Page 286 - Design for Environment A Guide to Sustainable Product Development

262 Cha pte r T h i r tee n

BASF: Beyond Eco-Efficiency
BASF is the world’s largest chemical company, with annual sales of
approximately $70 billion in 2006. Headquartered in Germany, the
company employs about 95,000 people on five continents. BASF
has placed great emphasis on developing a world-class approach
toward managing environmental sustainability. In 2008, BASF was
the first chemical company to publish a life-cycle carbon balance.
Based on this extensive analysis, BASF claims that the use of its prod-
ucts can save three times more greenhouse gas emissions than the
entire amount caused by the production and disposal of all BASF
products. Examples of products that provide climate protection
include building insulation materials, lightweight automotive plas-
tics, emission-reducing catalysts, nitrification-inhibiting fertilizers,
and biodegradable plastics [7].
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In the area of plastic films, Ecoflex is a line of biodegradable syn-
thetic polymers, sometimes blended with thermoplastic starch, which
decomposes on compost heaps within a few weeks without leaving
any residues behind. Introduced in 1998, Ecoflex has become the
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world’s leading synthetic biodegradable material. In addition, BASF
has developed a biodegradable plastic called Ecovio which is a blend
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of 45% by weight of polylactic acid from corn, a renewable raw mate-
rial, and Ecoflex. These products can be used for consumer applica-
tions, such as disposable packaging and grocery shopping bags.
To support the development of sustainable products, BASF has
developed a rigorous eco-efficiency analysis tool that quantifies the
economic and ecological benefits of a product or process over the com-
plete life cycle. This tool is routinely used by BASF design teams to

FIGURE 13.4 The SEEbalance method developed by BASF.
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