BASF Report 2021 Management’s Report – Our Management Systems 117 We Produce Safely and Efficiently In this section: Protecting people and the environment is our top priority. Our core business – the development, production, EHSQ Management Systems processing and transportation of chemicals – demands a responsible approach. We address environmental, Health and Safety, Emergency Response health and safety risks with a comprehensive Responsible Care Management System. We expect our employees Product Safety and partners to know the risks of working with our products, substances and plants and to handle these Transportation Safety responsibly. Energy and Climate Protection Emissions to Air, Waste and Remediation Water Biodiversity Our Management Systems Responsible Care Management System Quality Management System GRI 102, 103, 303, 305, 306, 307, 403, 410, 418 Our EHS management approach covers the different stages of our Our Quality Management System comprises our EHSQ policy as SUPPLIERS BASF CUSTOMERS value chain – from the transportation of raw materials to production well as further standards, guidelines and processes for quality man- BASF is actively involved in the International Council of at our plants, activities at our sites and warehouses, and distribution age ment along the value chain. Our Quality Management System is ® Chemical Associations’ global Responsible Care initiative. of our products down to our customers’ application of our products. risk-based, process-oriented and focused on customer satisfaction. We reaffirmed our commitment to the guiding principles of The Environmental Protection, Health & Safety unit in the Corporate Its mandatory elements are set out in a Corporate Requirement. ® Global Charter in the initiative and the Responsible Care Center defines Group-wide management and control systems and These include core processes such as nonconformance manage- 2021. Our Responsible Care Management System comprises monitors compliance with internal requirements and legal regula- ment, change management and the performance of internal audits. the global directives, standards and procedures for environ- tions, while the sites and legal entities implement these requirements Local implementation of the requirements is the responsibility of our mental protection, health and safety (EHS). At the same time, locally. Our global network ensures that information and insights business units and sites. our Quality Management System ensures the high quality are shared across the BASF Group on an ongoing basis. Our poli- of our products, processes and services, and enables our cies and requirements are continuously updated. We also maintain employees to best meet our customers’ needs. dialog with government institutions, associations and international Responsible Care audits organizations for this reason. We set ourselves ambitious goals for At a glance environmental protection, health and safety (see page 36) and regu- Regular audits help ensure that our safety, security, health and envi- larly review our performance and progress with audits. We assess ronmental protection standards are met. We conduct regular audits 143 audits €239 million the potential risks and weaknesses of all our activities – from every three to six years at all BASF sites and at companies in which to monitor performance and invested in environmental research and production to logistics – and the potential effects of BASF is a majority shareholder. We take a risk-based approach progress protection plants and facilities these on the safety and security of our employees, the environment and use an audit database to ensure that all sites and plants world- or our surroundings. We use databases to document accidents, wide are regularly audited. We have defined our regulations for ▪ Global EHS guidelines and standards near misses and safety-related incidents at our sites as well as along Responsible Care audits in a global Corporate Requirement. ▪ Quality management with a focus on customer satisfaction our transportation routes to learn from these; appropriate measures are derived according to specific cause analyses. Newly acquired sites and companies are audited after the integra- ▪ Risk-based site audits tion phase is complete, generally within one to two years depending on complexity and size.