Our mission and motivation is to grow profitably and make a positive contribution to society and the environment. For example, BASF's solutions help to protect the climate, avoid or recycle waste, use resources more efficiently, produce healthy and affordable food, and enable climate-smart mobility.

BASF, or Badische Anilin-und Soda-Fabrik, uses the tagline: “At BASF, we don't make a lot of the products you buy. We make a lot of the products you buy better.” We feel like them.

We plan to invest €28.8 billion worldwide between now and 2027 to expand our capacities based on market demand and to further increase the availability, efficiency and flexibility of our plants. In particular, we want to benefit from the strong growth of the chemical market in Asia (see “Portfolio”).

These include products that make positive contributions to areas such as health and safety, reducing emissions and the circular economy. Our target of generating €22 billion in Accelerator sales by 2025, which was based on our corporate strategy, was already achieved in 2021 with sales of €24.1 billion.

Sustainability is at the core of what we do and a driver for growth and value. Analyzing our contributions to sustainability also enables us to manage risks effectively. We pursue a holistic sustainability approach that covers the entire value chain – from our suppliers and our own activities to our customers.

The BASF brand and our corporate strategy “Connected” describes the essence of the BASF brand. Connectedness is one of BASF's great strengths. Our Verbund concept – realized in production, technologies, knowledge, employees, customers and partners – enables innovative solutions for a sustainable future.

Our activities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions include using renewable energies for both electricity and steam production, developing and applying new low-carbon production processes, using renewable raw materials, and ongoing measures to further increase energy and resource efficiency in our production.

A future growth plan is simply a blueprint for how companies plan to hit their targets over a certain period of time. Most growth plans cover a relatively short time - usually one or two years - but some businesses create plans that extend well beyond that.

We are focusing here on issues that we as a company can influence – especially SDG 2 (Zero hunger), SDG 5 (Gender equality), SDG 6 (Clean water and sanitation), SDG 7 (Affordable and clean energy), SDG 8 (Decent work and economic growth), SDG 12 (Responsible consumption and production) and SDG 13 (Climate action).

Our goal is to introduce sustainable water management at our Verbund sites and at all production sites in water stress areas by 2030, covering 89% of BASF's total water abstraction. We achieved 61.6% of our target in 2022 (2021: 53.5%).

A sustainability or corporate responsibility strategy is a prioritised set of actions. It provides an agreed framework to focus investment and drive performance, as well as engage internal and external stakeholders. The starting point for any strategy needs to be why the company is in business.

You can plan for the future by setting smaller, easily achievable goals that directly and immediately impact your current life and keep doing so until you ultimately accomplish the larger goals. You can also set larger goals that may take years to accomplish and actively work toward them a little each day.