These days, the market and society pose challenges to the properties of products that go well beyond traditional quality definitions. With the aid of the Eco-Check Bayer aims to meet all the criteria involved to ensure that its products have all-round quality.

To be absolutely certain that our products meet the expectations of our customers and the requirements of society and the environment, we have introduced a new assessment system throughout the Group, with the aid of which we intend to closely scrutinize our existing main product groups and above all every future innovation. We ask ourselves whether our products have unacceptable weaknesses, whether they will meet the all-round challenges of future markets and whether they are a significant improvement on established products. At the same time we consider where there might be potential openings for developing new, more efficient, safer and more environmentally compatible products that comply even more closely with the requirements of sustainable development.

The Eco-Check is an effective product assessment instrument with which we can answer these questions. What is new about it compared with long-established Bayer procedures for evaluating products and processes is the addition of the aspect "Public Value," by way of which we explicitly investigate whether our products are capable of benefiting as many people as possible and improving their quality of life without wasting resources or seriously impacting the environment. Here, we react to signals from society and balance our idea of sustainability against that of society. In this way we can achieve an across-the-board evaluation of a product's quality.
 

Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award

Bayer Corporation

Five-step scale for product evaluation
Each product is analyzed and assessed in six areas (see: The six quality criteria). For the area "Environment," for example, the parameters tested are acute and chronic ecotoxicity, possible bioaccumulation, biodegradability and the paths via which the product can enter the environment. For every area, the result of the test is categorized according to a five-step scale: from "very favorable" (green) to "very unfavorable" (red). This results in the "current status" of the product. In addition, recommendations for improvement can be submitted for every area. This is a considerable advantage because it enables us to optimize the product across-the-board in terms of sustainable development. Alternatively, we may find that a product no longer meets our standards and must therefore be withdrawn from our development portfolio if it cannot be improved or further developed.

We present the results of our Eco-Check in a graphic form. If a product were to achieve the maximum possible quality in all six areas, the assessment figure would remain completely in the green zone of the Bayer Excellence Diamond. The Bayer Excellence Diamond is, to a certain extent, the seal of quality that confirms the excellence of a product in every respect - and thus also its excellence compared with its competitors.

The Bayer Eco-Check is thus an instrument for quality-based portfolio control on the basis of sustainable corporate development. Since its introduction in 2000, we have been applying it consistently to the major products and in particular the newer developments, concentrating above all on active ingredients from the fields of health care and agriculture, materials from our Polymers segment, products for chemical specialties and consumer products.

Two "Environment Oscars" won in a row
The Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award is awarded every year in various categories by the President of the United States and is regarded there as the "Environment Oscar." It is awarded for outstanding technical developments that embody the principle of sustainable chemistry. Bayer received an award in 2001 for the second time in succession. In 2000, the U.S. subsidiary Bayer Corporation, together with Bayer AG, was honored for the development of industrial coating systems based on water instead of chemical solvents. The use of water considerably reduces the emission of volatile substances.

Coating metal and plastics in one go
Around 55 million new cars currently come off the production line every year throughout the world. They are coated with about 800,000 tons of paint. A large proportion of this is produced with Bayer coating raw materials as its basis. Formerly, the metal body and the plastic add-on parts had to be coated separately because the necessary temperatures of 140 - 160 °C are too high for many plastics. Working together with coating manufacturers and partners in the automotive industry, we are developing a completely new coating process using waterborne instead of solventborne two-component polyurethane coatings. These crosslink at temperatures as low as 90 °C, which means that the metal parts can be coated together with the plastic components. This new inline coating process is an example of a sustainable product, which shortens the coating times, reduces the emission of environmentally harmful substances by up to 90 percent and considerably simplifies the production processes. To put it in a nutshell, it is a development that allows clean production.

Inspired by nature: Like clams, Baypure® CX prevents scale from forming.

Baypure® combats scale
The award in 2001 was made for the research and development of Baypure® CX (iminodisuccinate, IDS), a complexing agent with excellent biodegradability. The Baypure® CX complexing agent renders metal ions that decompose chemical formulations harmless. Such decomposition processes become manifest, for example, when creams become rancid or paper and cotton lose their customary whiteness. In technical applications, the innovative Bayer complexing agent unfolds its properties in detergents and cleaners, in textile and paper production and in the photographic industry and agriculture. In many industrial and household applications the complexing agent enters the environment with the wastewater and therefore has to meet strict requirements regarding ecotoxicity and biodegradability. In addition, the manufacture of the product does not generate any waste requiring disposal.

Both Baypure® CX and waterborne coating systems comply with the demands we make of ideal products.

• Health - in other words, the safety of the product for the consumer, processor, customer and employee;
• Environment - an examination of the product's environmental compatibility;
• Life Cycle - a consideration of all possible consequences and effects in general, once the product has left our company (eco-balance);
• Technology - in the production facilities at all the company's sites;
• Public Value - a look at the acceptance of the product in the overall corporate environment and its value for society;
• Economy - i.e. the economic opportunities and risks.

The diamond form makes it possible to identify the pros and cons of a product at a glance.