BASF Receives PEP Environmental Stewardship Award

Part of the team at BASF’s McIntosh facility. Photo Credit: BASF

Partners for Environmental Progress (PEP) has awarded a BASF facility a 2022 Environmental Stewardship Award for the production of light stabilizers and work to improve the durability of plastics and coatings for automotive and construction materials applications. The facility honored is located in McIntosh, Alabama.

Through BASF’s site waste minimization program, the McIntosh team continuously evaluates all waste streams to identify opportunities to reduce the quantity and improve sustainability in the disposal. In 2020, the team proposed using the t-butanol (TBOH) waste stream as a comparable fuel for the hazardous waste boiler at the site. Team members from operations, technology, utilities, safety, analytical services and logistics supported the project.

“We are honored to receive a PEP Environmental Stewardship Award,” says Marcus Pezent, site director for the BASF McIntosh facility. “At BASF McIntosh, we commit to being responsible stewards daily for our organization, employees and the community by ensuring environmental safety.”

Throughout 2021, a total of 1.9 million pounds of recovered TBOH was transferred from light stabilizers to utilities as boiler fuel. This eliminated the shipment of 50 tanker truckloads of hazardous waste material for offsite disposal. Using the recovered TBOH as fuel on-site, BASF’s McIntosh facility reduced its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transportation by 35 metric tons of CO₂ (based on the Environmental Defense Fund’s Green Freight Handbook).

The company says climate protection is a key pillar in BASF’s sustainability efforts, and the McIntosh site aims to achieve net zero CO₂ emissions by 2050 and reduce its absolute CO₂ emissions by 25 percent by 2030. To support these goals, the BASF team is continuously identifying projects to improve processes and minimize waste.