/PRNewswire/ - Demonstrating how products can optimize society's sustainable footprint, Cristian Barcan, on behalf of BASF Corporation, will discuss the company's scientific life-cycle approach at the Sustainable Brands Conference in Monterey Bay, Calif. Barcan's presentation "Creating and Marketing Sustainable Consumer Goods" will take place on Wednesday, June 8th, from 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.

"Consumer goods manufacturers need to focus on improving the sustainability of their supply chains," said Cristian Barcan, Global Project Manager, Sustainability, Eco-Efficiency and Traceability (S.E.T.) Initiative. "Identifying main drivers for sustainability is critical. This includes quantitative assessment using a life-cycle approach, and taking all relevant criteria into consideration such as energy, emissions, and resources. BASF's Sustainability, Eco-Efficiency and Traceability (S.E.T.) Initiative provides the tools and expertise to accomplish these goals."

All nutrition industries along the value chain - from feed ingredients suppliers to livestock producers to meat, milk and egg distributors and food producers can optimize their sustainability with S.E.T. offering start-to-finish sustainability analysis and quantification. While improving the eco-efficiency (environmental impacts vs. costs), the nutrition industry can optimize the value chain, improve profitability and at the same time produce more sustainable food. Sustainable feeding that saves resources and is environmentally friendly is very relevant for the sustainability performance of food.

S.E.T. includes an additional Internet-based traceability platform for raw materials and ingredients used by participating business partners of BASF in the supply chain. The use of GS1® Standards, especially barcodes, has been an integral part of the BASF S.E.T. initiative from its beginning.

"By using GS1 barcodes on their products, companies are able to gain access to sustainability information across their entire value chains for greater visibility," Barcan explains. "With GS1 Standards in place, companies can not only trace each product, but they can also track sustainability improvements at various levels of the supply chain. This whole-chain traceability is essential for measuring accurate sustainability gains."

For balanced sustainability practices, BASF quickly realized the need for traceability across its entire value chain - tracing BASF products from its production sites to manufacturers, and ultimately, to retailers. This creates consumers' trust and allows better nutrition today and in the future.

Visitors to the BASF booth #26 will see BASF's sustainable development portfolio, including Eco-Efficiency Analysis information. For more information, visit www.set-initiative.basf.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 16,400 employees in North America, and had sales of $17.7 billion in 2010. For more information about BASF's North American operations, visit www.basf.us.

BASF is the world's leading chemical company: The Chemical Company. Its portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics, performance products, and agricultural products to 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 euro 63.9 billion in 2010 and had approximately 109,000 employees as of the end of the year. Further information on BASF is available on the Internet at www.basf.us or in the Social Media Newsroom at newsroom.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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