Changing Overall Conditions – Explanatory Information on the Content of the Report

The last two decades have brought significant changes in the overall economic, ecological and social framework in which companies operate. While, on the one hand, companies have been able to benefit from continued growth, globalization and an increase in resource consumption, they have also, on the other hand, taken an increasingly critical look at their business models with regard to climate protection, how they use resources and their social and ethical responsibility. The concept of a license to operate as a basis for viewing business activities in an ecological and social context has become the order of the day. Nowadays, people want to understand the impact that a company’s activities have on the environment and on society. Conversely, there is a need for transparency regarding the impact that the demands made by civil society and created by climate change have on a company at the same time. These changing overall conditions are having an increasing impact on financing and investment decisions.

They have also given rise to entirely novel and far-reaching information requirements to support the decision-making process. As a result, corporate reporting no longer focuses exclusively on equity and debt investors, but uses ESG reporting (ESG: Environmental, Social, Governance) to respond to the diverse interests of multiple stakeholders today. The large number of references made in this Non-financial Declaration to other chapters of the annual report reflect the ever-increasing integration of sustainable aspects into our business processes.

Vonovia SE’s corporate reporting includes a Non-financial Group Declaration, which has its legal basis in Sections 315b, 315c in conjunction with Section 289c to 289e HGB. The framework provided by the GRI Standards for sustainability reporting and the UN Global Compact was taken into account when preparing this declaration. These standards also serve as a guide for the sustainability report. We have also started to implement the recommendations made by the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), which we consider to be important. The table below shows how the corresponding content relates to the individual standards.

The main relevant non-financial performance indicators are reported – together with information on the underlying concepts and objectives – in the individual chapters covering the content in question, which are structured based on the aspects that the company has to report by law. Specifically, these aspects are environmental issues, social issues, employee issues, combating corruption and bribery and respecting human rights. In order to avoid data redundancy, reference is made, where appropriate, to other sections of the management report that contain non-financial information. All references to content outside the Non-financial Declaration are further information and are not covered by the audit performed by KPMG. This limitation does not apply to references to the chapter entitled “Fundamental Information About the Group”. These are covered by the audit. With the exception of the CSI, which is used to measure customer satisfaction, the key figures listed in the Non-financial Declaration are not non-financial performance indicators within the meaning of German Accounting Standard (GAS) 20 paragraph 101 in conjunction with paragraph 106. This is an area in which the company plans to make changes for 2021 with the introduction of the Sustainability Performance Index (SPI), which is addressed in greater detail in the chapter “Management System: non-financial performance indicators”. Further information on the relevant non-financial key performance indicators in accordance with GAS 20 can be found in the chapter on the “Management Model”.

As with other sections of this Annual Report, reporting in the Non-financial Declaration is also on a consolidated basis. This means that the company’s activities in Austria and Sweden are also covered by this Non-financial Declaration. This initially concerns the qualitative presentation of the non-financial information of the acquired groups of companies. Due to the ongoing integration of the corresponding processes, the full consolidation of the key performance indicators is still in the implementation phase. We will refer to the extent to which the key figures have been integrated in the following chapters.

This Non-financial Declaration supplements our comprehensive sustainability reporting, which has also already been firmly established, in the form of our dedicated Sustainability Report. The Sustainability Report contains further extensive information on individual non-financial topics as well as further examples of implementation and key figures. The Sustainability Report for the 2020 reporting year will be published in the second quarter of 2021.

Both the Non-financial Declaration and the Sustainability Report are audited by the auditor of the annual financial statements.