For several years, Vivico has been involved in the establishment of principles that are intended to ensure proper and fair corporate governance in the real estate industry. For this purpose, the company worked on the development of binding and verifiable standards of conduct as a pilot project by the Corporate Governance Initiative (Initiative Corporate Governance der deutschen Immobilienwirtschaft e.V. – ICG). As a result, Vivico established a value management system, which has now been recognised with the ICG certification.

Bärbel Schomberg, Chairwoman of the Executive Board at ICG, explained upon awarding the certification that “Vivico is a pioneer in the industry in which today it is more important than ever to act in a professional, responsible and trustworthy manner. Real estate companies play a key role in shaping living spaces and thus the social environment.”

“Only when we conduct ourselves in a transparent and comprehensible manner can we ensure the trust of our customers, business partners, investors[w1], and last but not least our own employees,” emphasised Bernhard H. Hansen, Chairman of the Vivico Board of Directors. This primarily has to do with internal and external acceptance. “Our economic success is also determined by how we communicate our rules of conduct and thus provide orientation.”

In early 2010 Vivico put together a team to act throughout the company, which reviewed and revised all previous compliance regulations. This was followed by the development of the certifiable value management system. Executives and employees worked together to develop basic values of their business activities and derived standards of conduct from this for the entire company. In a next step the Vivico staff were trained using workshops and case studies. All executives and employees then pledged to abide by the new rules of conduct.

For example, Vivico clearly regulates the awarding of contracts based on guidelines. Furthermore, in all business decisions ethical principles are observed, which includes a foresighted credit assessment as well as fair dealings with competitors. Social conduct in the company and the sustainable business policy geared towards future generations are also part of value management at Vivico.

All rules of conduct have been published in a handbook on the Internet and are reviewed and modified on a regular basis. Vivico business partners are also informed about the rules of conduct and are obligated to comply with them.