Improving product sustainability: tesa and BASF join forces for certified renewable raw materials

Dec 7, 2023

• Joint innovation with BASF replacing fossil-derived monomers with biomass balanced (BMB) acrylic monomers
• Serving tesa’s ambitious sustainability goals: BMB enables product sustainability by reducing the CO₂ footprint without compromising on quality or performance
• First more sustainable products with BMB will be launched in early 2024

 

Norderstedt, 07.12.2023 - tesa, the international manufacturer of innovative adhesive tapes and self-adhesive product solutions, partners with key supplier BASF to use emission-saving Biomass Balanced (BMB) acrylic monomers. This shared success enables tesa to increase product sustainability and reduce emissions. BMB acrylic monomers from BASF come with a 100% substitution of fossil with renewable raw materials, such as bio-naphtha or bio-methane, in the value chain. As a result, switching to BMB acrylic monomers enables tesa to reduce the CO₂ footprint of its products, without compromising on quality or performance.

Underscoring commitment to sustainability

Sustainability is part of tesa's corporate strategy. The company pursues a science-based approach, with more than 600 scientists, engineers and product developers striving to establish innovative and more sustainable products and processes worldwide. With its latest collaboration for sustainability with long-term partner BASF, tesa is making important progress toward its ambitious action areas: Reducing emissions and using more BMB materials.

“We have made sustainability a priority for tesa and are bringing even more creativity in our search for solutions that reduce our carbon footprint,” says Dr. Stefan Röber, Chief Sustainability Officer at tesa. “This success with one of our key suppliers is an exciting step forward for our sustainability agenda. By innovating together, we can maximize our positive progress – and continue our company’s longstanding commitment to improving our products in a more sustainable way.”

“This innovation partnership marks a proud moment in our efforts to enable products with a low carbon footprint,” says Dr. Reiner Geier, Senior Vice President Industrial Petrochemicals Europe at BASF. “Expert teams at BASF and tesa share a passion for science-based sustainability. This flexible biomass balanced project is a strong example of how companies can collaborate along the value chain to achieve measurable reductions in CO₂ emissions, while maintaining the same levels of performance and quality that customers expect from leading brands.”

Switching to BMB acrylic monomers is now enabling tesa to introduce new and more sustainable tapes with lower carbon footprint because the fossil-based raw materials in the value chain are replaced by certified renewable biomass feedstock. However, all products still have the same chemical composition and deliver the same trusted levels of quality, performance, and versatility.

The tesa plant in Hamburg is one of the plants that will produce tesa products with BMB acrylic monomers in the future to expand the use of these more sustainable raw materials. tesa plant Hamburg was awarded the ISCC PLUS certificate¹ in July 2023. The company also aims to win ISCC PLUS certification for additional sites around the world in the coming months. In this way, tesa aims to keep driving progress toward its sustainability strategy – and to continue its long tradition of improving products in a more sustainable way for more than 125 years.

 

¹ This certificate is presented by International Sustainability & Carbon Certification (ISCC), a leading certification organization that supports sustainable supply chains. The voluntary ISCC PLUS certification scheme covers the bioeconomy and circular economy across industries globally and is widely recognized by governments and industry associations.