Sustainability

Reducing Product Carbon Footprints through lower-emission raw materials

For many chemical products, raw materials represent the largest share of the Product Carbon Footprint (PCF). By sourcing selected raw materials with a lower PCF than other conventional alternatives or benchmarks, BASF can offer products with reduced Product Carbon Footprints while maintaining the same quality and performance that customers expect from BASF products.

Important Links

Benefits of low-PCF raw materials

Reduce Product Carbon Footprint
Maintain the same product quality and performance
Enable cost-effective CO2 reduction

What are low-PCF raw materials?
Low-PCF raw materials are selected raw materials from suppliers with a lower PCF than conventional sourcing alternatives or industry benchmarks.

Through a verified attribution approach (Mass Balance), the carbon reduction benefits of these feedstocks are allocated to specific products using these raw materials, enabling BASF to offer products with reduced Product Carbon Footprints.

The chemical composition, product quality and performance remain unchanged. Customers receive the same product while benefiting from a reduced Product Carbon Footprint.

Product availability

Within BASF's reduced-PCF portfolio, low-PCF raw materials are currently used in combination with other carbon-reduction measures such as electricity from renewable resources and low-PCF steam, enabling further reductions in Product Carbon Footprints.

Products manufactured at the Ludwigshafen Verbund site can achieve PCF reductions of approximately 10% to 45%* compared to corresponding conventional products.

*Product carbon footprint (PCF) refers to cradle-to-gate emissions and is calculated according to applicable methodologies. PCF reductions are assessed case-by-case in comparison with the conventional BASF product.

Sustainability solutions by application

Low-PCF raw materials may be part of sustainability offerings for selected products in:

Adhesives
Architectural Coatings
Construction
Fiber Bonding
Paper Coatings

Availability depends on the specific product and manufacturing site.

Discover

Results: 1

A photo of BASF's Ludwigshafen Verbund site along the river in daylight as seen from above.

BASF launches paper coating dispersions with reduced PCF for cost-effective CO₂ reduction

Paper coating binders produced at the Ludwigshafen Verbund site are now available as drop-in solution with approximately 20% to 45% lower Product Carbon Footprints than the corresponding conventional products.

Woman using a laptop displaying a world map with a green download icon overlay. Bright workspace with pens in a holder, evoking a tech-focused atmosphere.

Product Carbon Footprint

With BASF’s product carbon footprint data, customers have full transparency into the greenhouse gas emissions of our portfolio of dispersions and construction additives.