Responsible sourcing begins with the respect for human rights and the protection of the environment and climate. At Mercedes-Benz, we take a holistic approach to designing our supply chains responsibly. We recognize the impacts of climate change as a global challenge and are embedding sustainability even more deeply into our operational business. We are aware of our corporate responsibility and therefore equally address human rights and environmental risks, which are often closely intertwined. We expect our partners to contribute to responsible supply chain management alongside us and to respect the principles of responsible business conduct.

The Responsible Sourcing Standards consolidate all requirements for our suppliers to act more sustainably and define clear expectations in the areas of working conditions, human rights, environmental and safety standards, business ethics, and compliance. They are based on the sustainability principles that Mercedes-Benz also applies in its own operations and serve as a central management tool to integrate our ambitious sustainability goals into complex global supply chains.

As a binding foundation for every business relationship with suppliers worldwide, the Responsible Sourcing Standards contain requirements that are contractually binding. We explicitly encourage our partners to go beyond these requirements Fundamentally, suppliers are not only obligated to comply with our sustainability requirements but also to communicate them to their employees. Additionally, our suppliers must integrate our standards into their upstream value chains and monitor their compliance. Targeted information and qualification measures are available to support this.

In 2025, Mercedes-Benz updated its Responsible Sourcing Standards. The new standard incorporates insights from our own raw material analyses as well as new regulatory requirements. We can only achieve the goal of a responsible designed supply chain through a collaborative partnership with all our suppliers. Our Responsible Sourcing Standards establish clear frameworks for this purpose and enable us to go beyond them together – for a socially and environmentally just transformation to the end of our complex supply chains.