Our CSR strategy supports our company mission to be the outstanding competitor in our chosen markets.
Our CSR strategy focuses on three core objectives, which are material to our business.
Our core objectives are to:
- address the business risks and opportunities of climate change;
- reduce the environmental impact of our business; and support the communities in which we operate.
We have identified these issues as material because of their potential to influence:
- our cost controls and, therefore, our profitability;
- revenue opportunities and, therefore, our growth;
- our brand and reputation;
- our ability to attract and retain employees, customers and clients;
- our employees’ morale, commitment and productivity;
- the view of our major shareholder, Allianz SE;
- our relationships with other companies, suppliers, peers, customers and the communities in which we operate.
The materiality of each issue to our business is detailed below.
Addressing Climate Change
Climate change is both a significant risk and opportunity for the insurance industry. Climate change threatens the very philosophy of insurance; our business is based on analysing retrospective risk and insuring future events but the impacts of climate change are unknown and unpredictable. Clearly it is essential that we address these risks and opportunities and align them with our business strategy.
What we do know is that climate change will change the frequency and severity of weather events and increase the risk of damage to insured property and assets. We are undertaking research into climate change which will inform our business strategy to help protect our customers’ and stakeholders’ interests. This research will help us to identify product and investment opportunities in new growth markets; such as clean technologies and renewable energy for tackling climate change.
Reducing Our Environmental Impact
Our business operations have an impact on the environment; by consuming energy and resources we generate emissions of greenhouse gases and waste. We therefore aim to reduce our environmental impact by being more efficient and using fewer resources. In doing so, we will not only reduce our environmental impact, but also reduce our operating costs; protect ourselves from rising energy, resource and landfill costs – ultimately protecting our operating profit.
Supporting Communities
As an organisation, Allianz supports local and national charities through direct financial contributions. We also encourage all employees to get involved in fundraising and volunteering for our chosen charities and community groups. We believe our approach to supporting communities – and the involvement of our employees – helps make us a great company to work for.
However, we know our overall impact on society is far greater than just our community support activities. Through the creation of jobs; the selling and marketing of insurance; detection of insurance fraud, dealing with customer issues, workplace health and safety policies; and employee learning and development; we have a much greater impact on communities than the amount of money we donate to charities.
These areas are important issues within our company and should be recognised as important aspects of our ‘social responsibility’. Currently, our CSR strategy does not explicitly address these issues but, as we develop and review our strategy we will consider how best to incorporate these areas and disclose how they are managed within Allianz.
