Environmental Developments

By means of efficient property management, we are keeping costs low in order to maintain rents appropriate. At the same time, we build new homes where we can.

In the future, we will be conducting less modernization work than in the past. Our modernization allocation will be restricted to €2 per square meter. We keep our modernization measures affordable and do our best to avoid causing hardship with efficient processes, the help of volume advantages and by looking for individual solutions. We ensure an attractive residential environment and support socially disadvantaged groups with active neighborhood management. We are increasing our dialogue with stakeholders, and have been including them right from the planning process stages.

We are stepping up our senior-friendly extension and refurbishment activities and expanding our portfolio to include residential communities supervised by nursing assistants, for instance.

By means of densification and vertical expansion, we are creating additional living space on our land and in our existing properties. Future-oriented mobility concepts allow us to reduce car parking spaces wherever possible and to create new spaces for alternative uses.

We are in dialogue with policymakers and participate in deliberations about the feasible simplification of statutory law. At the communal level, we are involved in constructive discussions to find solutions that benefit all parties.

The German government is pursuing the ambitious target of establishing a virtually climate-neutral building stock by 2050. We are currently conducting energy-efficiency refurbishments in approximately 5% of our portfolio and are researching further cost-effective and efficient processes for reducing CO₂ emissions. The efficiency of our processes enables us to keep the environmental costs and consequences of our operations as low as possible. For example, the centralized procurement of materials and route optimization has allowed us to reduce fuel consumption considerably.

For the country to reach its climate targets, Germany needs a comprehensive energy and heating revolution. Vonovia is actively involved in helping to achieve these targets with the energy-efficiency measures conducted in our properties; for example, by fitting good insulation and new windows. When installing new heating units, we use modern and resource-conserving technologies. We are also investing in the expansion of decentralized renewable energy.

We are monitoring digitization developments, examining their impact and benefits on our business model and, where necessary, adapting solutions for application at Vonovia. With interconnected processes we can improve interactions with our customers and the coordination of our employees.