Mercedes-Benz C-Class earns environmental certificate from T??V, second such certificate for a car ever

Click on the image above for a gallery of high-res images of the 2008 C-Class

TÜV is a German company that does certification testing to verify the safety and quality of products and services. Yesterday, Mercedes-Benz announced that TÜV has awarded them an environmental certificate for the newly introduced 2008 C-Class. TÜV evaluates the car and manufacturer against ISO 14000 , which are international standards that cover environmental management. The certification covers life cycle assessments of the car, environmental labels for components (to facilitate recycling), and integration of environmental aspects into product design and development. The C-Class is only the second car to achieve the environmental certificate after the current generation S-Class and Mercedes is the only car-maker to earn it.

[Source: DaimlerChrysler]
As a globally active automotive company, DaimlerChrysler bears a far reaching responsibility. Several hundred thousand people worldwide are involved in the production, sales and services relating to our products. Our vehicles are to be found in almost every country on earth. They meet people's need for mobility and provide a flexible means of transporting goods. They are therefore the basis of individual choice and independence, an important factor in a modern society and national economy. At the same time the manufacture and use of our vehicles consumes natural resources, and our business activities affect society in many different ways.

We are convinced that corporate success and social responsibility go hand in hand, and that value creation also always requires value orientation in the social environment. We can only achieve business success if we have the confidence of the people in the countries where we are active. For this reason social and environmental responsibility are an integral part of our corporate strategy, and we employ all our expertise to implement them.

We have many activities aimed at further, continuous improvements to the environmental compatibility of our products, with the environmental effects of these products over their entire lifecycle - from development and production to servicing, operation and recycling - firmly in mind.

It is also well established in our environmental guidelines that we develop products which are especially environmentally compatible in their respective market segments, and that we comprehensively inform the public about our environmental protection activities. The Environmental Certificate - obtained for the S-Class for the first time in 2005 - was another example of how these guidelines are implemented. With the Environmental Certificate now obtained for the C-Class, Mercedes-Benz remains the only manufacturer worldwide to possess this demanding certification and to comprehensively inform its customers and shareholders, the public and interested parties both within and outside the company.

Certification is based on international standards which are accepted by all relevant stakeholders. Compliance with these standards and the correctness of the information provided have been verified by independent experts.