Strategy
Foundation for our sustainable strategy
The strategy Vonovia introduced at the time of its IPO has reached a high degree of maturity and has proven its viability and flexibility. It achieved sustainable improvements in customer satisfaction, addressed new demands and successfully established new business models. This strategy still consists of the four basic approaches: the property management strategy, the financing strategy, the portfolio management strategy and the Value-add strategy. The two additional approaches, making acquisitions as and when opportunities present themselves and pursuing internationalization, continue to support and round off the four basic approaches. The nursing care activities are currently being subjected to a strategic review by Deutsche Wohnen.
Not only the increasingly dynamic development of megatrends, but also the ever louder calls made by various stakeholder groups for a sustainable business model mean that the focal points of the company’s strategy have to be reviewed on an ongoing basis and, in particular, the sustainability aspects of this strategy, which has proven so successful to date, have to be given even greater attention and be enhanced in a targeted manner to ensure the future viability of Vonovia’s strategy and business model.
The strategy, which will continue to have a commercially successful business model at its core in the future as well, explicitly addresses the following sustainability issues:
- Contribution to climate protection and reducing CO2 (E).
- Social responsibility for our tenants, customers and employees (S).
- Trustworthy, reliable and transparent corporate governance based on the best-practice guidelines set out in the Corporate Governance Code (G).
The strategy also specifically addresses the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well as the specific ESG targets set by European and national standard setters. With this in mind, Vonovia has defined its own climate path. The integration of sustainability into the strategy is also reflected in the expansion of the management system to include non-financial key figures, in particular in the form of the introduction of the Sustainability Performance Index.
Vonovia has an organizational unit reporting to the CEO to coordinate and drive sustainability aspects in the context of the strategy and the business model. A steering group, the Sustainability Committee, has also been set up. It includes the entire Management Board as well as the individuals responsible for sustainability, corporate communications, investor relations, controlling, accounting and business innovation.
In order to calibrate its sustainability endeavors correctly, Vonovia conducts a regular materiality analysis or reviews this analysis to define areas for action and develop a sustainability roadmap based on the results.
Solutions for climate protection in the housing industry using innovations and new technologies will be largely implemented in our neighborhoods in a cost-effective manner to allow us to continue to design urban, environmentally friendly and affordable housing in a socially responsible manner. Another way in which Vonovia lives up to its social responsibility is via its neighborhood development projects.
Trustworthy, reliable and transparent governance is supplemented by ESG risk management that takes the opportunities and risks derived from the action areas and the recommendations made by the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) into account.
Greater attention is also being paid to effects on sustainability-related impacts.