Daimler Sustainability Report 2010 - Daimler Sustainability Report ...

18
tional trade and investment, protection of intellectual
property). Also addressed are questions concerning the
implementation of technical innovations, vehicle safety,
and support for business development. q A
2.5 Principles regarding donations and sponsorship.
We believe that entrepreneurship and social
responsibility should go together wherever we conduct
business. We want to bring about significant benefits to
society and continuously make our commitment known.
This is why we establish priorities for our donations and
sponsorship, while contributing our know-how and experience
as an internationally operating automobile manufacturer.
D B
We do what is needed to ensure maximum transparency
when providing funding and donations. The basis of
these activities is a corporate guideline for donations
and sponsoring. Since 2007, all of our activities Groupwide
in the areas of donations and sponsorship have
been registered in a database. The Board of Management’s
Donations and Sponsorship Committee coordinates
the Group’s activities and promotes its strategic
approach to donations and sponsoring activities. The
committee evaluates and makes decisions concerning
all major sponsoring projects and planned donations.
In 2009 Daimler spent €26.41 million to support nonprofit
organizations and socially beneficial projects (this
refers only to project funding). What’s more, starting in
2008, instead of offering gifts at vehicle presentations,
Daimler donated the money it usually spends on such
presents (total €55,680) to nonprofit organizations.
The donation for 2009 was given to education projects
for SOS Children’s Villages in Italy, Spain, and Germany.
When it comes to making contributions to political parties,
Daimler maintains strict compliance with legislation
and with the Group’s internal guideline on political
contributions, which was introduced in 2006. This
guideline stipulates that donations to parties are permitted
only when expressly authorized by the Board of
Management. In 2009, Daimler donated to parties only
in Germany, with the aim of promoting democratic
structures. As in 2008, authorized donations totaled
€425,000. From this total, the CDU and SPD parties
each received €150,000, the FDP received €45,000,
and the CSU and BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN each
received €40,000.
3.0 Environmental management system
Production-related environmental management.
The certification of all our locations in line with the international
standard ISO 14001 and the additional validation
of our German sites by the EU’s Eco-Management
and Audit Scheme (EMAS) are important elements of
our environmental management system. The efficacy of
our system is regularly audited by internal and external
experts. Today more than 98 percent of our worldwide
workforce is employed in production facilities with certified
environmental management systems. In order to
even more closely integrate environmental protection
tasks into the processes at the respective units, we are
merging the management systems for quality, environmental
protection, and health & safety into a single system.
In addition, we are using our process for evaluating the
environmental risks connected with our production facilities
to apply uniform standards worldwide in order to
identify environmental risks, reduce them, and thus
refine our preventive measures for environmental protection.
This involves regular and systematic monitoring
and assessment of the location’s environmental management
system as well as all the key areas of environmental
protection, such as atmospheric emissions,
wastewater, waste management, the handling of hazardous
materials, and contamination of soil and groundwater.
The elimination of any identified risks to the environment
is one of the goals agreed on by the Board of
Management and the plant managers.
Environmental protection in product development.
Vehicle development is a standardized process in which
the vehicle final specifications and the quality gates
(milestones in the development process) form the basic
cornerstones. Environmental protection issues and
requirements (fuel consumption, emissions, prohibited
or prescribed materials, Life Cycle Assessments, and
recycling requirements) are integral parts of the specification
book and are taken into account and managed
throughout the entire product creation process within
the framework of the quality gates. Mercedes-Benz Cars
fully complies with the requirement that environmental
aspects be included in the product development
process in line with the international environmental
standard ISO TR 14062 and the expanded criteria of TÜV
Management Service GmbH. It also fulfills all of the
requirements of ISO 14001 and EMAS concerning the
product-related part of the environmental management
system.
3.1 Organization of Group-wide environmental
management. We have developed clear structures,
processes, and areas of responsibility in order to pursue
our environmental targets and make specific improvements.
� 07 q C
On behalf of the Board of Management of Daimler AG,
the Board member responsible for Group Research and
Mercedes-Benz Cars Development is also charged with
the company’s environmental protection activities. In
addition, the following functions or organizational units
q A
More about the dialogue with
politicians:
Online 205
D B
More about our social commitment
and the focuses of our donations and
sponsoring:
p. 67 ff.
q C
Detailed version of the Environmental
Guidelines:
Online 206
q
For further information, please enter
the corresponding number into the
search field at
http://sustainability.daimler.com