Daimler Sustainability Report 2010 - Daimler Sustainability Report ...

Results of the 2009 Sustainability Dialogue
On November 5, 2009,
top Daimler managers
met with roughly 80 persons
representing the
interests of business, politics,
science, and civil
society for a discussion at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in
Stuttgart as part of the second Sustainability Dialogue. On
the agenda of the day-long workshop were selected sustainability
issues and their solutions that had been identified
as being of critical importance for our company at last
year’s event.
Attributes of “green” premium vehicles. The working
group agreed that green product attributes must be viewed
as complements of, rather than replacements for, the traditional
product features that characterize the brand. Also
identified as central challenges besides CO2 reduction
were resource efficiency and sustainable mobility concepts.
Follow-up workshops will seek to identify the conditions
under which mobility services can be economically
successful.
CO2 emissions. The workshop participants consider the
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to be a comprehensive
method that is preferable to an approach based solely on
CO2 footprints. In terms of e-mobility, the participants
agreed that the electricity needed for battery-powered
vehicles should come from renewable energy sources.
The question of how Daimler can support this should be
addressed in subsequent workshops.
Securing jobs in times of crisis. The participants took a
critical view of the fact that the measures used by the company
so far to protect jobs would not be sufficient to overcome
structural changes in the automotive industry. The
consensus was that social responsibility and business success
are not mutually exclusive. The focus of the second
half of the workshop — illustrated by means of an exemplary
project from the Bremen plant — was the challenge
posed by demographic change and solutions to this problem
from an operational perspective. Also addressed were
topics including training and promoting career opportunities
for young people at Daimler. The result was an agreement
to strengthen cooperation with colleges and the German
Labor Department.
Community relations. The workshop participants discussed
issues including the celebration planned for 2011 to
mark the 125th year of the automobile. They agreed that
this occasion should be used to present to the public in
particular sustainable mobility concepts and describe their
likely impact on the development of urban areas and locations.
The participants also discussed how forms of communication
between municipalities, social institutions, and
companies can be made more sustainable, with the aim of
jointly realizing social and cultural projects.
Sustainability in the supplier chain. This working group
brought together business partners of Daimler, non-governmental
organizations (NGOs), and managers from
Daimler AG’s procurement organization. The group intensively
discussed ways to jointly support and monitor compliance
with sustainability standards in the supplier chain.
Here, key issues were the cost of sustainable supplier management,
the specific expectations that suppliers have of
the company, and what the NGOs expect of the automotive
industry. All the participants agreed that it is vital for all
interest groups to work closely together and jointly take on
responsibility in order to successfully manage sustainability
in the supplier chain.
Human rights: Based on an extensive review of this area,
the participants talked about tools for practical implementation
and control (including the expansion of policies and
training courses, integration into the compliance process,
etc.). They also agreed, as a work agenda until 2010, to initiate
a discussion about human rights with the trade associations
and to call for a round table which could address
aspects of human rights in specific countries.