BASF and thinkstep will collaborate in the marketing of the Sustainable Solution Steering method developed by BASF for sustainable portfolio management. thinkstep specializes 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 organizations 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 analyzed 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 organizations for portfolio assessment and management. More sustainable solutions can then be established across companies and throughout entire supply chains.

So here’s what the BASF press release said:

“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. For many years now, businesses have been using internationally recognized standards such as life cycle assessment and carbon foot printing to assess single products and processes. However, no generally recognized 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.”