Our Corporate Responsibility topics, goals and achievements

Advancing the climate transition

In December 2015, nearly 200 governments agreed to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change in the Paris Agreement. The private sector plays a key role in reaching the goals defined in Paris. Swiss Re advances the transition to a low-carbon economy from two angles:

1. Managing climate and natural disaster risk is at the core of what we do. Losses from floods, storms, earthquakes and other natural catastrophes impact the economies of entire countries and are therefore a key driver of the re/insurance business. Such losses are becoming more frequent and severe due to higher insurance penetration and the concentration of assets in exposed areas as well as climate change. By financing disaster risk mitigation and climate adaptation, we can strengthen the resilience of citizens, businesses, local and national economies and societies.

2. Advancing sustainable energy solutions is essential to combat global warming. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions while at the same time satisfying the energy needs of a growing population will be one of the great challenges we face in the coming decades. We continuously invest in our renewable energy research and solutions to help our clients and the global community to develop and establish secure energy supplies for the future.

LINKS TO THE UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS^*

OUR CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY GOALS

• For general strategic objectives, see special section on our climate change strategy in Focus: Climate change.
• Based on our commitment made to the UN, advise 50 sovereigns and sub-sovereigns on climate risk resilience by 2020 and offer them USD 10 billion of re/insurance protection against this risk.
• Use our capacity and technical expertise to provide effective risk covers for complex offshore wind farm projects.

PROGRESS ON OUR CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY GOALS

• By the end of 2017, had advised 66 sovereigns and sub-sovereings on climate risk resilience, offering protection of USD 5.3 billion in total (Our commitments).
• We were involved in further offshore wind projects, mainstream ones as well as an innovative site set up by the Danish Energy Agency to test more efficient technology (Sustainable energy solutions).

Partnering for food security

Meeting the demand for food for the growing world population – estimated to reach 9 billion by 2050 – will be challenging, as supply is constrained by such factors as climate change, depleted agricultural soils and the distribution of land, water and energy. Today, about 800 million people – one in 11 – are chronically hungry and malnourished. Swiss Re is a leader in agricultural insurance markets. We use our experience, expertise and financial strength to provide cutting-edge solutions to all stakeholders of the agricultural value chain. By insuring the agricultural sector, we play a vital role in combatting hunger and poverty.

LINKS TO THE UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS^*

OUR CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY GOALS

• In cooperation with key stakeholders, create solutions to improve food security by giving farmers protection against natural perils.
• Through our commitment to the Grow Africa Partnership, offer up to 1.4 million smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa protection against weather risks by 2017.

PROGRESS ON OUR CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY GOALS

• Completed a pioneering transaction protecting Taiwanese aquaculture farms against extreme rainfall risk and made payouts to 14 000 Kenyan herders, saving approximately 70 000 livestock from drought (Protecting aquaculture in Taiwan against extreme rainfall).
• Met the target of our five-year commitment, helping to bring insurance protection to 1.5 million smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan countries (Our commitments).

Funding longer lives

People are living longer today than ever before, but the share of the working population is shrinking. The costs of funding retirement income, healthcare and long-term care in old age will increase dramatically. This could have significant financial consequences for individuals, insurers, employer pension funds and society in general. Swiss Re is the world’s largest reinsurer of mortality, and life and health reinsurance is part of our core business. We help clients create solutions that better support people across the different phases of ageing and retirement.

LINKS TO THE UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS^*

OUR CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY GOALS

• Use our capacity, technical expertise and natural offset of our mortality business to offer our clients risk transfer solutions for their longevity risk.

PROGRESS ON OUR CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY GOALS

• Completed a number of longevity transactions in recent years and, in 2017, launched a major campaign on how re/insurers can help fund the “ageing wallet”, with fact sheets on six major markets (Funding the needs of ageing consumers: what re/insurers can do to help).

Managing sustainability risks

Sound risk management is essential for a re/insurer. Besides the core categories of our risk landscape (insurance, financial market and credit risk), we also pay attention to further significant risks we may be exposed to, including sustainability risks. We define sustainability risks as ethical concerns related to potential environmental and socio-economic impacts of our business transactions, and the reputational risks they may entail. The risk assessments we make through our Sustainability Risk Framework, an advanced risk management instrument, flow directly into our re/insurance and investment decisions.

LINKS TO THE UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS^*

OUR CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY GOALS

• Consistently identify potential sustainability risks in our business transactions and abstain from them if warranted.
• Increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the Sensitive Business Risk (SBR) process by advancing automation of sustainability risk screening with our proprietary SBR Assessment Tool.
• Engage with clients and industry partners on how to address and reduce sustainability risks in business transactions, especially in high growth markets.

PROGRESS ON OUR CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY GOALS

• Started to develop a thermal coal policy and sharpened our assessments of sustainability risks of dam projects in the Mekong River basin (Focus: Recent refinements to our Sustainability Risk Framework).
• Due to continuous fine-tuning of the SBR Assessment Tool and increasing underwriter awareness, achieved a further fall of transactions referred for an individual assessment (The Sensitive Business Risk process).
• Following publication of our brochure on the Sustainability Risk Framework in 2016, intensified dialogue with clients and other companies on sustainablity risks and related issues (Managing sustainability risks).

Investing responsibly

Institutional investors such as re/insurers are naturally suited to invest responsibly because of their long-term view. Swiss Re systematically integrates environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations into the investment process through its three pillars approach: Enhancement (eg by applying ESG benchmarks), Inclusion (ie thematic investments) and Exclusion.

LINKS TO THE UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS^*

OUR CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY GOALS

• Integrate ESG criteria systematically along our overall investment process.
• Meet our investment target for green bonds of at least USD 1.5 billion.

