Annual Report 2010 - Knorr-Bremse AG.

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Social responsibility and sustainability
Particularly in times of globalization and climate change,
being successful invariably also means conducting all aspects
of one‘s business, from planning to execution, with
foresight. Doing so in awareness of a responsibility for the
impact of one‘s actions on people, the environment, and
society, and working relentlessly to optimize that impact,
has become a maxim of modern corporate management.
In 2010, several projects were initiated to further enhance
Knorr-Bremse‘s sustainability performance. For example,
Knorr-Bremse became a signatory to the United Nations
Global Compact initiative, thereby not only making a commitment
to observe the Global Compact‘s ten globally acknowledged
principles in the fields of human rights, labor,
environment, and anti-corruption, but also undertaking to
implement and promote them in its everyday work.
efforts in the wake of natural disasters, such as the earthquake
in Haiti, floods in Pakistan and the Czech Republic,
and the toxic sludge disaster in Hungary.
Knorr-Bremse Global Care was founded in response to the
tsunami disaster of December 26, 2004 to provide unbureaucratic,
effective and lasting help to the victims. Since
then, 69 aid projects have been realized in a total of 31
countries on four continents. The projects are supervised
on a voluntary basis and with great dedication by Knorr-
Bremse employees. By year-end 2010, with donations totaling
EUR 5.3 million, Global Care had reached out to help
some 200,000 people.
The spotlight in 2010 was on the adoption of the Knorr-
Bremse Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Strategy,
which anchors corporate responsibility and sustainability
in the corporate strategy, the management system, and
the company‘s business processes. Together with the
Knorr-Bremse Corporate Values and the UITP Charta for
Sustainable Development, the ten principles of the Global
Compact form the basis for all activities and commitments
in this area. Through its new CSR strategy, Knorr-Bremse is
also responding to the needs of its customers, who are increasingly
demanding documentary proof of compliance
with and management of ecological and social standards.
As in previous years, in 2010 Knorr-Bremse supported the
charitable organization Knorr-Bremse Global Care, which
was founded in 2005, providing funding for its activities in
the amount of EUR 1,000,000 in the year under review. The
main focus of the organization‘s activities in 2010 was on
the pursuit of long-term projects, such as the construction
of a permanent hospital ward in Burma‘s Irrawaddy Delta
which was devastated by Cyclone Nardis in 2008. In 2010,
the organization also supported several emergency relief