Mercedes takes an organic approach to being green

What’s inside a Mercedes? You’d expect the average German luxury saloon to contain a hi-tech mix of aluminium, titanium and carbon fibre. And while you’ll find all these materials in there somewhere, you might be more surprised to find coconut matting, crushed olive stones and even sawdust.

But those materials are all there – and that has helped Mercedes-Benz win prestigious “green” accolades from the Germans standards agency TüV. Rubberised coconut matting is used as seat padding in a number of models. This is a by-product of the Brazilian coconut industry – and before Mercedes found a use for it, most of it was simply burned.

The crushed, carbonised olive stones are used as air filtration material inside the fuel tanks of C- and S-Class models – greatly reducing petrol vapour smells when refuelling. Again, this was a waste product of the food industry.

Then there are Abaca fibres – from the stem of a banana-type plant grown in the Philippines. These fibres are used in the underfloor cladding of A- and B-Class cars. Mercedes has created a demand for Filipino farmers to grow more of these plants – and as a result have safeguarded the habitat of a small, endangered mammal – and the world’s smallest primate – called the Tarsier.

Using these natural materials helps lower the environmental impact of manufacturing Mercedes vehicles, as does increased use of recycled plastics – 21.2kg on average being used for underbody panelling and other less visible parts. Which all goes to show that there’s more to being a “green” automaker than just having low CO2 emissions.