Strong corporate governance and ethics, engaged corporate citizenship and minimizing our impact on the environment is beneficial to all our stakeholders – our shareholders, our partners, our tenants, our residents and our employees. We believe that implementing smart policies to support these elements is essential to delivering long-term superior results and sustained excellence.
Our commitments are driven by the Ventas ESG (Environmental, Social & Governance) Steering Committee and ESG Reporting Working Group. Led by our Director of Sustainability, these groups bring together interdisciplinary professionals from across our organization to define and implement our ESG strategy, objectives and reporting, including policies, goals and targets.
Initiated in 2018, the company conducted an in-depth ESG prioritization assessment, following the guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). This exercise, also known as a materiality assessment, is an evidence-based, objective process that identifies the ESG topics which matter most to Ventas internally and to our external stakeholders. Comprehensive analysis included:
- Benchmarking: external sources including peer reports, regulatory and industry trends, reporting frameworks, and city climate plans
- Interviews: a cross-functional selection of Ventas leaders, external stakeholders, including Board Members, key operating partners, and investors
- Analysis: internal financial documents and peer, investor and community reports, for evidence to assess the relative importance of each topic to internal and external stakeholders
Applying a customized weighting framework to our findings, topics were prioritized and plotted on a matrix that was validated by the Ventas executive leadership team. Ventas will continue to use the GRI framework as part of our annual corporate sustainability reporting. Based on this process, Ventas will set sustainability goals that align with our business strategies and will report performance against the prioritized key topics.
