Disclosure and accountability

We have voluntarily reported on our performance as a responsible company since 1998. Over the years, the range of topics covered in these yearly reports has gradually widened. While early editions had a strong focus on environmental concerns, later editions gradually extended their focus to social and governance issues. Since 2007, we have published a comprehensive Corporate Responsibility Report, guided by best practice in corporate responsibility reporting.

Content definition

The structure of the present report reflects our Commitment to Corporate Responsibility: each business area specified as relevant there is covered by an individual chapter – with one exception: Our role as an active citizen in society is described in a separate report published by the Swiss Re Foundation (see “The Swiss Re Foundation”). Thus, the report includes the following five main chapters:

The content presented in these chapters reflects the material issues within the respective areas, as listed in “Overview of all material issues”.

An additional chapter highlights some key features of Swiss Re’s corporate governance regime, including the Group Code of Conduct:

In our 2011 Corporate Responsibility Report we first included special sections in addition to the core chapters: Under the heading of “Corporate responsibility in context”, they provide some background information on important sustainability topics. In this year’s edition we present one such section:

Scope

Our Corporate Responsibility Report covers the whole Swiss Re Group, ie the publicly listed holding company Swiss Re Ltd., its three Business Units Reinsurance, Corporate Solutions and Admin Re®, and all directly or indirectly held subsidiaries. As in past years, its scope is limited to Swiss Re’s own operations. Although we provide information on our sourcing and procurement policies, we do not report on the performance of our suppliers because the re/insurance business does not involve an extensive supply chain. However, since 2013, we have been disclosing some of the emissions caused along our supply chain (Scope 3 emissions).

To get a complete overview of our actions as a responsible company, this report should be read in conjunction with the annual report published by the Swiss Re Foundation (see “The Swiss Re Foundation”).

Independent assurance

This is the second year that the five main chapters of the report have received independent assurance from PricewaterhouseCoopers. Their assurance statement is included in Independent assurance report.

Reporting frameworks

Insofar as is applicable to a business-to-business company in financial services, this report takes into account the G3.1 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative, GRI (www.globalreporting.org). The detailed GRI Content Index is included in “GRI Content Index”.

Furthermore, the present report incorporates our 2014 Communication on Progress for the UN Global Compact (www.unglobalcompact.org). In line with the United Nations’ recommendations, references to the Compact’s ten principles are incorporated into the GRI Content Index. For the third consecutive year, we also report against the Principles for Sustainable Insurance, PSI (www.unepfi.org/psi). You can find our Public Disclosure of Progress in “PSI – Our Public Disclosure of Progress”.

The present report follows the 2013 edition and covers the calendar year of 2014. We plan to maintain our annual publishing cycle and to present our next Corporate Responsibility Report in the second quarter of 2016, covering the year of 2015.