Objective

The objective of the annual report is to provide the reader with a comprehensive view of VR Group’s operations in 2021. The annual report describes VR Group’s financial performance and business development. The annual report also describes the Group’s sustainability commitments and principles as well as the achieved results and future prospects.

The annual report 2021 is published in digital format on the VR Group’s website in Finnish and English. The annual report includes the following documents: the Report of the Board of Directors and Financial Statements 2021, the Corporate Responsibility Report and GRI Index 2021, the Remuneration Policy 2022 and Remuneration Report 2021, and the Corporate Governance Statement 2021.

The Corporate Governance Statement adheres to the Corporate Governance Code 2020 issued by the Securities Market Association. The Remuneration Policy 2022 and Remuneration Report 2021 adhere to the Government Resolution on Ownership Steering Policy and have been drawn up in accordance with the Corporate Governance Code 2020 and the EU Shareholder Rights Directive where applicable.

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards have been applied as the framework for corporate responsibility reporting. The Corporate Responsibility Report 2021 has been externally assured by Mitopro Oy in accordance with the international assurance standard AA1000 (AA1000 AS v3, 2020, type 2). Based on the external assurance, the Corporate Responsibility Report meets the requirements of the GRI Core standards.

Previously published reports

VR Group publishes an annual report annually in digital format. Annual reports have been published consecutively during the period 2009–2021. Prior to 2009, the Group published an annual review annually. Separate corporate responsibility reports have been drawn up as part of the Group’s annual reporting and, prior to 2005, an environmental report was drawn up once every two years.

Target groups

VR Group’s annual report is intended for all of VR Group’s stakeholders, including decision-makers, the public authorities and the Group’s corporate and private customers.

Reporting boundaries

The information in the annual report is for the financial year 2021. The annual report covers VR Group’s operating segments: VR Passenger Services, VR Transpoint (logistics business), VR FleetCare (maintenance) and other operations, which include train operations, property operations and corporate services.

For Pohjolan Liikenne and Avecra, which are under VR Group’s Passenger Services segment, and for VR Transpoint’s road logistics, the reported corporate responsibility indicators include the data that can be collected with the systems currently in use. This does not have a material effect on the data on the Group and its subsidiaries, or the comparability of the data. As a rule, the international operations of VR Transpoint’s road logistics are not included in the corporate responsibility indicators. Only the environmental indicators are included in the reporting.

Data on subcontractors’ operations is not reported in VR Group’s Corporate Responsibility Report. However, the fuel consumption figures and emission data include data on VR Transpoint’s road logistics subcontractors, because road logistics operations are mainly carried out using subcontractors’ fleet.

The annual report does not cover matters falling within purview of the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency or the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency (Traficom), such as the state-owned railway network or its development and maintenance.

Sources

Several people from all of VR Group’s business areas, service units and different areas of responsibility participate in the compilation of the annual report data. The work is steered by the annual report project team. The annual report is presented to the Group’s Board of Directors and Supervisory Board.

The information in the annual report is collected from multiple sources. The information related to economic responsibility are based on the Group’s audited and adopted financial statements. The personnel indicators are based on the Group’s employee statistics. The safety indicators are based on data from VR Group’s internal safety reporting system.

The environmental figures concerning energy consumption and waste are based partly on monitoring data collected from operating units and partly on suppliers’ reports and invoicing. The origin of electricity and the energy sources used in electricity production are based on data from electricity suppliers. Emission calculations are based on data from multiple sources, including Statistics Finland, the Lipasto calculation model of VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, and the Exiobase input-output analysis model funded by Defra (UK Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs) and the EU.