BASF Coatings Expands Sustainability Transparency with New Digital Product Carbon Accounting System

BASF Coatings is adopting the SFM tool to ensure transparent and reliable Product Carbon Footprint calculations for more than 120,000 products.

(IN BRIEF) BASF Coatings has launched a new digital solution that provides transparent, real-time product carbon footprint data across more than 120,000 products worldwide, replacing its previous internal system. By integrating emissions data from over 25,000 raw materials and more than 30 production sites, the platform enables consistent and auditable CO₂ accounting, even for complex product variants, while also delivering insights into additional environmental impact categories beyond carbon. Complemented by tools such as the GLASS life-cycle assessment platform, the initiative supports customers in optimising sustainability across the entire application process and aligns with BASF Coatings’ broader goal to cut its own CO₂ emissions by 40% by 2030.

(PRESS RELEASE) LUDWIGSHAFEN, 22-Jan-2026 — /EuropaWire/ — BASF Coatings has introduced a new digital solution that enables precise calculation of product carbon footprints across its global sales portfolio, covering more than 120,000 products. The new system replaces an internally developed application previously used to provide customers with CO₂ data and establishes a real-time, auditable, and globally consistent basis for emissions accounting. By uniformly calculating greenhouse gas emissions from raw material sourcing and transport through to energy use in production, the solution delivers transparent and traceable carbon data, including for complex, multi-variant products such as paints with extensive colour ranges.

The new platform integrates CO₂ data from more than 25,000 raw materials sourced worldwide and incorporates site-specific energy flows from over 30 BASF Coatings production facilities. This level of detail allows emissions to be captured accurately down to individual product variants and provides customers with a robust factual foundation to support sustainability-related decision-making. Beyond carbon dioxide, the system also captures additional environmental impact categories, offering deeper insights that can be used to develop targeted solutions for improving sustainability performance.

The global rollout of the system has been carried out in stages across all BASF Coatings production sites, in close collaboration with SAP. As part of this transition, BASF Coatings is adopting SAP Sustainability Footprint Management, bringing sustainability data and digitalisation together in a single, reliable framework. The enhanced transparency supports both internal optimisation efforts and customer-facing sustainability initiatives, including the option to reduce the carbon footprint of selected products through alternative raw materials and the use of renewable energy.

Alongside the new product carbon footprint solution, BASF Coatings continues to support customers through additional digital tools such as the GLASS (Global Life Cycle Assessment of Automotive Surface Solutions) tool for automotive manufacturers and the EcoImpact Assessment tool for bodyshops. These applications provide both modular and holistic assessments across the entire coating and painting process, enabling customers to identify opportunities to improve efficiency, quality, and sustainability beyond the product itself. The GLASS tool combines life-cycle analysis, sector-specific expertise, and digital applicability to deliver a level of process insight that remains unique in the market.

The deployment of these digital tools forms part of BASF Coatings’ broader sustainability strategy, under which the company aims to reduce its own CO₂ emissions by 40% by 2030 compared with 2018 levels. Progress toward this target is supported by measures across the value chain, including sustainable sourcing, renewable energy, and the use of renewable and recycled feedstocks, reinforcing BASF Coatings’ long-term commitment to climate protection and sustainable innovation.

More information on sustainability at BASF Coatings: www.basf-coatings.com/Sustainability

About BASF Coatings 

BASF Coatings is a global expert in the development, production and marketing of innovative and sustainable automotive OEM and refinish coatings as well as applied surface treatments for metal, plastic and glass substrates in a wide range of industries. We create advanced performance solutions and drive performance, design and new applications to meet our partners’ needs all over the world. We share skills, knowledge and resources of interdisciplinary and global teams for the benefit of customers by operating a collaborative network of sites in Europe, North America, South America and Asia Pacific. In 2024, our businesses achieved global sales of about €3.8 billion.  

BASF Coatings – Driven by passion and science, we always go beyond the surface. For more information, visit www.basf-coatings.com and follow us on LinkedIn. 

About BASF 

At BASF, we create chemistry for a sustainable future. Our ambition: We want to be the preferred chemical company to enable our customers’ green transformation. We combine economic success with environmental protection and social responsibility. Around 112,000 employees in the BASF Group contribute to the success of our customers in nearly all sectors and almost every country in the world. Our portfolio comprises, as core businesses, the segments Chemicals, Materials, Industrial Solutions, and Nutrition & Care; our standalone businesses are bundled in the segments Surface Technologies and Agricultural Solutions. BASF generated sales of €65.3 billion in 2024. BASF shares are traded on the stock exchange in Frankfurt (BAS) and as American Depositary Receipts (BASFY) in the United States. Further information at www.basf.com.

Media contact:

Jörg Zumkley
Media Relations Global
+49 173 2001896
joerg.zumkley@basf.com

Alexander Heusener
Sustainability Communications
+49 173 3799116
alexander.heusener@basf.com

SOURCE: BASF SE