Mercedes 2006 Annual Report Download - page 123

Sustainability |Environment |107
Natural fibers in vehicle construction combine ecology and
economy. DaimlerChrysler’s innovative use of abaca fibers in the
spare-tire well cover in the underbody of the three-door version of
the Mercedes-Benz A-Class since September 2004 makes it the
first and so far only automaker to use natural fibers in a series-
produced component for passenger car exteriors. Since January
2006, we have been using this component in all versions of the
Mercedes-Benz A-Class and B-Class. The natural-fiber component
fulfills the same high standards of quality that are applied to
conventional exterior components with regard to resistance to
stone chipping, weather conditions and moisture. Abaca fibers
aremuch better for the environment than glass fibers due to their
very good ecological balance in terms of production, use and
recycling.
Environmentally friendly fuels support efficient engines.
Clean, modern engines require clean, modern fuels. In fact,
fuel consumption and emissions can be further reduced onlyin
combination with enhanced fuels. This explains the importance
of second-generation biofuels such as SunDiesel, which can play
a major role in further reducing traffic-related emissions,
especially of carbon dioxide.
In March 2006, we established the Alliance for Synthetic
Fuels in Europe (ASFE) together with Renault, Royal Dutch Shell,
Volkswagen and the joint venture Sasol Chevron. The Alliance’s
objective is to promote the use of synthetic fuels and to support
the efforts being made to achieve sustainable mobility.
In the United States, we are already delivering every new
Jeep®Liberty CRD with B5 fuel, 5% of which consists of biodiesel.
So-called flex-fuel vehicles, which can be operated with a
bioethanol-gasoline mix (E85), are playing an increasingly important
role in the US. DaimlerChrysler has already produced 1.5 million
flex-fuel vehicles, although in most countries only small amounts of
bioethanol are currently available. However, mixing renewable
fuels with conventional fossil fuels is ecologically and economically
efficient, because for the same degree of environmental friendliness
it is then unnecessary to create a separate infrastructure.
To promote the sustainable use of biofuels, we signed the
Magdeburg Declaration, an agreement with the United Nations
Environment Program (UNEP) that signifies our readiness to
cooperate in this area. DaimlerChrysler will provide the technical
prerequisites to make it possible for passenger cars to fill up with
fuel containing 10% of biodiesel or bioethanol. In a memorandum
of understanding signed in February 2006, we specified further
details of our cooperation with the UNEP. As part of our ongoing
cooperation, we plan to develop standards for the sustainable
production of biomass for biofuels.
Managing environmental protection and avoiding environ-
mental risks. Because we are firmly committed tointegrated
environmental protection, we require our production plants
throughout the world to be certified according to the ISO 14001
standard. In addition, our production plants in Germany are also
regularly inspected in line with the more comprehensive
European EMAS (Eco-Management and Audit Scheme) regulations,
which came into effect in 1995. As early as 1996, we had
validated 12 German production plants and the DaimlerChrysler
sales organization in Germany according to EMAS. Today, more
than 96% of our employees worldwide work within the framework
of environmental management systems that have been certified
in line with ISO 14001 and/or EMAS.
In order to clearly identify and eliminate environmental risks,
we introduced a method we developed ourselves for assessing
risks to the environment (environmental due diligence) in 2000.
Since then, environmental risks occurring in our worldwide pro-
duction plants have been centrally recorded and assessed,
and the measures needed to eliminate them are determined.
The results of the second phase of this program, which was
largely concluded in 2006, revealed that this systematic assess-
ment plays a major role in reducing risks and improving the
environmental performance of the individual plants.
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