Environmental protection and conservation of resources

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We are constantly further developing our business processes so that they fulfil the ecological, economic and social needs of society even better. K+S is conscious of the responsibility involved in using natural resources.

State-of-the-art research in our own institute

Our commercial success is also closely related to the efficient use of all substances and materials available to us in the value chain. What successful development has always meant to us in the context of potash and rock salt mining is the integrated pursuit and coordination of the goals of economic efficiency and environmental friendliness We use state-of-the-art technology to minimise the inevitable interventions in nature.

We utilise the latest exploration and mining processes and are constantly further developing our process technologies. The specific use of raw materials and energy at K+S has thus declined constantly over the past years. We optimise our production processes in order to boost the competitiveness of our sites and further reduce production residues.

Package of measures for water protection

Package of measures for water protection In October 2008, K+S decided on a comprehensive package of measures for the Hessen and Thuringia potash district. We will thus already reduce the current volume of saline water starting from 2011, and gradually halve it to 7 million m³ a year by 2015 at the latest. The package of measures will pave the way for gradually reducing the chloride threshold of the Werra, applicable until 2012, from currently 2,500 mg/l to 1,700 mg/l and the hardness threshold from 90 to 65 degrees of German hardness, as well considerably reducing the volume of pumped saline water. Both the flora and fauna of the Werra and Weser as well the people who live near the rivers will benefit.

Energy efficiency and climate protection

K+S takes climate protection as an ecological and economic challenge very seriously. Business, science, politics and society are being called upon to further reduce greenhouse gases and using existing resources more efficiently. We are convinced that Ger-man industry can make effective contributions to climate protection. We have participated in the agreement on climate protection between the Federal Government and German businesses and support the BDI (Federation of German Industries) initiative “Business for Climate Protection”. Therewith, German industry has acknowledged its responsibility for climate protection and fosters to promote sustainable solutions for global climate problems.

Recultivation and nature conservation

At the sites belonging to K+S KALI GmbH, we pile up solid production residues. We are aware of the fact that the use of land and saline waste water, which emerge as a consequence of precipitation on the tailings piles, are interventions in nature and the landscape. We compensate for these unavoidable impairments by means of a variety of measures intended to conserve nature and maintain the wide variety of species. More-over, we carry out various projects for covering tailings piles with the objective of reducing pile waste water.

Further information about water protection, climate protection and nature protection can be found in our Corporate and Sustainability Report .