Sustainability

Our Sustainability Approach

Nunhems India integrates sustainability into its core business strategy, focusing on balancing economic growth, environmental stewardship, and social responsibility. The organization aligns its initiatives with BASF’s sustainability framework and contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Through responsible sourcing, community engagement, and environmental programs, Nunhems India aims to create long-term value for stakeholders while addressing critical societal and environmental challenges.

Nunhems India’s sustainability efforts are guided by:

Compliance and governance

Carbon and environmental responsibility

Sustainable portfolio development

Societal engagement

Currently, the Nunhems India organization focuses strongly on:

Compliance

Societal engagement

Compliance and Responsible Sourcing

Nunhems India is committed to upholding human rights across its operations and supply chain, in alignment with BASF’s Supplier Code of Conduct and the principles of the United Nations Global Compact. A strict zero-tolerance policy on child lab or is enforced, requiring all suppliers to adhere fully to these standards.

To ensure compliance, Nunhems India applies a risk-based assessment approach, conducting targeted sustainability evaluations, particularly in high-risk areas. The company also supports the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which guide its sustainable business practices across economic, social, and environmental dimensions.

Responsible Sourcing Program

Nunhems India has established a structured Responsible Sourcing Program to ensure supplier adherence to BASF’s Human Rights Policies and Procedures.

The program focuses on:

Communicating policies clearly to suppliers in local languages
Ensuring compliance with applicable labour laws and regulations
Conducting regular internal monitoring and audits

The program enables effective oversight of supplier practices, supporting:

Early identification and mitigation of ethical and compliance risks
Continuous improvement through feedback mechanisms
Strengthening of long-term supplier partnerships
ESG considerations are systematically integrated into supplier evaluations, reinforcing Nunhems India’s commitment to sustainable and responsible sourcing.

External Compliance and Verification:

To enhance transparency and accountability, Nunhems India implements an independent external audit framework.

This verification process

Confirms alignment with responsible sourcing standards
Strengthens governance and compliance systems
Enhances credibility with stakeholders

Through these measures, Nunhems India ensures its supply chain operates in accordance with ethical, legal, and sustainability standards.

Projects

1. Wage Improvement in Seeds Hybrids (WISH)

Initiated in 2022, WISH focused on addressing minimum wage compliance issues and child labour issues in India’s vegetable seed sector. The project was able to contribute to the on raising awareness, training and building capacity, stakeholder engagement, networking and scaling up best practices and advocacy on a local and international level.

This project consisted of two phases. After the completion of the 1st phase, which was focused on gap analysis, the Second phase focused on delivering the key target areas related to creation of road map for achieving minimum wage compliance. A total of 28 Total villages were covered in the state of Karnataka and Maharashtra under the project.

Societal Engagement: Social Engagement activities are integrally part of the Sustainability Strategy Pillar whereby we strive to “be recognized as a sustainable company through our values, processes, partnerships and solutions”. The Social Engagement activities of BASF’s Vegetable Seeds Business also contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, to which BASF has committed itself (Sustainability) , and they enhance the corporate brand reputation. As a result, the Social Engagement activities strengthen the credibility of the company.

The Social Engagement activities focus on sites where Nunhems India is active to create more visibility and create linkage with the local communities where we operate and reflect our commitment to sustainability.

2. Income Generation Program:

In the seed production belts of Karnataka, agriculture is not just an economic activity—it is the backbone of livelihoods. Yet this dependence on seasonal work creates structural risks: unstable incomes, limited opportunities for adolescent girls, and increased vulnerability to underage or unsafe labour practices during peak agricultural seasons.

Nunhems, through its Global Societal Engagement Fund, partnered with Mythri Sarva Seva Samithi (MSSS), an NGO to launch an Income Generation Program focused on garment making for adolescent girls in Koppal District, Karnataka.

Project Impact

417 adolescent girls trained across 37 villages

358 girls actively earning, sustaining a 90.17% continuation rate

Income growth of 50–100% compared to pre‑training levels

Monthly earnings ranging from ₹6,000 to ₹18,000 and reliable year-round livelihood

3. Environmental program for reducing plastic waste – Karnataka

Nunhems, through its Global Societal Engagement Fund, has partnered with Sarvodaya IRDS to introduce a professional plastic waste management approach and improving soil health in collaboration with seed suppliers.

The primary objective is reducing the environmental impact of waste plastic through collection from the farms and transferring it to a central storage space and eventually transfer for recycling of the plastic waste and the secondary objective is to undertake analysis of the nutrient deficiency in the soil and optimize the nutrient requirement to the Soil. The project focuses on imparting training of the seed farmers on the importance of soil health.

Project Impact

Pre awareness training organized for 172 seed growers and mapping of the road map for the collection of plastic waste through collective efforts

Distribution of bags to individual farmers for collection of plastic waste.

A total collection of 19,377 kgs of plastic mulch were removed from 372 farms covering 64 villages.

500 farmers farms screened for soil health

4. Child Labs| Karnataka State 2025

Currently government schools in the rural areas are not equipped to impart science education due to lack of practical application methods. Previous experience demonstrates that science labs lead to the increase of the dimension to the type of learning and improve children’s practical skills drastically. The project aims to provide quality teaching aids to improve teaching pedagogy for students from less privileged sections of society. The project objective was to install Mini Science Center in a dedicated room that contained 80 plug-and-play models, 36 colorful backdrops, 80 user manuals with the support of a resource agency Stem Learning Pvt Ltd. The project involved bench line assessment, midline and end line assessment for enhancing the teacher's capacity.

Project Impact:

Nunhems India was able establish 11 Mini child labs in the state of Karnataka with the participation of the government school administration and the school administration has deployed its resources for creating the necessary infrastructure required for the project to succeed.
Able to impact 1850+ children and train 50+ teachers
Based on the impact assessment done in 2024, 90% of the children have felt that learning has become more interactive after the child labs

Nunhems India’s initiatives contribute to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

CSR projects India

For us, sustainability is about striking the right balance between economic, environmental, and social needs and ensuring the best available solution to ensure a sustainable future.

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