Leading chemicals producer BASF and technology company, thinkstep are collaborating in marketing the Sustainable Solution Steering method developed by BASF for sustainable portfolio management. The Germany-headquartered companies signed a licensing agreement that extends their existing alliance.

Thinkstep, formerly PE International, specialises in the development and marketing of sustainability software and has many years of experience as a sustainability assessment consultant.

The aim of the licensing is to support BASF customers and other organisations in assessing and steering their product portfolio in line with sustainability criteria. The Sustainable Solution Steering method will be integrated in the thinkstep.one sustainability platform for that purpose.

Using the externally validated method, BASF analysed approximately 60,000 product applications over a period of three years, classified them into various categories according to their relevance to sustainability and assessed them on that basis. In this way the company aims to increase the percentage of solutions in its portfolio with significant contribution to sustainability in the value chains.

Through the alliance with thinkstep, the method is made available to other organisations for portfolio assessment and management. More sustainable solutions can then be established across companies and throughout entire supply chains.

To develop sustainable products and solutions, businesses need to know the specific contribution of individual applications to sustainable development. Only then can effective measures be taken to continuously improve that contribution according to economic,environmental and social criteria.

According to the companies, businesses have been using internationally recognised standards such as life cycle assessment and carbon foot printing to assess single products and processes. However, no generally recognised industrial standard exists for the measurement and systematic management of the sustainability contribution of an entire product portfolio. International chemical companies – including BASF – have therefore started to develop their own methods to assess their portfolios according to sustainability criteria.