Daimler Annual Report 2011 - Alle jaarverslagen

Social Responsibility
At Daimler, we believe that entrepreneurship and social responsibility are inseparable. Wherever
we do business as an employer or a customer, we interact in many different ways with the people
of the region. This presents us with both an opportunity and an obligation to actively help shape
those communities and to promote dialogue between different cultures.
Our main areas of activity. We organize our broad spectrum
of social involvement in five areas: donations, sponsorship,
foundation support, corporate volunteering and community
relations. Within those areas, we focus on five fields of
activity: science, technology and environmental protection;
education; traffic safety; the arts and culture; and charitable
projects. In the area of corporate volunteering, we promote
social, environmental and educational projects.
In all of our activities, we engage in an intensive dialogue with
the communities and local institutions that are involved. We
contribute our expertise as an automaker in projects aimed at
promoting the common good, taking into account the specific
requirements of our business locations as well as the interests
of society in general. Our basic aim is to generate recognizable
social benefits and to continually further develop our social
commitment. In 2011, we spent a total of €59 million to
support charitable organizations and socially oriented projects.
Our company’s activities in the area of social responsibility are
coordinated by the Donations and Sponsorship Committee.
In close cooperation with the Board of Management and our
worldwide production facilities and plant managers, this
committee defines and is responsible for our areas of activity
in line with our country-specific policies. It monitors and
makes the decisions regarding all of our major projects and
funding plans. When we grant funding and make donations,
we follow the principle of maximum transparency.
Promoting science, technology and environmental
protection. Whoever advocates sustainable development
is obliged to invest in the human capacity for innovation.
This is why we support universities and research institutes
all over the world.
The “Daimler and Benz Foundation” supports science projects
that deal with the inter-relationships between human beings,
the environment and technology. On the occasion of the 125th
anniversary of the automobile, we increased the foundation’s
capital to €125 million. Daimler is also one of the founding
members of the “German Donors’ Association for the Promotion
of Sciences and Humanities.” This is the largest private
foundation promoting science in Germany. In addition to
supporting science and technology, it focuses in particular on
providing assistance to talented young scientists.
We believe it is our responsibility to preserve the diversity of
habitats, species and genes for future generations. Daimler
therefore supports the Global Nature Fund, whose worldwide
Living Lakes project pursues the goal of protecting and
renaturing lakes, wetlands and other bodies of water. On the
occasion of World Environment Day in June 2011, Mercedes-
Benz do Brasil made a specific appeal to the upcoming generation.
At performances of the play “Planeta Mercedes-Benz –
Our Sustainable World” at the company’s truck production plant,
approximately 7,000 children were reminded of how important
it is to deal respectfully with nature.
Promoting education. Education opens doors. It strengthens
individuals and families, and thus ultimately also society as a
whole. That is why we support a host of education projects all
over the world.
Through “Genius – Daimler’s Young Knowledge Community,”
we aim to enthuse more children and young people for technology
and the natural sciences. For example, Daimler engineers
go to classes in high schools to explain how a fuel-cell car
works. A project that attracted great interest in 2011 was the
workbook on drive-system technology that was developed
jointly by teachers and Daimler engineers.
In order to support the society and economy of South Africa,
Daimler sponsors socially oriented education projects such as
St. Anthony’s Education Centre. This project offers disadvantaged
young people and unemployed adults from slum neighborhoods
the opportunity to gain further education. They are
able to acquire competence in various skilled crafts or to acquire
school-leaving qualifications.
Traffic safety initiatives. Traffic safety is a core theme of our
educational work. In order to prevent traffic accidents, we
need not only technically improved vehicles but also programs
that sensitize road users to possible dangers.
In order to prepare children to negotiate road traffic safely,
we established our MobileKids traffic education initiative back
in 2001. MobileKids teaches children about all the facets of
safe and sustainable mobility in a playful way. Among other
things, the program launched the nationwide MobileKids
Schooldays in September 2011 to teach primary school pupils
about traffic safety directly in their familiar environment.
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