“For us, sustainability means making real improvements”.

Mrs Jungo Brüngger, sustainability is a term that is almost being overused these days. What does sustainability mean for us at Mercedes-Benz?

Renata Jungo Brüngger: It's true – many people talk about sustainability and almost everyone understands it differently. For Mercedes-Benz, sustainability means that we as a company and with our products want to create long-term value for as many people as possible. That’s why we’ve been pursuing a sustainable business strategy for years. This means that sustainability is an elementary component of our corporate orientation, and a holistic one at that, i.e. with ecological, social and economic aspects. To be clear: sustainability and profitability go hand in hand. Without being profitable, we cannot make our business sustainable. And without making our business sustainable, we will not be able to be profitable in the long term. In light of this, sustainability has many facets for us and goes far beyond the important topics of CO₂ reduction and environmental protection: We want to lead the way and set standards in terms of environmental compatibility, social responsibility, good corporate governance as well as economic efficiency through sustainable innovations.

With Ambition 2039, we have set ourselves an ambitious target. At the same time, we are continuing to build combustion engines and are also investing in this technology. How does that fit together?

Renata Jungo Brüngger: We stand by our Ambition 2039 – we want to offer a net carbon-neutral*^[1]Net carbon-neutral means that carbon emissions that are not avoided or reduced at Mercedes-Benz are compensated for by certified offsetting projects.
new vehicle fleet by then. This includes the entire value chain, from development and production through to the use and recycling of our vehicles. At the same time, we recognise the importance of and current demand for combustion engines. As a commercial enterprise, we have to keep an eye on both the current situation and our long-term goals. In the former, the combustion engine plays a greater role than most of us had expected it would a few years ago. By investing in combustion engines, we are responding to the current mobility needs of our customers and helping to make the sustainable transformation economically viable. However, it is also very clear that we are continuing to invest in our electric vehicles. This is part of our balanced approach and is how we are ensuring both our short-term and future success.

What topics does Mercedes-Benz focus on when it comes to sustainability?

Renata Jungo Brüngger: We have six strategic focus topics and specific goals: Decarbonization, Resources & Circularity, People, Digital Trust, Traffic Safety and Human Rights. We have further developed and sharpened these areas of action in recent months. To this end, we have incorporated many perspectives – including from customers, the capital market and politics – and conducted a materiality analysis. In order to measure our progress in all areas of the company, we have formulated a whole series of KPIs (key performance indicators). To ensure that our initiatives get the all-important "view from the outside", we also attach great importance to regular dialogue with external stakeholders, for example at our global sustainability dialogues in Stuttgart, China, the U.S. and India. There, we regularly exchange ideas with representatives from NGOs, government and politics and think tanks.

Why are these six focus areas so important for sustainability?

Renata Jungo Brüngger: We want to maximise the impact of what we do. We can make a real difference in the six focus areas. These are topics that are highly relevant both today and for the future – not just for us as a company, but also for many of our stakeholders. These areas have not been chosen at random. We are fundamentally guided by the 17 sustainability goals of the United Nations. By refocusing on six sustainability fields, we have an important strategic foundation. In the next step, we formulated specific and measurable goals. This allows us to anchor the strategy even more firmly in our operating business. This will enable us to achieve real improvements, from reducing CO₂ emissions to a higher proportion of recycled materials in vehicles and the vision of accident-free driving.

There are many regulations and policies to consider in our industry, especially legal ones. Some people say that this slows us down. When it comes to sustainability, don't we need speed above all else?

Renata Jungo Brüngger: We want to advance our goals quickly, but as a company we also need legal certainty. In this respect, a legal or regulatory framework is a good thing in the first instance. What we don't need is unnecessary bureaucracy that slows down the transformation and which doesn't bring any real improvements. We are currently seeing overregulation in some areas, for example with regard to due diligence obligations in the supply chain or very extensive reporting obligations. That is one aspect. However, it is also often the case that technical progress happens faster than legislation. This was the case in the past with automated driving or artificial intelligence, for example. We then have to make decisions today that will only be regulated in detail in the future. This is where we rely on our adaptive compliance approach. In essence, it is about recognising future requirements from legislators and society at an early stage and integrating them into our decisions and processes. With adaptive compliance, we create the corresponding structures even before regulation comes into play. We have had good experiences with this, be it with big data, artificial intelligence or technical compliance.

For a long time, sustainability was the trend, but now the pendulum seems to be swinging in the opposite direction. Where do you think the journey is headed?

Renata Jungo Brüngger: Even if we feel headwind in some aspects: Only sustainable management practices promise long-term success. This is the only way we will remain profitable in the future, too. Why is that? Our brand is our strongest asset – and investments in sustainability are investments in our brand. The path towards sustainability may be a little less straightforward than originally thought. This is precisely why it is important that we continue to move in the right direction and not lose sight of our goal. In the long term I am convinced that sustainability and profitability will go hand in hand. That is why we as a company remain on course.