With the formation of a new ‘Net Zero Accelerator’ unit, BASF is now concentrating the full rangeof its cross-company CO2 reduction initiatives into a single organisational grouping.
The aim of the new unit is to implement and drive projects relating to low-CO2 production technologies, circular economy and renewable energies. By pooling expertise around renewable energies, alternative raw materials and CO2 reduction technologies, the company will increase the speed of implementation and achieve scaling effects more quickly, it said.
“With the new project organization, we are continuing to accelerate and create more powerful structures within BASF to achieve our ambitious goals,” said Martin Brudermüller, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF SE.
BASF has committed to reducing its CO2 emissions by 25 percent by 2030 as measured against the 2018 baseline, ultimately to become climate neutral by 2050.
Lars Kissau has been named president of the new unit. He will report directly to the Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors.
Ongoing cross-company projects managed by the new unit include BASF’s activities in the field of the circular economy such as ChemCycling, or CO2-free technologies such as methane pyrolysis. The company has also initiated various project in the renewable energies field of activity, including a contract with Vattenfall to acquire a 49.5 percent stake in the Hollandse Kust Zuid wind farm, yielding a total capacity of 1.5 gigawatts and the negotiation of a 25-year electricity supply contract to purchase 186 megawatts of capacity from Ørsted’s planned Borkum Riffgrund 3 offshore wind farm in the German North Sea.
The new project organisation, based in Ludwigshafen, Germany, will start on 1 January 2022, initially with around 80 employees.