The European Public Real Estate Association (EPRA) evaluates the sustainability transparency of listed real estate companies based on the EPRA Sustainability Best Practice Recommendations (sBRP). In addition to our annual report and sustainability report, we publish a separate EPRA report every year, which is used for this assessment. In 2021, we received the Gold award for our governance, environmental and social performance for the fourth year running.

CDP – Climate Change

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) helps companies to measure and manage their environmental performance and the associated opportunities and risks. Vonovia has been part of the CDP’s Climate Change Program since 2017. We were awarded a B rating for our performance in 2021. This puts on the same level as the European average and above our direct peer group and global averages.

Sustainalytics

Sustainalytics is an independent, innovative service provider of responsible investment services. Sustainalytics takes all three dimensions of the ESG approach into account to analyze and evaluate the sustainability performance of companies and countries alike. Vonovia further improved its ESG company rating and achieved 85 points. In the ESG risk rating we received a mark of 6.7, putting us in the lowest risk category of “negligible risks”. Vonovia is therefore classed as one of the absolute top performers in an industry comparison, and among the top 30 in a global comparison across all industries.

S&P Global CSA

The S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) evaluates the sustainability performance of around 8,000 international companies. Our performance is assessed in 61 industry-specific categories to encourage companies to bring their corporate strategies into line with social and ecological challenges. In 2021, Vonovia improved on the previous year’s very good ranking, and achieved 68 (2020: 57) out of a possible 100 points. This also consolidated the company’s position in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index Europe.

ISS ESG – ESG Corporate Rating

ISS ESG analyzes a company’s ESG management based on up to 100 criteria, many of which are sector-specific. Vonovia was given Prime status for the first time in 2020, indicating that it is outperforming its peers. The company also improved its rating from C- (2019) to C (2020). This good result was reconfirmed in 2021 and the company’s Prime status was maintained.

MSCI – ESG Research

MSCI ESG Research rates companies on a scale from AAA to CCC based on their ESG-related risk exposure and how they handle these risks compared to other companies. We were upgraded from BBB to A in the annual ranking for 2019 and have maintained this performance ever since.

GRESB

The GRESB (Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark) is an investor-initiated rating system for the sustainability performance of real estate companies. For the time being, we have made the decision to no longer participate in the rating. We have described the reasons for our decision transparently on our Investor Relations website.

In return, we are participating in the GRESB Public Disclosure and achieved a full score (100%) for maximum transparency in 2021. The resulting assessment of A took us to first place in a comparison of German residential real estate companies and is significantly above the global average of C.

Dow Jones Sustainability Index Europe

Our repeated significant improvement in the S&P CSA meant we were able to consolidate our position in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) Europe in 2021. The DJSI index family tracks economic, ecological and social criteria. It was launched in 1999 as a collaboration between Switzerland-based S&P Global (formerly known as SAM) and the Dow Jones Indexes. S&P Global uses positive criteria to select the most sustainable companies for inclusion in the index in question.