1. Annual report 2015
  2. VR Group
  3. Description of the annual report
  • Supervisory Board
  • Risk management
  • Insider administration
  • Audit
  • Internal audit
  • Remuneration
  • VR City Traffic
  • Properties
  • Conductor
  • For the investor

    • Description of the annual report

    Objective

    The objective of this annual report is to give readers a balanced picture of VR Group's operations in 2015. The annual report provides an overview of VR Group's business operations and financial performance. The annual report also details the Group's commitments to responsible business and the principles governing them, the results already achieved and future prospects.

    Previous reports

    VR Group has previously published six annual reports (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014) and three corporate responsibility reports (2005, 2007 and 2008). Before that the Group published an environmental report every second year from 1998 onwards. The annual report is published once a year.

    Target groups

    VR Group’s annual report is intended for all who are interested in the Group. The different sections of the online report contain information that may interest different stakeholders. Many sections of the report are meant primarily for policy makers, the public authorities and the Group’s corporate customers.

    The 2015 annual report is published in electronic form on VR Group's website in Finnish and English.

    Scope of the annual report and calculation limits

    The information in this annual report covers the 2015 financial year. The annual report covers all business operations of VR Group.

    The responsibility indicators do not include VR Transpoint's road logistics or VR Track’s international operations. The responsibility data reported for Pohjolan Liikenne and Avecra in the passenger services division, VR Transpoint’s road logistics and VR Track represents the information that can be collected with the systems currently in use. This does not have a significant impact on the data for the Group or subsidiaries or on the comparability of the figures.

    The environmental indicators only include the information on the Group's Finnish operations.

    The annual report of VR Group does not include information about the operations of subcontractors. Only the figures for fuel consumption include the fuel consumed by VR Transpoint’s road logistic subcontractors, as subcontractors are responsible for most of the road logistics transports.

    The report does not cover the operations for which the Finnish Transport Agency or the Finnish Transport Safety Agency are responsible, such as the state-owned railway network or its development.

    Sources

    A large number of persons from VR Group’s various business divisions and responsibility sectors participate in compiling the figures in the annual report. A coordination team oversees the work. The annual report is presented to the Group's Board of Directors and Supervisory Board.

    The data for this report has been collected from numerous sources.

    • Information about financial responsibility is derived from the Group’s audited accounts and adopted financial statements.
    • Figures for personnel are based on the Group’s staff statistics.
    • Safety indicators are based on the information collected from VR Group's internal safety reporting system (TUTTI).
    • The environmental figures for energy consumption and waste are based partly on monitoring data compiled by the business divisions and partly on supplier reports and invoicing. Data on traffic emissions is obtained using the LIPASTO system of calculations applied by the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT). The origin of the electricity and the energy sources used in electricity production are based on data provided by electricity suppliers.

    Management is described in operating policies and guidelines specific to areas of responsibility. There are definitions in the ERP systems of the different Group companies, and in the environmental management system, the rail safety management system, the occupational safety management system and the data security management system. More detailed information about the systems is provided in separate tables under each of the five responsibility themes of this report.

    The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G4 guidelines have been used as the reference framework for this report. In VR Group’s own assessment, the Group has applied the Core reporting guidelines. The 2015 report has not been verified.