DACHSER receives 2018 German CSR Award

“From education to sustainability”: this is the motto governing DACHSER’s collaboration with the terre des hommes children’s aid organization in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, which started already in 2005. The projects they run there aim to protect children’s rights, improve access to schooling and professional training, and ensure the preservation of natural resources. Efforts focus on encouraging groups of children and young people to get involved on behalf of their own future, in keeping with the idea of helping people to help themselves.

To make social engagement a tangible experience for its employees and the broader public, DACHSER joined forces with terre des hommes to launch their first youth exchange project in 2017. As part of the exchange, DACHSER sent five trainees to its project areas in Uttar Pradesh. In return, five young people from India came to Germany, where they participated in a week of events entitled “So geht Heimat” (This is home), organized by DACHSER, terre des hommes, the theatre and the city of Kempten. The week featured a colorful range of cultural events that brought together different concepts of “home” using Allgäu and India as examples. Since then, DACHSER and terre des hommes have launched a second project that brings together DACHSER Young Professionals, students from the terre des hommes network, and a group of young people from Livingstone, Zambia.

Social engagement is necessarily a multilevel undertaking

In explaining the jury’s decision, Brigitta Wortmann spoke about how social engagement is necessarily a multilevel undertaking: “This category focuses on a company’s civil engagement and its impact on society. In doing so, it is important to consider how this engagement is embedded in company strategy, how the company organizes its collaboration with civic partners, how it involves its employees in CSR activities, and whether those activities generate benefits for both the company and for society in general.

“Our CSR activities in India, and also Nepal, Namibia, and Brazil are designed for the long term,” explains Bernhard Simon, CEO of DACHSER SE. “The youth exchange and the ‘This is home’ week encouraged our employees to come together and share their thoughts and ideas, and did the same for the people of Kempten where our global headquarters is located. And it did so at a time when immigration is a hot-button issue in our society. That’s why I’m so pleased that the jury honored our comprehensive CSR concept today.”