BASF’s Performance Materials division has introduced its strategic roadmap toward achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.
The manufacturer of plastic precursors says it wants to be at the ‘forefront of the much-needed sustainability transformation in plastics’.
BASF has set targets to reduce carbon emissions by 25% by 2030 compared to 2018 (scope 1 and 2) and by 15% compared to 2022 for scope 3.1, with the goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. The company’s fundamental strategy in that direction is to increase the use of renewable electricity. In 2023, over a third of its Performance Materials sites worldwide ran on renewables. Martin Jung, President at BASF Performance Materials said the division is making ‘relentless efforts’ so switch all sites to green energy by 2025.
"We want to enable our customers’ transformation by offering a portfolio with lower carbon footprint and diverse circular solutions,” Jung said. “We work through the entire lifecycle of plastics to make them more sustainable: from how to produce plastics more resource-efficiently, to how to improve their use, to how to give them a new life. With our roadmap, we are laying an important foundation to make this transformation go faster,” he added.
The roadmap also includes a pledge to reaching at least 20% of circular economy sales by 2030 with mass balanced products containing at least 20% circular feedstock.
BASF revealed that most of its Performance Materials sites are certified in either or both ISCC Plus and REDCert schemes and additional sites will be certified in all regions by the end of 2024.
“Today, a majority of our product portfolio is already available based on renewable feedstocks and with significantly lower or even net-zero product carbon footprints,” said Matthias Scheibitz, head of sustainability, BASF Performance Materials. “We want to support customers as early as possible on the journey to meet their sustainability targets and offer diverse circularity options.”
BASF’s recent circular product launches includes biomass-balanced and chemically recycled materials.