Governance and reporting

The Chairman’s and Governance Committee of Swiss Re’s Board of Directors is responsible for overseeing implementation of our commitment to corporate responsibility. On an operational level, numerous units are involved in applying that commitment in our day-to-day work.

The Sustainability & Political Risk Management Unit carries out coordination tasks and is responsible for the full Corporate Responsibility Report. We have voluntarily reported on our performance as a responsible company since 1998. The range of topics covered in the yearly reports has gradually widened from a focus on environmental topics to include social and governance issues.

Since 2007, we have published a comprehensive Corporate Responsibility Report. The 2012 edition followed the G3.1 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (as far as is sensible for, and applicable to, a business-to-business company in financial services). It also conformed with the disclosure guidelines of the UN Global Compact. Furthermore, the 2012 edition was the first to report progress on the Principles for Sustainable Insurance (PSI, see Sustainable business).

This interim report provides summary information on how we have met our aspirations, beginning with sustainability in our re/insurance business and investment activities. The report also details our actions in reducing our own environmental footprint, particularly in terms of carbon emissions. It also describes at our policies toward employee diversity and engagement.

One of our 2013 goals was to help clients to develop and implement long-term adaptation strategies to climate change based on the Economics of Climate Adaptation (ECA) methodology. This is described in Sustainability in our business: climate change adaptation, and in greater detail Living up to our corporate responsibility of the Business Report.