(EnergyAsia, March 7 2012, Wednesday) — German chemicals giant BASF has announced that it has established “new ambitious environmental, health and safety goals.”

The company wants to increase its energy efficiency – defined as the amount of sales products in relation to the primary energy demand – worldwide by 35% by 2020, compared to the previous goal of 25%, and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions per ton of sales product by 40%, originally set at 25%.

Within the area of occupational health, BASF will measure its performance with a new, expanded indicator, the “Health Performance Index.”

“Since BASF operates in an energy-intensive industry, our success depends on securing a long-term, competitive supply of energy and raw materials. Therefore, we are constantly working on boosting our worldwide energy efficiency,” said Margret Suckale , a BASF board member.

Last year, the company said it increased the energy efficiency of its production processes by 26% compared to 2002. The use of power plants with power-heat-technologies and other individual projects helped the company exceed its goal of improving its energy efficiency.

“Our new ambitious goal is to improve the energy efficiency of our production processes by 35% by 2020,” said Ulrich von Deessen, president of BASF’s Competence Center Environment, Health and Safety.

For that reason, BASF will continue to optimise processes within its businesses and invest in new plants.

“We also aim to further reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of our production and within the whole value chain,” said Dr von Deessen.

Over the last two years, BASF said it reached its goal of reducing the greenhouse gas emissions per metric ton of sales product by around 35% compared to 2002.

Overall, the company said it has decreased its greenhouse gas emissions from its chemical business by 42% since 1990.

Lower emissions

BASF said it has also succeeded in reducing emissions to air and water compared to 2002. In 2011, its emissions of air pollutants excluding oil and gas production fell by 61% while its emissions of organic substances to water decreased by 74%. Its emissions of nitrogen fell by 87% and heavy metals by 61%.

Within the oil and gas business, the BASF Group company Wintershall aims to discontinue the continuous flaring of associated gas within its routine operations by the end of 2012 at all its production facilities.

A new goal for Wintershall is to improve the energy efficiency of natural gas transportation. By 2020, it aims to reduce carbon emissions related to the amount and distance of transported natural gas by 10% compared with 2010.

This will be accomplished through, for example, a more energy-efficient gas pipeline layout and the more intensive reuse of waste heat in the WINGAS Group’s transportation network.

BASF also set a new environmental goal for the responsible use of water by aiming to use only half the amount of drinking water it uses for production in 2020 compared to 2010. It is also looking to establish sustainable water management systems at production sites affected by water stress. In recent years, BASF said it has played a decisive role in the development of the European Water Stewardship Standard, a voluntary industry standard for the responsible use of water on the continent.

Focus on health and safety

BASF said it will aim to raise health protection with the help of a new “Health Performance Index” comprising five criteria: reported cases of occupational diseases, medical emergency planning, first aid, preventive medicine and health promotion.

To improve occupational and transportation safety, the company wants to reduce the number of accidents by 2020: work-related accidents by 80% (base year: 2002) and transport accidents by 70% (base year: 2003).