Social and Environmental Standards in the Supply Chain

We take the entire life cycle of new construction and refurbishment projects into consideration; this extends to how we procure materials from suppliers. That’s why compliance with social and environmental standards in the supply chain is an important topic for us and part of our sustainability strategy. We are also committed to making sure that all of our construction and refurbishment projects meet health and safety standards. Vonovia manages its partnerships with external partners and service providers through the Business Partner Code, its general terms and conditions of purchasing and individual agreements as part of its structured approach to supplier management. In this way we ensure compliance with all current European procurement standards and regulations. In 2022, we will focus on enhancing our processes in light of the requirements of the Duty of Care in Supply Chains Act (LkSG), which will be applicable in Germany as of January 1, 2023. This process also includes the review of existing guidelines, codes and processes, e.g., the aforementioned Declaration of Respect for Human Rights. An additional benchmark here will be the applicability of the minimum safeguards criteria of the EU Taxonomy. In Sweden, we defined environmental criteria that will be binding for all new suppliers from 2021 onwards. These criteria will be made binding for all other suppliers from 2025 onwards.

The Vonovia partner portal plays a vital role in our sustainable approach to supplier management. Social and environmental standards are integrated into the processes we use to select and approve suppliers (see Sustainable Relationships With Business Partners). We require our partners to observe and apply our product manual in order to promote the procurement of sustainable materials. We also communicate with them regularly about ecologically friendly construction materials. More about compliance with labor and social standards in the supply chain can be found under Respect for and Promotion of Human Rights.