When Ya'an in Sichuan province was hit with a 7.0 magnitude earthquake last year on April 20th, Mercedes-Benz was in the middle of its press day at the Shanghai Auto Show.

But within 24 hours, newly appointed president and CEO Nicholas Speeks announced that Beijing Mercedes-Benz Sales Service Co Ltd, on behalf of Mercedes-Benz (China) Ltd and Beijing Benz Automotive Co Ltd together with Mercedes-Benz Dealers, donated 20 million yuan ($3.3 million) through the Mercedes-Benz Star Fund for disaster relief efforts.

To date, with the 10 million yuan donation to Wenchuan and 5 million yuan to Yushu, Mercedes-Benz has donated a total of 35 million yuan to earthquake relief programs in China.

One year later, those funds and Mercedes-Benz' programs in the area continue to make a critical impact on rebuilding efforts and on the lives of tens of thousands of people in Ya'an.

In Tianquan county, Mercedes-Benz, collaborating with the China Youth Development Foundation allocated 9 million yuan to rebuild Shiyang No. 1 Central Primary School.

Construction will begin in May 2014 and will include new teaching facilities, a dormitory and an auditorium large enough to accommodate 1,300 students.

Mercedes-Benz and its partner - the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation have committed 6 million yuan to build 4 hospitals which will provide medical assistance to almost 40,000 people in Yucheng district, Tianquan county and Baoxing county.

The company is also working with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to build eco-friendly pilot villages in World Heritage sites across Ya'an, and with the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda to support the renovation, expansion and panda-related scientific research projects for the Bifengxia Panda Center and Dujiangyan Panda Center.

Mercedes-Benz' latest efforts in Ya'an is one more example of the brand's leadership and commitment to social causes in China.

The Mercedes-Benz Star Fund, established in 2010 in cooperation with CYDF, is Mercedes-Benz' largest charity fund worldwide with 75 million yuan in funding to date, the largest in the China automotive industry; it focuses on five core pillar areas including environmental protection, education, music, arts and sports, culture of driving, and other charity and disaster relief programs.

"As Mercedes-Benz has grown in China, so too has our social obligation," said Nicholas Speeks, president and CEO of Beijing Mercedes-Benz Sales Service Co, Ltd. "The combination of our funding support via the Star Fund and our Star Ambassador Volunteer Program shows that Mercedes-Benz is committed to supporting China in a long-term, sustainable way."

Mercedes-Benz has invested substantially in environmental protection and conservation. In partnership with UNESCO, Mercedes' Green Legacy Program launched in 2007 has to date contributed over 24 million yuan to protect seven World Natural Heritage sites.

Green Legacy also supports the preservation of endangered species in China: in 2009, Mercedes-Benz adopted 2 giant pandas "Xing Hui" and "Xing Rui", twins born after the Wenchuan earthquake. Earlier this year, Xing Hui was sent abroad as a "peace ambassador" to Belgium in order to facilitate international scientific research and exchange.

Mercedes-Benz, synonymous with cutting-edge auto safety technology, also promotes safety through educational programs such the "China Best Driver Contest" and "This, I promise" road safety campaign. Additionally in 2012, Mercedes-Benz brought its MobileKids Program to China; the initiative is the world's first children's road safety education program, and teaches children aged 6 to 13 how to handle road conditions and situations.

Music education for underprivileged students is also an important cause for the brand; with less than 21 percent of Hope Schools in China offering music education, Mercedes-Benz together with CYDF addressed this issue by launching the Happy Music Classroom program in 2010. In four years, the program has benefited more than 160,000 students in 400 Hope Schools across 29 provinces nationwide.

The Mercedes-Benz Star Ambassador Volunteer Program launched in July 2011 offers a sustainable source of talented and passionate manpower for the brand's CSR programs. To date, Star Ambassadors have combined to volunteer over 30,000 hours of service for CSR causes.

With the vision of "Nurturing the World of Tomorrow", Mercedes-Benz is building on its successful CSR programs and leveraging its extensive resources to introduce even more innovative programs to China: "We're incredibly proud of what we've achieved with the Star Fund over the years," said Henry Li, Senior Executive Vice President of Beijing Mercedes-Benz Sales Service Co Ltd and Chairman of Mercedes-Benz Star Fund Committee, "and we look forward to making even larger, lasting contributions to China by engaging more dealers, customers and other stakeholders in the social causes in the future."

lifangfang@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 04/20/2014 page15)