UN Global Compact

Principle 1
Support of human rights

We assign a very high priority to recognizing and protecting human rights within our company and in the locations where we operate. For us as a vehicle manufacturer, the emphasis is on employee rights, fair working conditions, and the rejection of every form of discrimination and of forced labor and child labor. We have firmly assigned the responsibility for human rights issues to the Integrity and Legal Affairs division in the Group’s Board of Management. In addition, we emphasize these issues in our corporate governance structure for sustainability. The support of human rights is therefore a key element of our sustainable business strategy. Our Human Rights Respect System aims to address human rights issues at Daimler’s majority holdings as well as in the supply chain.

Principle 6
Prevention of discrimination

In order to exclude gender-specific or any other discrimination in our recruitment processes, the fixed base remuneration is based on the individual’s function and level. For the same purpose, we have implemented a regular income review that includes mandatory documentation, the inclusion of multiple assessors, and a central HR system, which ensures transparency. Our in-house income reviews have shown that the amount of the individual remuneration paid for comparable tasks is determined by factors such as individual performance and experience in a particular function.

Principle 7
Precautionary environmental protection

Our precautionary principle is particularly important when it comes to managing the local effects of our business activities. This applies, for example, to environmental protection in the production process. We have defined structures and processes in our environmental management system with the aim of enabling transparent reporting for our production sites around the world and clear areas of responsibility at all levels. Our environmental protection requirements are passed on to our suppliers along the supply chain. Around 98 percent of our employees work at locations with environmental management systems that are audited and certified according to ISO 14001. In addition, we regularly conduct environmental due diligence analyses at our locations. Our holistic precautionary approach includes a clear definition of environmental protection targets. For example, we want production to be CO₂-neutral at our own Mercedes-Benz Cars and Vans plants worldwide and at the Daimler Trucks & Buses production plants in Europe beginning in 2022.

Principle 8
Initiatives for promoting environ-mental responsibility

Daimler systematically compiles key energy and environmental data from its plants in Germany and abroad. The data in this report reflects the structure of the Group in the reporting year 2020. The environmental data for 2020 refer to a total of 72 production locations, subordinate sites, and remanufacturing plants, as well as to 18 development, logistics, and Mercedes-Benz sales locations in Germany. It does not include the locations of Daimler Financial Services.
We accept responsibility for making our vehicles climate-friendly and environmentally compatible throughout their life cycle: from the procurement of the raw materials and production to the use phase and the disposal and recycling of the vehicles. In addition, we aim to increase our employees’ environmental consciousness through our internal governance structures, including the use of non-financial remuneration components.

Principle 9
Development and diffusion of envi-ronmentally friendly technologies

Daimler has set itself the goal of developing products that are especially environmentally friendly and energy-efficient in their respective market segments. Product development plays a key role in this regard: A vehicle’s environmental impact — and that includes its emissions of CO₂ and pollutants — is largely determined during the first phases of its development. The earlier we take environmental aspects into account in this process, the more efficiently we can minimize the environmental impact of our vehicles. We systematically test the environmental friendliness of future products. An important tool in this process is the ongoing documentation of the development process. Here we define specific characteristics and target values — for example, for fuel consumption and pollutant emissions that must be achieved for every vehicle model and every engine variant. In order to further reduce the CO₂ emissions of our vehicles, we are developing all-electric and electrified model variants for all of our vehicle types — from cars and vans to trucks and buses. Thanks to our modular development approach, we can quickly transfer technologies between our divisions. Our development focus is on battery-electric mobility for cars and all-electric drive systems with batteries or fuel cells for trucks and buses. In our “Ambition 2039” we have set ourselves the target of making our fleet of new cars and vans CO₂-neutral over the vehicles’ entire life cycle* by 2039. Our target for our trucks and buses is for all new vehicles to be CO₂-neutral with regard to local driving operation (tank-to-wheel) in the triad markets of Europe, Japan, and North America by 2039.

Principle 10
Measures against corruption

Our objective is to ensure that all of our employees worldwide always carry out their work in a manner that is in compliance with applicable laws, regulations, agreements with workers’ representative bodies, voluntary commitments, and our values, as set out in binding form in our Integrity Code. One of the main objectives of our compliance activities is to ensure that all applicable corruption prevention regulations are complied with. Daimler has committed itself to fighting corruption in its business activities. Along with complying with all applicable laws, this also involves adhering to the rules of the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions (1997) and the United Nations Convention against Corruption (2003). As a founding member of the UN Global Compact, Daimler also seeks to ensure that not only the company itself but also its business partners act in accordance with the principles of the UN Global Compact. The most important goals here are to fight corruption around the world in order to enable fair competition, eliminate the damage corruption does to society, and thus improve conditions for everyone.