Organizational Establishment in the Company

Responsibility for Vonovia’s efforts in the area of sustainability lies directly with the CEO. 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 Management Board, the chief representatives, the heads of Sustainability, Investor Relations, Corporate Communications, Controlling and Accounting. This setup allows us to ensure the systematic implementation of our sustainability strategy in all business areas right down to our local neighborhoods.

The Sustainability/Strategy division reports to and coordinates its operations directly with the CEO in terms of sustainability topics related to the company’s strategy and business model. The Head of Sustainability/Strategy regularly exchanges views with the CEO and the sustainability committee on current developments and issues. These include further developing the sustainability strategy and road map, defining and monitoring sustainability objectives and implementing sustainability projects.

The division drives sustainability-related innovation and proposes solutions in response to political, social and regulatory developments. It is also responsible for sustainability reporting and focuses on monitoring changes to legislation related to ESG reporting, actively assessing and participating in ESG rating systems and enhancing ESG-related KPIs.

The processing and implementation of sustainability projects 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.

The large number of neighborhoods in the company’s portfolio creates potential to develop future-fit solutions for innovative technologies and new services to respond to the current megatrends. Innovations and technical solutions for the energy revolution are brought from the development stage to implementation stage by Innovation & Business Building (I&BB), Vonovia technical service (VTS) and the regions (see Environment and Climate).

In Sweden and Austria, sustainability coordination is embedded in the relevant staff positions. They coordinate the interaction between the Sustainability/Strategy division and the individual countries, as well as the country-specific sustainability strategies pursued by the Austrian BUWOG companies and the Swedish company Victoriahem. 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.

Sustainability in Vonovia’s Organizational Model