Shanghai, China – March 27, 2012 – BASF, together with nine partners, kicked off the third round of its “1+3” Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) project today, a program designed to improve sustainability performance along the chemical industry value chain.

The launch & CEO Forum featured two panel discussions for open dialogue with stakeholders – including project partners, government, media, academia and NGOs – on how to establish and expand a sustainable, transparent and responsible value chain for related industries.

Initiated on the platform of the China Business Council for Sustainable Development (CBCSD) in 2006, "1+3" means that one CBCSD member company, such as BASF, teams up with three types of business partners along the supply chain – customer, supplier and logistics service provider, mostly small and medium-sized (SME) companies – with the aim of promoting sustainability by sharing best practices in the area of environment, health and safety (EHS) as well as in other CSR areas.

“The ‘1+3’ CSR project is an innovative business model for sustainable supply chain management which can be easily replicated and applied to other industries and organizations in China, and to other countries as well. Since SMEs form the largest percentage of companies in China, the project is pragmatic and has great potential in driving business sustainability in China,” said Mr Zhai Qi, Executive Secretary General, China Business Council for Sustainable Development.

Mr. Johnny Kwan, chairman of BASF Greater China Country Board, said, “In the first two rounds of the ‘1+3’ CSR project, by introducing and implementing our concepts along the value chain, we’ve also helped strengthen relationships between existing customers and partners and bring in additional business opportunities. At the same time, together we demonstrate that this ‘1+3’ model can work for other industries in China: not only can large multinationals like BASF act in a responsible way, but so can SMEs.”

During the past five years, most of BASF’s 18 project partners from the last two rounds have been closely following the project concept and have made great achievements in their EHS as well as production management, especially in the fields of environmental protection, transportation safety and emergency response. These have been implemented through questionnaires, seminars and site visits by BASF expert teams. Each of "3" partner companies from the “1+3” project then introduces the same concept to other partners in its own value chain: A snowball effect thus can be created.

“Not only does BASF implement this concept with our immediate and peripheral partners, but we also have continued to develop sustainable solutions even beyond the chemical industry, aiming at a much larger audience in society, thus illustrating our corporate purpose: we create chemistry for a sustainable future,” said Saori Dubourg, President, BASF Asia Pacific.

For the third round, the nine partners come from across the country, including Shanghai and Chongqing. They are suppliers, logistics providers or customers, with products ranging from polyesters, pigments and preparations, detergent, electronic and special chemicals, to non-diary creamer. By the end of 2011, more than 120 local and international companies in China have participated in the project.

“The ‘1+3’ CSR project has been included twice in Global Compact Yearbook as a best practice to promote supply chain sustainability,” said Ms. Liu Meng, China Representative, United Nations Global Compact. “This June the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development will convene in Rio. Innovative and scalable partnerships such as the ‘1+3’ CSR project are exactly what we are looking for. No doubt, through in-depth engagement and partnerships with stakeholders, multinational companies can go beyond enhancing their own sustainability, and more significantly, they can make a positive contribution to the sustainable development of China and the world. We need more '1+3', and more proactive, inspiring and responsible corporate actions everywhere.”

The project has gained recognition and support from CBCSD, United Nations Global Compact China Network, China WTO Tribune, Beijing New-century Academy on Transnational Corporations, China Chemical Industry News, and the Guanghua Management School of Peking University.