedded our responsibility for human rights into our Code of Conduct and set this out in our Policy Statement on Human Rights. We uphold our standards worldwide, including where they exceed local legal guidelines. All employees and leaders bear responsibility for ensuring that we act in accordance with our Code of Conduct and Policy Statement on Human Rights. In order to live up to our responsibility as holistically as possible, employees from various specialist units (such as Procurement; Legal; HR; Corporate Environmental Protection, Health, Safety & Quality; Sustainability; Site Security; Logistics; Communications and Governmental Relations) and from our operating divisions work together closely as part of our overarching Human Rights Expert Working Group (see S1 Human rights due diligence). When meeting our responsibility to respect the right of Indigenous peoples to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC), we rely on established monitoring systems. Since we understand human rights due diligence obligation as an ongoing task, we regularly review our due diligence mechanisms and improve them where necessary. We track the effectiveness of our activities to respect the rights of Indigenous peoples using the number of issues and incidents brought to our attention.

We are committed to active dialog with affected communities. Take the sourcing of lithium, for instance. Together with the BMW Group, Mercedes-Benz AG, Fairphone B.V., Daimler Truck AG and the Volkswagen Group, we have been a member of the Responsible Lithium Partnership initiative since 2021. This initiative, which is scheduled to run until 2025, promotes the responsible use of natural resources in the Salar de Atacama salt flat in Chile. This region is home to the world’s largest lithium brine reserves and a significant share of global production. With this in mind, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (German Corporation for International Cooperation, GIZ) was commissioned with organizing a local multistakeholder platform, also comprising Indigenous communities, on the water-related opportunities and risks of lithium and copper extraction and other commercial activities as well as with driving forward action plans. BASF participated in a study organized by the BMW Group together with experts from the University of Alaska and the University of Massachusetts to examine the hydrological conditions in Salar de Atacama. The results of this study are incorporated as an important component of the work of the Responsible Lithium Partnership initiative.

Actions to promote a positive contribution to food supply

The Agricultural Solutions division focuses on developing products and solutions designed to make agriculture more efficient and sustainable. These products comprise crop protection products, fertilizer management solutions, seeds and digital solutions. Through innovative technologies and research, BASF contributes to increasing agricultural productivity and simultaneously reducing environmental impacts.

BASF invests in research and development in order to develop new and resistant seed varieties that can better thrive in different climate zones, under pressure from pests and under changing climatic conditions. Moreover, we promote more sustainable growing methods that optimize the use of water and nutrients and protect biodiversity.

A further key area involves promoting digital solutions that help farmers to increase their yields. These technologies enable more precise use of fertilizers and crop protection products, which not only boosts efficiency but also minimizes the impact on the environment.

BASF is engaged in multiple initiatives to strengthen food supply chains and improve access to food, especially in emerging markets. We work with various partners to offer training programs for farmers, helping them to learn modern growing methods and maximize their yields.

With the products and solutions of the Agricultural Solutions division, we support our customers in reducing crop losses, achieving better yields and producing safe food. The commercial success of the Agricultural Solutions division therefore provides the basis for assessing the extent to which we make a positive contribution to food supply.

Actions to promote the positive development of communities

Through our business activities, our stakeholder engagement and our societal engagement, we strive to have a positive economic, social and cultural influence on communities.

Our societal engagement activities are globally consolidated into three focus areas across BASF Group: We want to improve people’s quality of life by preventing and combating disease, promoting educational equality, employability and economic participation, and safeguarding natural resources.

In 2024, the BASF Group spent around €32 million on societal engagement. In the field of international development cooperation and disaster management, we supported the independent and nonprofit BASF Stiftung with donations for its international project work in tandem with various organizations. The proceeds from the 2024 year-end donation campaign went to the BASF Stiftung and UNHCR, the U.N. Refugee Agency, and their work to support refugees in Sudan. BASF increased the donations from employees of participating German Group companies by €100,000 for a total of around €370,000.

Our intrapreneurship program, Starting Ventures, provides ongoing support to people from low-income areas to improve their economic opportunities and their quality of life. At the same time, the program affords us access to new markets and partners. BASF is tackling challenges on the ground together with local partners and contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with entrepreneurial ideas, technical expertise and time resources. Nine new Starting Ventures projects were selected for implementation in December 2024.

At many sites, BASF works with partners for high-quality education (SDG4) and more educational equality, particularly for disadvantaged children and young people. For BASF, scientific education and education for sustainable development represent central capabilities that contribute to personal success and the future of society. For 27 years now, children and young people in 45 countries have been able to take part in experiments in BASF Kids’ and Teens’ Labs. This year, some 100 young people in Ludwigshafen took part in the “Expedition Erdreich” (“Expedition Earth”) program, learning about biodiversity and its importance for climate protection and society.

The Young Voices for a Sustainable Future project was initiated in 2022 in tandem with the nongovernmental organization JA Worldwide. This project enables young people to address sustainable development topics at a local level in partnership with BASF employees. As part of an innovation challenge, participants learn to recognize the impacts of climate change on their communities and influence the resulting challenges. As such, we seek to continuously empower young people to actively take responsibility and champion positive changes in their communities. In 2024, the project was implemented in Thailand, the Philippines, Nigeria, Mexico, Uruguay and the Amazon region in Brazil.