PROGRESS ON OUR CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY GOALS

• Made a big step forward by shifting our investment portfolio to ESG criteria and/or ESG benchmarks (Responsible investment approach).
• By the end of 2017, we were well advanced in meeting our target of holding at least USD 1.5bn in green bonds (Inclusion).

Engaging our people

We want to be an organisation where diverse talents come together globally to apply fresh perspectives and knowledge to “make the world more resilient”. Once a year, we seek feedback from our employees through the Employee Engagement Survey (EES). The EES is an opportunity to hear from our employees what engages them and what ideas they have to improve their experience at Swiss Re.

LINKS TO THE UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS^*

OUR CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY GOALS

• Continue to build an organisation of diverse people that have a passion to make the world more resilient.
• Achieve a top-quartile employee engagement score (EES>71%).

PROGRESS ON OUR CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY GOALS

• According to EES scores, 84% of our employees feel Swiss Re lives a diverse and inclusive culture. Gender diversity in senior management positions has remained constant since 2016 (Listening to our employees).
• Per 2017, achieved an employee engagement score of 69% (Listening to our employees),

Ensuring good corporate governance and compliance

We consider good corporate governance as a key precondition to ensure sustainability throughout the Group’s activities and indispensable to maintaining long-lasting, valuable relationships with our stakeholders. We conduct business in a legal, fair, ethical and transparent way by adhering to best practices at all times, and apply the principles of our Code of Conduct across all company lines and regions.

LINKS TO THE UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS^*

OUR CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY GOALS

• Continuously assess our corporate governance against regulatory developments, best practice and new stakeholder demands.
• Regularly update our compliance policies as appropriate, oversee effective implementation thereof and deliver meaningful training and communication to our employees.

PROGRESS ON OUR CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY GOALS

• Revised our Corporate Bylaws to anticipate developments and trends, enhanced our conflicts of interest framework as well as Board of Directors educational sessions and trainings (Ensuring good corporate governance and compliance).
• Launched new policy governance framework and policy management tool, and simplified Global Policies architecture. Delivered mandatory compliance trainings for new and existing employees as well as risk-based tailored trainings (Compliance: Code of Conduct).

Reducing our environmental footprint

As a knowledge company in the financial services sector, our environmental impacts through our own operations are limited. Nonetheless, we firmly believe it is important for a responsible company to minimise its environmental footprint, thus leading by example. Tackling our CO₂ emissions and reducing energy consumption are key targets across the Group. Our pioneering initiatives include the Greenhouse Neutral Programme and the CO_you2 Programme.

LINKS TO THE UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS^*

OUR CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY GOALS

• Keep per-capita CO₂ emissions from our own operations at 2013 levels, which we had reduced by 49.3% in the ten years since 2003.
• Reduce our energy intensity by an average 2% per year.
• Obtain 100% of power used for our own operations from renewable sources by 2020.
• Include our tier 1 and tier 2 vendors in the EcoVadis platform by 2020.

PROGRESS ON OUR CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY GOALS

• Achieved a reduction of our per-capita CO₂ emissions by 1.9% compared with 2013 (Goals and scope).
• Since 2013, achieved a total reduction of 24.3% (CO₂ emissions and underlying environmental data).
• At the end of 2017, covered 84% of our total power consumption from renewable sources (Renewable energy and RE100/EP100).
• Implementation completed for 13% of our tier 1 and 2 vendors, and ongoing or ready to start for 30% (Sustainability in our supply chain).

Advancing access to insurance

Access to insurance is an important contributor to economic development. However, 60% of the world’s population still remain excluded from appropriate insurance products. We work on advancing public awareness of the societal value of insurance and the role insurance plays in achieving sustainable economic development. We further evaluate our contribution on selected Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

LINKS TO THE UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS^*

OUR CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY GOALS

• Advance our understanding of the societal impact of insurance and develop metrics to measure our impact on stakeholders.

PROGRESS ON OUR CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY GOALS

• Produced a sigma study on the value of re/insurance for development in emerging markets (Advancing access to insurance) and conducted a pilot analysis of the social output of our Life Capital Buiness Unit (Social output analysis for Life Capital).

Navigating the digital transformation

The digital transformation has the potential to radically transform the insurance industry. New analytical techniques such as smart analytics, Big Data and FinTech boost innovation and modernisation in product design, distribution, claims management and fraud detection. As Swiss Re develops its “digital DNA”, we are also advancing industry awareness of ethical challenges surrounding the digital transformation.

LINKS TO THE UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS^*

OUR CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY GOALS

• Refine our understanding of societal challenges related to the digital transformation.

PROGRESS ON OUR CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY GOALS

• Started a reseach partnership on “Ethical and Legal Big Data Challenges in the Insurance Industry” with academic partners and contributed to a publication produced by the Chief Risk Officer Forum (Navigating the digital transformation).

Swiss Re Foundation: Empowering communities

The Swiss Re Foundation reflects the social and humanitarian values of Swiss Re. It partners with social entrepreneurs, aid organisations, researchers, Swiss Re employees and clients to help communities increase their resilience. The Foundation’s initiatives address the causes and effects of risks in four areas – climate, natural hazards, water and society – both in emerging and developing countries and in regions where Swiss Re has offices.

LINKS TO THE UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS^*

OUR CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY GOALS

• Contribute to resilient societies by increasingly engaging Swiss Re employees with their skills and expertise.

PROGRESS ON OUR CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY GOALS

• Continuing to create new opportunities for our employees to support the Swiss Re Foundation’s partners with their expertise, 14% of the project portfolio encompassed an employee engagement component at the end of 2017 (see the Foundation’s 2017 Activity Report page 26-27).