Policies and principles

AvalonBay understands the importance of continually advancing our ESG practices through a set of principles and policies that guide our actions and commitments. As such, we have developed the following principles and policies to reflect the importance of environmental sustainability and human rights throughout our operations and in concert with our vendor partners.

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

In recognition that we have a role to play in communicating good environmental practices to all our stakeholders, click here for a copy of our environmental policy.

BUILDING CERTIFIED AND CLIMATE RESILIENCY POLICY

This policy shows our commitment to green building while taking climate risk into consideration for new developments.

HUMAN RIGHTS STATEMENT

AvalonBay is committed to the protection and advancement of human rights and to ensuring that our operations in all of our regions function with integrity. The principles outlined in our Human Rights Statement relate to and confirm key commitments and principles in both our Code of Business Conduct and our Responsible Procurement Principles.

RESPONSIBLE PROCUREMENT PRINCIPLES

At AvalonBay we expect all suppliers with whom we do business to maintain and keep current appropriate management policies, procedures and controls whose scope aligns to and supports the procurement principles outlined in the Responsible Procurement Principles document (click here for a copy of the document). Each of these principles are of individual importance and will be weighted equally in determining whether to engage a supplier to provide product and/or services on an ongoing basis.

HUMAN RIGHTS

We expect all suppliers to support and respect the protection of human rights and to ensure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses that may stem from:

  • • Harassment, harsh or inhumane treatment
  • • Health and safety violations
  • • Restrictions to freedom of association and collective bargaining
  • • Forced labor
  • • Child labor
  • • Wages, benefits, working hours violations

ENVIRONMENT

We also expect all suppliers to minimize their impact on the environment.

This includes:

  • • Pollution
  • • Waste
  • • Hazardous materials

VENDOR CODE OF CONDUCT

All vendors, contractors and suppliers must follow specific requirements regarding:

  • • Accuracy, reporting and record keeping
  • • AvalonBay assets and information
  • • Bribes and kickbacks
  • • Gifts and entertainment
  • • Conflicts of interest
  • • Insider trading
  • • Involvement with vendors

WORKFORCE REPORTING (EEO-1 )

At AvalonBay, we believe promoting and creating a diverse and inclusive environment where everyone can thrive is important. AvalonBay embraces the diversity that our associates bring to our workplace and believes that these differences help drive engagement, innovation and company success.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) requires employers to submit an EEO-1 report on an annual basis. The report breaks down an employer's workforce by race, ethnicity and gender across job categories established by the EEOC. Here is a link to the 2021 EEO-1 report, submitted in 2022.