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Dr.
Udo Oels:
Product-integrated environmental
protection is an everyday matter for us
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| Dr. Udo Oels, since
1996
member of the Bayer Board
of Management responsible
for Innovation, Technology & Environment |
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In June 2002, in the presence of the Federal German Chancellor,
Gerhard Schröder, the Federation of German Industries
(BDI) awarded Bayer its Environmental Prize for the development
of Baypure®, an environment-friendly dispersion agent
based on polyaspartic acid that combats limescale. Previously,
Bayer’s U.S. subsidiary, Bayer Corporation, was twice
presented with the prestigious Presidential Green Chemistry
Challenge Award set up by the former U.S. President, Bill
Clinton. This Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) award,
also made in recognition of the development of environment-friendly
products, is regarded as the American “environment Oscar.“
Environmental protection concerns
top management
Two things stand out here. Firstly, environmental protection
has evidently become a political matter for top management
in many industrial countries. Secondly, awards are not being
presented for environmental protection facilities and processes,
but for endeavors made by companies to develop products that
have no impact on the environment and, in ideal circumstances,
also protect it from any adverse effects.
Both of these apply to us. At Bayer, environmental protection
is a matter for the top echelons of management. Having said
that, every individual employee is – as stated in our
Guidelines for Responsible Care (Glossary»), Health Protection and Safety
– also committed to act in line with corporate objectives
in this field.
For Bayer, environmental protection has been taken for granted
for many decades. In fact, we have gone a good deal further
than that. We have moved forward from so-called ‘end-of-pipe’
environmental protection to ‘in-process’ environmental
protection, which means that environmental protection is more
or less built into our present-day production facilities through
process optimization, so that pollutant emissions (Glossary») are substantially
reduced or avoided completely. End-of-pipe environmental protection
is becoming increasingly superfluous.
Now, Bayer is pushing on with third-generation environmental
protection – so-called product-integrated environmental
protection – which also covers product-integrated safety.
Our products must not affect, let alone endanger, humans,
animals or the environment during their production and use
or during their disposal. Above all, they must also comply
with the principle of sustainability; in other words they
must be manufactured in a way that ensures maximum conservation
of resources and energy, and also be largely recyclable or
allow problem-free disposal. We are thus one of the pioneers
in this field. Through our Responsible Care and product stewardship
programs we were practicing “integrated product policy“
long before it was first called for by the European Commission.
Guidelines
for Responsible Care in Environmental Protection, Health
Protection and Safety
In 1986, we published our first “Bayer Guidelines
for Responsible Care in Environmental Protection and Safety,“
which are binding for all employees. Following the establishment
of the international Responsible Care initiative by the
chemical industry, Bayer has integrated the principles
of the initiative into its guidelines and regularly adapts
them to new developments. The idea is that all employees
should act in line with corporate environmental protection
and safety objectives, adopt them in their personal areas
of work, and implement innovative solutions to ensure
constant improvements in health protection, safety and
environmental protection. |
Proud of U.S. Responsible
Care award
The fact that we are one of the leading companies in the world
in matters of Responsible Care is also documented by a prize
that makes us particularly proud: The American Chemistry Council
(ACC) has presented our subsidiary Bayer Corporation with
the Responsible Care Leadership Award – which is the
most important recognition in the United States for outstanding
achievements in the field of environmental protection and
safety that a chemical company can receive.
The level of acceptance of our efforts was also illustrated
by a recent survey in Germany in which more than 2,000 of
those questioned named Bayer as the second most environment-friendly
company among major enterprizes.
For us, such recognition is an encouragement not to let up
in our endeavors to constantly develop and further enhance
our performance in the fields of environmental protection,
health and safety.
Another important objective is the further reduction of our
environmental impact through eco-efficient products and manufacturing
technologies. Among our approaches in this regard has been
the introduction of the Eco-Check, a tool by means of which
we can examine important products with respect to ecology (Glossary»)
and sustainability. We are also constantly optimizing our
use of finite resources and improving eco-efficiency (Glossary»). As a
result, we have already today achieved the officially specified
targets for 2010 and have even exceeded them in some areas.
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