Specific corporate governance practices

With the guiding principle of “respect and results”, we set our corporate governance the daily challenge of achieving first-class results whilst adhering to our sense of responsibility for the needs of our employees and customers. As a globally operating company and corporate citizen, we bear great responsibility for the environment and for living conditions in the regions in which we operate. This is a responsibility that we take seriously.

In 2011 we carried out another employee opinion survey, in which 80% of our employees took part. We are proud that, on the whole, our employees are satisfied with their working conditions. The results will be carefully analysed at all levels and intensively discussed since they indicate where we can make improvements.

In addition, we regularly collect data on how satisfied customers are with our services. The Kundenmonitor independent market study in 2011 indicated that 95% of private customers surveyed in Germany were satisfied with the Deutsche Post mail and retail outlet service.

Our corporate responsibility rests on the competencies of the company and the experience of our employees. We want to lead the way in innovative and sustainable logistics solutions. Pursuant to our motto “living responsibility”, we focus on three areas: GoGreen (environmental protection), GoHelp (disaster management) and GoTeach (promoting education). We are the first global logistics provider to set itself a quantitative carbon efficiency target. We had set ourselves the goal of improving carbon efficiency in our own processes by 10% by 2012 but managed to exceed this target in 2011. To support the programme we have developed our own controlling solution. Carbon emissions are managed and reported by means of defined indicators. In recognition of this, Deutsche Post DHL received the first Green Controlling Prize to be awarded by the Péter Horváth Foundation and the Internationaler Controller Verein (international controllers’ association). The Group was again confirmed by leading indices as a member on the strength of its commitment to corporate responsibility.

Within the framework of the GoHelp programme, we apply our expertise towards helping people in disaster areas quickly. In this context, our Disaster Response Teams were deployed in New Zealand and El Salvador. In addition, we provided disaster-prevention training to the managers of the international airports in Nepal, Bangladesh and Indonesia.

With our GoTeach programme, we take action worldwide to improve education and promote fair opportunities for education. We concluded partnerships with organisations that supply university graduates to work as temporary schoolteachers in underprivileged areas, implemented a scholarship programme for the children of our employees and initiated a partnership with the child-aid organisation SOS Children’s Villages.

As part of our commitment to social responsibility, we encouraged our employees to get involved in Global Volunteer Day for the first time in 2011. More than 50,000 of our employees volunteered to help children, young people and the elderly. In addition, we used the Living Responsibility Fund to support our employees’ voluntary commitment in local projects.