Through our activities in the domain of public health, we endeavor to improve the quality of life of people around the world by preventing and combating diseases. We achieve this goal by partnering with the international community, including international healthcare, governmental and humanitarian organizations. More than 100 million Interceptor G2 mosquito nets have been supplied since 2019. Based on calculations by MedAccess, these long-lasting, insecticide-treated nets may therefore have prevented 200 million people from contracting malaria. BASF’s commitment to eliminating malaria also comprises ongoing product innovation in conjunction with product safety training and education.

Furthermore, BASF engages in projects to fortify food products with micronutrients, especially in developing countries. We are active in multistakeholder alliances in order to achieve a sustainable impact through product solutions, technical support, scientific capacities and the development of partnerships. Since 2021, BASF has been a founding member of the Millers for Nutrition coalition, which pursues the objective of strengthening practices for fortifying food in eight countries with a micronutrient deficiency. In 2024, BASF provided technical training on food fortification and products to combat micronutrient deficiencies in more than 40 countries.

Through our Smallholder Engagement program, we aim to help smallholders adapt to a changing climate and safeguard both their own livelihoods and food security for their communities. BASF works with the NGO Solidaridad, for instance, to support coffee growers as part of the ongoing KAJVE initiative. This project was initiated in 2021 by BASF and UNESCO and aims to improve the quality of life of coffee growers by means of comprehensive training and development. The partnership’s goal is to continuously improve the introduction of more sustainable growing methods, facilitate knowledge sharing and foster climate-resistant coffee production by means of innovative solutions.

In India, BASF has initiated a project that seeks to better integrate smallholders within the agricultural value chain. Operating in partnership with the nongovernmental organization Collective for Integrated Livelihood Initiatives (CInI), Solidaridad and the World Vegetable Center, this project contributes to improving the climate resistance of these communities, enabling the transition to genuine agricultural entrepreneurship and bettering the living conditions of families and communities in a climate-smart way.

In another project, BASF and Solidaridad work together to empower Brazilian farmers to foster biodiversity and sustainable farming practices. What is innovative about this project is the multi-stakeholder approach with which we jointly develop measures and practices to foster biodiversity and climate resilience that can be accepted and implemented by all parties involved – farmers, NGOs, industry and experts.

Societal engagement activities can only unlock their full potential if they are strategically planned, professionally managed and assessed in terms of their effectiveness. Therefore, BASF’s internal societal engagement requirements stipulate that Group companies measure their societal engagement activities using the internationally established IOOI method (input – output – outcome – impact) and make adjustments where necessary.

Global Targets

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Many of our sustainability-related corporate targets (for additional information, see Targets and Target Achievement) contribute to the protection of affected communities. These include our climate protection targets to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, our responsible procurement target, our sustainable water management target and our targets for safe and resource-efficient production (see S1 Global targets and E2 Actions in our own production). Beyond these targets, BASF has not set itself a specific target for the topics identified as material in the area of Affected Communities.

In general, we do not want to be associated with human rights violations and we meet our human rights-related responsibility toward affected communities. In doing so, we take into account the particular needs of vulnerable groups such as Indigenous peoples and seek open dialog and communication with our neighbors in order to continuously strengthen trust in our business activities.

We strive to be a good neighbor at our sites, respect existing rights and respond to the needs of local communities and their residents. We create jobs and contribute to local value creation. We strive to protect the livelihoods of our neighbors and, in particular, show consideration for vulnerable groups such as Indigenous peoples and smallholders. We are committed to open communication and dialog between affected communities and BASF in order to strengthen trust in our activities.

Societal engagement is a cornerstone of our corporate responsibility and part of our sustainability management. We want to contribute to an improved quality of life for everyone. To this end, we have firmly anchored the three pillars of sustainability (economy, environment and society) within our corporate purpose, our strategy, our objectives and our activities throughout the value chain. Our societal engagement is voluntary and goes beyond the statutory minimum, the main aim being to achieve positive impacts on society, the environment and BASF alike. Through our activities, we aim to strengthen the communities surrounding our sites worldwide and contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In order to meet the nutrition needs of the future global population, more food needs to be produced using fewer resources. Together with our customers, we want to identify the most important levers for a more sustainable value chain in the food and feed industry. Sustainable productivity is key to safeguarding food supply in an environmentally friendly way – and our crop protection and seed products play a vital role in this regard.

Even though BASF has not set a specific target for the topics identified as material in the area of Affected Communities, we nevertheless track the effectiveness of our actions and requirements in this field. The corporate requirements cited in this chapter are designed to ensure continuous optimization and ongoing development. Our Group-wide Compliance Program aims to ensure adherence to these requirements (see G1 Compliance Program, corporate values and Code of Conduct). We also take a risk-based approach to reviewing the effectiveness of our systems through our internal Corporate Audit unit. In 2023, for example, engagement with external stakeholders through our Human Rights Advisory Council was evaluated as part of an audit on human rights governance and compliance with the German Supply Chain Act (LkSG). In the 2024 reporting year, we also began introducing an internal control system for compliance and monitoring of our due diligence obligations in relation to the ESRS (see Internal control processes in relation to sustainability reporting in General Disclosures).

We discuss the sustainability topics that are material for BASF at regular meetings with external stakeholders as part of our strategic stakeholder engagement activities as well as in discussions with investors. On this basis, stakeholder expectations are continuously incorporated into the development of sustainability management approaches, targets and principles.