Sustainability

Starting Ventures

Through Starting Ventures, BASF develops business solutions that empower people with low incomes to achieve a better quality of life. Starting Ventures demonstrates how we live our corporate purpose: we create chemistry for a sustainable future.

 

More than one billion people have escaped from extreme poverty since 1990. While this is a remarkable achievement, four billion people – the majority of the world’s population – still live on low incomes. Furthermore, they will account for the largest share of the global population growth by 2050. Worldwide, they strive to improve their quality of life. They aim to obtain better employment and to afford better food, housing, and hygiene – for themselves as well as for future generations.

Video: Starting Ventures – Partnering for a sustainable future

The opportunity

All sectors of society can empower low-income people to achieve their aims. This includes the state and civil society, but also the corporate sector as part of society. By integrating them into their value chains as customers, distributors, and suppliers, companies can create a positive impact on their lives. Opportunities for employment and entrepreneurship will improve their livelihoods. Better access to affordable products will meet their basic needs. For companies, these are also opportunities for innovation and growth.

As a globally operating chemical company, BASF is well positioned to fulfill this role. Our broad market access and the development of our portfolio towards downstream industries gives us the chance to create a positive impact on the daily lives of millions of low-income people throughout the world. By taking this chance, we also create opportunities to develop new business and to strengthen our supply chain. This contributes to our long-term success.

Sri Venkataramana Higher Primary School, Kulai (Mangalore) promotes the message of water conservation with prominent display boards in and around the neighboring community.

Our approach

Over the past decade, BASF has earned a track record of larger projects that succeeded in creating a positive social impact, while creating value for our business. The close cooperation with civil society, the public sector, and partners along our value chain has been key to fostering success.  

The projects have provided a rich learning experience that have enabled us to take the next step with our corporate program Starting Ventures. Through innovative business models and cross-sector partnerships, the projects develop business solutions that address people with low incomes throughout the world. Starting Ventures thereby contributes to our long-term success, while empowering people with low incomes to achieve a better quality of life.

The corporate program Starting Ventures provides resources to our business units to explore these new means of intrapreneurship. Furthermore, the program facilitates sharing of experience and expertise across the entire organization. The selection of project ideas by a central steering committee is based on criteria in three areas: social impact and impact on the environment as well as innovative business models. The UN Sustainable Development Goals form the basis for the criteria on social impact and environmental impact. 

Since 2016, the internal central steering committee has chosen a total of 36 projects. Out of this selection, 21 projects started since 2022 and  have either been completed or are currently in progress.

The projects

Africa

America

Asia-Pacific

Innovation Food Cluster

A shared value partnership to support local food producers and their infrastructure (in particular food warehouses) in the nutrition, agriculture and construction sector.

Sustainable Entrepreneurs

BASF is committed to help grow the business of the SSP’s long term and will use this platform to launch innovative crop protection solutions that will support the projected growth of soybean production, thus supporting the eradication of hunger.

BASF Lighting

In order to protect school children from long-term exposure to blue light BASF is providing these innovative LED bulbs to selected public schools in China’s less developed regions.

Lampung smallholder project

The Lampung smallholder project will strengthen smallholders’ commitment to produce palm oil in a sustainable way, protect and respect the environment as well as improve labor practices and relations with the community in Lampung area, Indonesia.

Better Environment – Better Life

Together with partners (e.g. CCIA – China Cleaning Industry Association) BASF is co-developing more eco-friendly, efficient, water saving cleaning solutions.

Allin Kawsay

In order to empower people to proactively change their lives for the better, BASF has initiated the project Allin Kawsay that helps the people help themselves: smallholders receive training on good farming practices and learn to enhance their entrepreneurial skills.

Espacio Inclusivo

Together with other stakeholders BASF has created a partnership to provide professional trainings for young adults in the automotive painting sector.

Suvinil Painters Platform

In partnership with Fundação Espaço ECO® BASF provides a unique training course to prepare painters to become distinguished entrepreneurs sensitive to sustainability issues.

Super Grano

Natural sources like fatty fish are hardly affordable or accessible for most Brazilians. Rice is an affordable national diet, so that with SuperGrano – fortified Omega 3 rice – those health topics can be easily tackled.

