Sustainability Management at Vonovia

At Vonovia, sustainability lies at the top level of management: It is the responsibility of Rolf Buch, Chairman of the Management Board.

The new Sustainability/Strategy department was set up in the reporting year to bundle and forge ahead with sustainability-related activities within the Group. These include the further development of the sustainability strategy and roadmap, the definition and monitoring of sustainability objectives and the implementation of sustainability projects. The department is also responsible for driving initiatives and providing impetus. Its remit also includes preparing reports, also in the area of sustainability, and actively processing and participating in ESG ratings. Our understanding of sustainability illustrates Vonovia’s approach to sustainability. https://investoren.vonovia.de/en/vonovia-at-a-glance/sustainability

A sustainability committee meets three to four times a year – as required – to discuss the overall strategic direction and to evaluate the company’s sustainability performance. The committee comprises the entire Management Board as well as the heads of Sustainability, Corporate Communications, Controlling, Accounting and Business Innovation. This allows us to ensure the systematic implementation of our sustainability strategy in all business areas right down to our local neighborhoods. The operational implementation of sustainability aspects is the responsibility of all relevant departments and the regions. On the Supervisory Board side, the Audit Committee has a particular responsibility for sustainability.

There are comparable staff functions in Austria and Sweden. They coordinate the interaction between the Sustainability/Strategy department and the individual countries, as well as the country-specific sustainability strategies pursued by the Austrian BUWOG companies and the Swedish companies Victoria Park AB/Hembla. In order to take the development business of the German company BUWOG into account, a coordination function for sustainability has been set up there, too.