An ecological efficiency methodology developed by BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) is a powerful tool for assessing the sustainability of chemical processes and operations. The company’s Eco-Efficiency analysis is a holistic method to life-cycle assessment that has been validated externally, says Peter Saling, a leader of BASF’s Sustainability Center.
Saling discussed the method as part of his talk during the International Congress on Sustainability Science and Engineering (ICOSSE) session on the first full day of Achema 2012. The method is an effort to incorporate a wide range of criteria into an eco-efficiency “score” that helps in strategic decision-making, stakeholder dialogue and R&D decisions. The criteria include energy consumption, overall risk, emissions, toxicity potential, land use and social impact.
Relying on general principles of sustainability, such as “use renewable materials as much as possible,” for example, is often misleading, explains Saling. Decisions on whether or not to make a change must be treated on a case-by-case basis with the method to determine whether they are an overall benefit to sustainability efforts.
BASF has established a global network of sustainability groups – in the U.S., South America and Europe – both for its own operations, as well as for suppliers and customers, said Saling.
Following Saling’s talk at the session was one by Henrik Wenzel, professor at the University of Southern Denmark, who talked about the environmental aspects of sustainability. Part of his research involves trying to assess how primary energy demand translates to biomass feedstock demand and land-use demand in a fully renewable energy future.
Scott Berger, executive director of the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS; New York, N.Y.; www.aiche.org/ccps), discussed the fundamental role played by process safety in the sustainability “puzzle.” He made the point that process safety is not necessarily correlated with personnel safety.
Also at the session, AIChE’s Darlene Schuster delivered a presentation on behalf of Andrew Speck, of Marks and Spencer. Speck’s presentation had to do with tools for assessing the optimal approach in food packaging designs.
The ICOSSE is a joint initiative between the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and Dechema e.V. to develop standards for sustainability in engineering.