BASF SE
BASF SE | |
---|---|
Industry | Pharmaceuticals and Chemicals |
Founded | 1865 |
Headquarters | Ludwigshafen, Germany |
Area Served | Worldwide |
Founder | Friedrich Engelhorn |
CEO and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors | valign="bottom" Kurt Bock |
Chairman | Jürgen Hambrecht |
Products | Chemicals |
Market Value | 102.105,5 m$ |
Employees | 113,262 |
Website | www.basf.com |
Contents
About BASF
BASF is one of the world’s leading chemical companies which operates in a variety of markets. The company comprises five business segments: Chemicals, Performance Products, Functional Materials and Solutions, Agricultural Solutions and Oil & Gas. BASF focuses on innovation and research in order to meet current and future customers’ demand in almost every industry.
Engagement in Cultural Diplomacy
BASF participates in several projects designed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and supports development cooperation projects around the world with a special focus on the areas of education and empowerment, disaster relief and health and nutrition. As one of the signatories of the UN Global Compact, BASF ensures the implementation of the 10 principles.
Sustainability is one of the focal points of BASF, therefore the company tries to combine economic success with environmental and social responsibility. The entire BASF Group is committed to respect the goals of the chemical industry voluntary Responsible Care initiative. The Competence Center Environment, Health and Safety is in charge of defining and ensuring the implementation of concrete goals for the key areas of Responsible Care. Among other achievements, BASF has been successful in the area of environmental protection by focusing on safe production process, reducing greenhouse emissions and using energy efficiently, reducing emissions to water and improving water quality and other similar actions.
Employment Policy
BASF has conducted several diversity projects and initiatives with the purpose of promoting diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Employees contribute to an open company culture by acting as ambassadors of diversity within the company. In some of its subsidiaries, such as in BASF S.A. BRAZIL, the company has implemented advisory councils for diversity in order to foster the diversity of its advisory board and management positions. In addition, the company has been developing the Senior Project “Diversity+Inclusion” from 2008 with the goal to recruit and support employees around the world. Furthermore, as stated on their 2013 Annual Report the company has set several goals in the area of diversity, one of the most relevant in this field is “to raise the percentage of senior executives with international experience from over 70% to over 80%”. BASF is also committed to providing equal opportunities and treatment of all the employees. In 2011, BASF signed a voluntary commitment in a joint initiative with other 30 companies to raise the percentage of women within the company. In Germany, BASF aims to raise the percentage of women in executive positions from 9.8% to 15% by the end of 2020. The percentage rose to 13% in 2013. In the BASF Group, the percentage of women in executive positions in 2013 was 18.5%. Bayer has a global careers portal on the website, allowing potential employees to conduct a global job search. According to its corporate website, BASF has subsidiaries in more than eighty countries and supplies products to a large number of business partners in nearly every part of the world. Furthermore, BASF operates in more than 380 production sites worldwide
Education
International Internship Programs
BASF designed the “Explore Together” program which provides international internship opportunities in company’s subsidiaries worldwide for the period of three to six months. The program is addressed to science, engineering and economics students.
Grants and Scholarships
BASF supports the the “Deutschlandstipendium”, Germany’s national scholarship program. This way the company invests in the future by systematically fostering young talented and highly motivated students from the beginning. 200 awarded scholarships make BASF one of the program’s leading sponsors.
Notable Activities
Activities in the Field of Humanitarian Aid
BASF Stiftung is a charitable foundation based in Ludwigshafen through which BASF contributes to global development cooperation projects. The foundation’s main work areas are education and empowerment, housing, health and nutrition, disaster relief and disaster risk reduction and last but not least water and sanitation. In addition, BASF Stiftung maintains strong and extensive network with UN partners which allows it to go beyond just donations. Some distinguished projects are “The training Young Entrepreneurs Program” in Uganda and Kenya or “the Rural school water supply and training” in partnership with the UN HABITAT program which took place in India.
Supporting Music & Visual Arts
The corporation has acted also as an initiator and patron of top-class culture projects, with the aim of ensuring the distinctive profile of the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region cultural activities. Since the 1920’s BASF has been presenting and sponsoring internationally renowned artists and promising young musical talents. Comprising some sixty events per year in the areas of classical, jazz and rock/pop, the BASF concert program is very diverse in relation with the variety of musical genres and artists that supports. Some examples are the “Enjoy Jazz Festival”, the “School of Rock project” or the “Big Four Concert”. This extensive activity is particularly centered around the corporation’s home town of Ludwigshafen. Moreover, BASF has sponsored some photography events and festivals; the most prominent one being the “Fotofestival Mannheim Heidelberg Ludwigshafen”. It has also financially supported some film festivals such as “the Festival des deutschen Films” .
Supporting Sports
BASF has teamed up with the American baseball club Seattle Mariners to create the second season of Sustainable Saturdays at Safeco Field, which aims to promote the waste-reduction and recycling.
Promoting Human and Civil Rights
As it is stated in the “Group position on Human Rights”, BASF supports the main internationally recognized standards in the field of Human Rights such as: the UN Global Compact, the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) eight core labor standards or the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. Particularly, BASF shows an important commitment and involvement in the follow-up and enforcement of the 10 principles of the UN Global Compact through the outline of an implementation plan that can be found on its website. In addition to this, BASF is also promoting other UN initiatives in the areas of Human Rights and Corporate Citizenship, mainly the Global Compact Blueprint for Corporate Sustainability Leadership and the UN Global Compact LEAD.