Mercedes 2015 Annual Report Download - page 98

B | COMBINED MANAGEMENT REPORT | SUSTAINABILITY 105
Sustainability at Daimler
Our view of sustainability
For us, sustainability means conducting business responsibly
to ensure long-term success in harmony with the environment
and society. We are moving toward our goals by making
sustainability a firmly integrated aspect of our operations and
by requiring and promoting a strong sense of responsibility
for sustainable operations among all of our managers and
employees throughout the Group. We include our business
partners in this process and conduct a dialogue on these issues
with our stakeholders. Our management structures, processes
and systems are designed in accordance with this concept
of sustainability. All of our behavior is based on legality and
integrity. As one of the world’s foremost automakers, Daimler
has a clear claim to leadership in the field of sustainability.
Our sustainability strategy
We have developed a Group-wide sustainability strategy to
enable us to meet the requirements associated with sustain-
ability, and we systematically pursue the sustainability goals
we have set for ourselves. This strategy is embedded in our
corporate strategy, which is based on our four core values
of passion, respect, integrity and discipline. We can only ensure
sustained profitability and society’s acceptance of our business
activities if we take into account the impact all of our business
processes have on the environment and society, and if we align
our business targets with environmental and social requirements.
Our sustainability strategy has six core aspects (“dimensions
of responsibility”), to which relevant areas have been assigned
where action needs to be taken. We have linked them with
targets and target indicators. Together, all of our goals and
targets serve as the basis for our medium- to long-term
Sustainability Program, which we use to measure our perfor-
mance, although we wish our performance to be judged
externally as well. Our “Sustainability Program” also defines
the areas in which we plan to take action in the coming
years. For example, we aim to further reduce pollutants and
emissions, further enhance the safety of our vehicles, and
further expand and more systematically structure our efforts
to protect human rights. We also seek to improve our
dialogue with our suppliers and dealers and to further strengthen
our social commitment.
Our business activities are also strongly guided by the ten
principles of the UN Global Compact, to which we are firmly
committed as a founding member. We are also a member
of the Global Compact LEAD Group. Our internal principles and
guidelines are based on this international reference frame-
work as well as on other international principles.
– We are committed to both legal and ethical standards and
must ensure that these standards are adhered to around
the world – also by our business partners and suppliers.
– Road traffic is one of the causes of CO2 and pollutant
emissions. As an automobile manufacturer, we work to pro-
mote sustainable mobility solutions and have demonstrated
our innovative capability with regard to environmental and
resource protection and safety.
– Our operations impact the environment, and this is especially
the case in vehicle production. We therefore employ a
consistent system of environmental management in order
to minimize this impact.
– As an employer, we have a responsibility to ensure fair and
attractive working conditions for our more than 284,000
employees worldwide.
– As a corporate citizen, we seek to contribute to the common
good beyond the level of our business operations, and
we utilize our special expertise in order to achieve this goal.
Group-wide sustainability management
At Daimler, sustainability is thematically and organizationally
embedded in our Group-wide corporate governance activities.
E pages 180 ff The Corporate Sustainability Board (CSB) is
the central management body for all sustainability-related issues.
The operational work is conducted by the Corporate Sustain-
ability Office, which is staffed by representatives of the specialist
departments and divisions. Since 2011, we have been using
the Sustainability Scorecard as a tool for steering our efforts
to meet key sustainability targets. The scorecard uses a
color-coded system either to display the success of quantitative
indicators and qualitative objectives or to show that action
needs to be taken. This allows targeted measures to be taken
with the direct involvement of corporate management.
Sustainability