Organizational Anchoring in the Company

Sustainability is a top management task at Vonovia: The Chairman of the Management Board, Rolf Buch, is responsible for the topic within the company. On the Supervisory Board side, the Audit Committee has a particular responsibility for 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, Investor Relations, 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.

In the year under review, Vonovia created the Sustainability/Strategy area as a direct line to the Chairman of the Management Board, which coordinates sustainability issues within the framework of the strategy and business model and is responsible for sustainability reporting. These include further developing the sustainability strategy and roadmap, defining and monitoring sustainability objectives and implementing sustainability projects. The department is also responsible for driving initiatives and providing impetus. Its remit also includes preparing reports, including in the area of sustainability, and actively processing and participating in ESG ratings. The Head of Sustainability/Strategy regularly exchanges views with the CEO and the sustainability committee on current developments and issues.

The processing and implementation of sustainability-related topics is carried out via the relevant specialist departments and regions. The employees responsible ensure that sustainability issues are implemented as part of day-to-day business or in pilot projects and research initiatives (see, e.g., section Renewable Energies and Energy Mix).

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 also been set up there.