ReciChain

Through a partnership with the non-profit organization Recicleiros, BASF would help to create waste segregation units in small to medium cities, as well as the training of waste pickers.

Waste-2-Chemicals

With the Waste-2-Chemicals project in Lagos, plastic waste from residents is collected, sorted and subsequently converted into pyrolysis oil.

#Hapi

Smallholder farmers face numerous challenges. #Hapi aims to address these challenges by delivering to Egyptian tomato growers real-time, tailor-made recommendations using mobile technology such as SMS and Interactive Voice Response (IVR).

Container Management Egypt

This project contributes to creating a circular economy based on sound scientific and technical footing for the recycling of empty containers and production of acceptable end-use products that can help create jobs and entrepreneurship opportunities for young men and women in the communities.

Mechanical Recycling PS (Project STAR)

The project aims to leverage on existing manual waste collection infrastructure developed by Wecyclers ( a social entrepreneur) for the establishment of a sustainable value chain for the mechanical recycling of expanded polystyrene (EPS). 

Sikuani Women Planting Dreams

BASF together with the local partners are providing the Sikuani Women training, as well as agrichemicals and tools to increase the production.

Soluprat Empowered Women

The aim of the project is to empowerment women to be entrepreneurship by a collaborative business model of manufacturing home care products, using SOLUPRAT as main business line, allowing them to have an extra income for their families, be more independent and having a protagonist role in Pasca community.

Novasil Flour Fortification

With the help of partners this innovative business approach has various positive effects e.g. on health status, mortality rate and public health.

In Vessel Composting Kenya

Together with our composting partner Terra Safi, BASF East Africa intends to conduct a trial with Terra Safi’s in-vessel composting solutions that has the potential to decentralize industrial composting and increase compost output at community level in Mombasa/Kwale county, taking care of almost 450mt of organic waste that is generated by the Tourism Industry in that county (which also unfortunately has a 40% youth unemployment rate).

Coolants for Sustainable Growth Nigeria

Nigeria’s coolant market by creating consumer awareness regarding usage of good quality coolants thereby driving change in consumer behaviour. We have identified a distributor who will set up and run a coolants blending plant at own cost. BASF will supply coolant concentrate and drive consumer awareness through digital tools & above the line marketing.
On the social front we propose to upgrade the skills of Informal Auto Mechanics through training . We target Minimum of 300 mechanics over a 5 year period. With each mechanic supporting a family of 5 pax , the project will impact 1500 people directly.

Line Messaging App for Farmers 

With the advent of technology for communication, messaging apps has been very popular in most countries over taking mediums such as sms, and same is true in Thailand where almost every household has phone and uses LINE app not only to communicate but also to receive news. This project aims to develop a communication platform whereby business of Agriculrutral Solutions Thailand along with stewardship activities are both communicated to the farmers through the LINE app.

NakornNont Composting Thailand 

Using an organic waste bag made of ecovio, it can support the organic recycling model that the bag with good technical performance can help to make food waste separation and collection including disposal much cleaner, less complicated and more hygienic. Moreover, food waste and organic waste bag itself can process into soiled amendment, like compost under industrial compost condition. With BASF solution, the project can address the municipality need to reduce amount of organic waste to landfill and better manage organic waste with composting solution.

TRI'Cycles (year 2)

TRI’CYCLES project is aiming to create a sustainable & economic system project on plastic waste
recovery in Ivory Coast, taking care of mechanical recycling of expanded polystyrene (EPS). 

The project is moving forward with a locale recycler (Recyplast) for the “industrial process & education in schools with an NGO (MoiJeuTri).

The West Bengal ecovio® Plus Project

The project is designed to establish and showcase the benefits of compostable packaging and bags and to help reinforce the relevant Indian policies.

Low Toxicity Latex

The project will be developed for sulphur-free latex products, useless chemicals and without Amine

 group of accelerators to avoid nitrosamine from accelerator and sulphur. Alternative vulcanization system to be considered to use are Peroxide or radiation for more safety and healthy, and low toxicity latex products such as rubber gloves for medical, baby nipple, food processing and electronics application.

Sustainable Development Goals icons. Which create framework for sustainable business practices at the economic, social and environmental levels