Daimler sets out ten-year way ahead

Daimler has announced ten-year sustainability targets in its latest CSR report. The German car manufacturer has made 51 pledges, from traffic safety to gender equality, in an effort to sharpen its sustainability profile.

Many of the targets concern the achievement or implementation of existing pledges and programmes. Some are vague, such as ‘optimization and expansion of the group-wide integrity monitoring’, but the plan does contain many specific goals, particularly on environmental and health and safety issues.

Similarly, although most of the targets can be judged only by internal benchmarks, many are measurable against external standards, such as pledges to reduce carbon emissions by new vehicle fleets to less than 125g CO2/km by 2016, representing a 21 per cent reduction.  

Other pledges, however, such as on recruitment, have only an indirect relevance to sustainability.

Daimler does not set targets on bribery and corruption, despite a recent US court case in which it agreed to pay $185million (£113m, €130m) after admitting giving money and gifts to win contracts in several countries.

However, the company emphasizes the flexibility of its targets: ‘We do not regard this sustainability programme for 2010 to 2020 as a static plan. We must continuously adapt to new market conditions in a dynamic competitive environment.

‘Our sustainability programme for 2010 to 2020 should therefore indicate the key target horizons of our sustainability efforts in the years ahead, while at the same time showing enough flexibility so that we can react at short notice  to new challenges.’