We’re determined to minimise our vehicles’ environmental impact across their lifecycle – and that includes production.

It begins with our manufacturing plants. All Mercedes-Benz sites worldwide meet ISO14001 Environmental Management Standards. And all our production locations are heated with natural gas – a low carbon energy source. One even uses shredded waste wood to achieve nearly CO2 free heating.

In addition, our transmission plant at Rastatt boasts a huge photovoltaic roof installation. Harnessing 490,000 megawatt hours of solar power a year, it yields annual CO2 savings of around 453 tons.

We also constantly review the materials we use. In the 1990s, we introduced water-based paints, reducing solvent emissions by some 70%. And in 2004, we were the first car manufacturer to use natural fibres in vehicle exteriors, embedding banana fibres in thermoplastics for the A-Class.

In fact, up to 80% of materials used in Mercedes-Benz cars are recyclable and we’ve successfully tested the use of secondary (recycled) raw materials for approximately 10% of the plastics in our vehicles.

Thanks to this holistic approach, the S-Class became the world’s first car to receive the coveted TÜV environmental certificate in 2005. And in 2007, the new C-Class Saloon followed suit.