BASF, the world's leading chemical company, is advancing value-chain driven initiatives to increase sustainability throughout industry. At the recent LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) Sustainable Supply Chain Summit held in Chicago (April 28-29, 2010), Charlene Wall, Manager of Sustainability Communications in North America for BASF, contributed to a panel discussion on How Multi-Nationals Are Allocating Resources For Life Cycle Analysis & Emission Reduction Initiatives In The Supply Chain.

During the discussion, Charlene described how BASF facilitates sustainable development through working relationships at the company's global and regional executive level sustainability councils and the implementation level project teams within the organization. Together they work to identify and create chemistry to address society's most important sustainability challenges. She offered a closer look at how BASF utilizes its extensive life-cycle expertise to optimize the relationships between environmental, economic and social impacts of technologies -- providing a holistic view while also honing in on key issues.

The recent gathering of sustainability professionals provided the opportunity to drive forward industry best practices on environmental and social impact assessment techniques. Attendees at the LCA Sustainable Supply Chain Summit committed to sharing their experiences on developing better sustainability strategies, including using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. Along with BASF, HP, GE, Sony, Kraft Foods, Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline, Maersk and Motorola are just some of the major corporations backing this initiative.

"At BASF, we seek to more actively engage in value-chain driven sustainability initiatives, such as our joining of the Sustainability Consortium, which align perfectly with the objective of this conference," said Wall. "Our extensive life-cycle expertise, which is a key element of our Sustainability Eco-efficiency Traceability (SET) programs, should play a key role in building new sustainability measurement and reporting standards ensuring consumers are offered products that are truly better environmentally, economically and socially."

In keeping with its long-standing strategic commitment to sustainable development and a central part to the company's SET programs, BASF developed its Eco-Efficiency Analysis in 1996. This life-cycle approach to quantifying the sustainability of products, processes or whole system solutions accounts for both economic and environmental impact.

Using a similar methodology, in 2008, BASF conducted a lifecycle analysis of its array of products to assess related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and savings -- from sourcing of raw materials to manufacture to product disposal. This pioneering carbon footprint study concluded that the net reduction of GHG emissions resulting from the use of BASF’s products outweighed the emissions related to their production and disposal by a factor of 3:1.

Most recently, in 2010, BASF became a founding member of the Sustainability Consortium, an independent group of science-based companies working collaboratively to develop a global database of information on the lifecycle of products.

The LCA Sustainable Supply Chain Summit was the 7th event in American Business Conferences International Carbon Footprinting Series. The Summits have been hugely successful on both sides of the Atlantic with more than 900 delegates attending from major brands and international retailers. Details of the full agenda and copies of the Presentation CD are now available to purchase at www.lca-sustainable-supply-chain-usa.com. The next event in the series is taking place in London in May 25 - 26. For more information go to www.lca-sustainable-supply-chain-europe.com.

BASF - The Chemical Company.

BASF Corporation, headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey, is the North American affiliate of BASF SE, Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF has approximately 16,000 employees in North America, and had sales of $13 billion in 2009. For more information about BASF's North American operations, or to sign up to receive news releases by e-mail, visit www.basf.com/usa.

BASF is the world's leading chemical company: The Chemical Company. Its portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics and performance products to agricultural products, fine chemicals and oil and gas. As a reliable partner, BASF creates chemistry to help its customers in virtually all industries to be more successful. With its high-value products and intelligent solutions, BASF plays an important role in finding answers to global challenges, such as climate protection, energy efficiency, nutrition and mobility. BASF posted sales of more than €50 billion in 2009 and had approximately 105,000 employees as of the end of the year. Further information on BASF is available on the Internet at www.basf.com.

BASF Corporation

BASF Corporation

BASF is the world's leading chemical company: The Chemical Company. Its portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics and performance products to agricultural products, fine chemicals and oil and gas. As a reliable partner, BASF creates chemistry to help its customers in virtually all industries to be more successful. With its high-value products and intelligent solutions, BASF plays an important role in finding answers to global challenges, such as climate protection, energy efficiency, nutrition and mobility. BASF posted sales of more than €50 billion in 2009 and had approximately 105,000 employees as of the end of the year. Further information on BASF is available on the Internet at www.basf.com.

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