Corporate responsibility

Swiss Re has a long-standing commitment to being a responsible company. A key element in our understanding of what this means is the desire to contribute to sustainable, long-term value creation. Based on our values, doing business the Swiss Re way includes:

“Taking the long-term view and playing our part in enabling sustainable progress – for stakeholders and society in general.”

This approach is also in our own best interest: it strengthens our capabilities to identify, and address, both risks and opportunities manifesting themselves in the longer run and, as a consequence, to retain our licence to operate.

Climate-related financial disclosures

Among issues that may threaten sustainable progress, climate change represents a key concern for the re/insurance business. This is why we have recently played an active part in a task force set up by the Financial Stability Board to develop “climate-related financial disclosures” (www.fsb-tcfd.org).

Starting from the premise that climate change creates physical, liability and transition risks, the TCFD’s aim is to offer consistent and effective financial disclosures that allow investors and other stakeholders to properly assess the climate risks faced by companies and to take appropriate action.

We began to implement the recommended TCFD disclosures in our 2016 Financial Report and are significantly expanding them in the present report, devoting the whole “corporate responsibility” chapter to this important topic. The table under TCFD Governance provides an overview of the core elements of the disclosures, which are covered on the following pages.

To learn more about our overarching commitment as a responsible company and a full account of our recent actions and achievements, we invite you to read our stand-alone 2017 Corporate Responsibility Report.