Corporate Citizenship at DHL

Demonstrating both our value and our values to all of our stakeholders

Welcome to the DHL Corporate Citizenship web site. Here you will find details about our approach to Corporate Citizenship - how we focus our activities and how we believe we can contribute most effectively by working with others to help with their goal of improving the state of the world.

We take our definition of Corporate Citizenship from the World Economic Forum - it says:

'Corporate citizenship is about the contribution a company makes to society through its core business activities, its social investment and philanthropy programmes, and its engagement in public policy. The manner in which a company manages its economic, social and environmental relationships, and the way it engages with its stakeholders (such as shareholders, employees, customers, business partners, governments and communities), has an impact on the company's long-term success.'

Our vision for DHL as a good corporate citizen is founded on our awareness of what the company is, and what has made it successful. We operate in over 220 countries and territories worldwide, including long-established operations in China and the Pacific Rim. We pick up and deliver to Somalia, Mongolia and Papua New Guinea as well as New York, London and Tokyo. In fact, we are almost everywhere in the world.

A fundamental part of the DHL culture is our pioneering spirit - we have set up operations in countries on the basis of being 'first in, last out and first back in again' - and believe that this helps countries to establish or re-establish trade links (after conflict, for example). This in turn allows them to gain greater economic strength, which helps to provide a platform for political stability and social development.

So our belief is that we can contribute most by using our experience of logistics and transportation in all corners of the world. The pioneering spirit of our people and their connection with the local communities places them in a good position to provide help when it is needed, particularly in more remote areas.

Our approach to Corporate Citizenship is based upon global co-ordination and guidance, coupled with local flexibility, to account for the diverse cultures in which we operate. In meeting the challenges of being a good corporate citizen, we work on the premise that it will continually be 'work in progress' at DHL. The world is an ever-changing place, and whatever we have achieved, our aim is always to do more.

Richard Corriette
Head of Corporate Citizenship at DHL


Here, we present our Corporate Citizenship work grouped under four headings:

People
This covers areas such as Community Investments, Internal Citizenship and Human Rights.

Partnerships
We encourage our staff to take local action in support of the causes they feel strongly about. In addition, our experience has been that we achieve more through working together with other organisations, each of which can bring their core competencies to the partnership. In our case, it is our logistics expertise that is of greatest assistance.

Environment
Our business requires the use of trucks, vans, aircraft, ships and trains. As with all major companies, we have a lot of buildings housing a lot of people. A number of our projects have the aim of minimising our impact on the environment.

Making It Happen
This section describes the approach we are taking to embed Corporate Citizenship into the company, and links to a number of communications that may be of interest to you.

Latest News
The Logistics & Transportations Corporate Citizenship Initiative (L&TCCI), reporting back to the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2004 in Davos, Switzerland, has produced a press release and published the Sector Principles that were launched at the meeting.

Press Release
Corporate Citizenship L&TCCI Sector Principles

If you want to know more about Corporate Citizenship at DHL, please use our contact form

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