Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)

In September 2015, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development that includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Whilst the objectives of the SDGs are wider than the focus of ESG and are intended as targets for governments, many businesses choose to align their ESG and business strategies with the goals of the SDGs, as they provide a strategic framework for businesses to track performance, set goals and communicate with various stakeholders.

In 2022 the Institute developed a series of ESG targets which are aligned to the SDGs, in order to turn global challenges into business opportunities whilst also making a positive impact.

The Institute’s ESG policy has defined outcomes under each of the areas of environment, society and governance for both the organisation and for our professions. Additionally, it recognises the efforts the Institute already currently undertakes in each of these areas:

Environment

The Institute is committed to reducing its impact on the environment, and encouraging others to do the same. The Institute has long been part of the discussion around the importance of tackling climate change and the risks it brings in its wake and has been a signatory to the ClimateWise principles since its creation. The Institute already has a relatively small carbon footprint due to its reduced office space, hybrid working, low levels of travel, and predominance of digital products. As the office space is sub-let, the way the Institute consumes electricity, water and other resources is largely controlled by building management, although we recognise more could be done to identify other areas of improvement such as use of paper and other consumables.

Social

The Institute is committed to being an open professional community of members, learners and colleagues, where everyone feels free to be themselves. The purpose of the CII – to build public trust in the insurance and financial planning professions – ensures that our success as a professional body is directly aligned with goals related to a well-functioning society, including providing inclusive and equitable quality education and life-long learning opportunities, building financial resilience, and ensuring good, inclusive customer outcomes for the end users and beneficiaries of professional advice and products. As a result, many of our activities support this area, including working with networks to attract diverse talent into our professions, creating content and running CPD events focused on topics such as equality, diversity and inclusion and vulnerable customers, working with Chartered firms to promote initiatives undertaken under the ‘Serving Society’ tenet of the Chartered Ethos and making it easier for members and students with disabilities to be able to access our resources, materials and qualifications. We are open about our progress as an employer, by publishing our gender pay gap and ethnicity pay gap annually. We set internal targets related to equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and regularly measure and identify actions to further improve.

Governance

The Institute is committed to responsible business practices and good corporate governance and strives to comply with the relevant corporate governance codes – even when not legally required to do so. This year, we have updated a number of internal policies including our whistleblowing and grievance policies, and conflict of interest policy, to ensure that we are aligned with best practice and comply with the requirements on us as a professional body.

The Institute’s Governance Team works with internal and external stakeholders to ensure the operational structure of the Institute is effective, consistent and transparent. 

 

History

2008 - published our third major study into the effects of climate change for the insurance sector, building on previous works in 1994 and 2001; joined ClimateWise, a group of insurance organisations committed to acting to reduce the risk of climate change, as one of its first non-corporate members.

2009 - strategic statement made in Annual Review; formally adopted an environment policy

2015 - to coincide with the landmark Paris COP-21 climate change conference, the CII published a report on the issues and the implications of the conference for insurance. This was prepared for us by Dr Andrew Dlugolecki FCII, Chartered Insurer, former insurance practitioner with Aviva, former member of the Nobel Peace Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and editor of our 2008 report Coping with Climate Change. The Last Generation? provided an expert analysis of the concerns relating specifically to insurance leading up to the Paris climate change conference, the agreements made, and their implications for the sector.

 

ClimateWise

As a member of ClimateWise we are committed to demonstrating our action on climate change through the following six principles:

• Lead in risk analysis
• Inform public policy making
• Support climate awareness amongst our customers
• Incorporate climate change into our investment strategies
• Reduce the environmental impact of our business
• Report and be accountable

We are also in a unique position to influence other key stakeholders, including policymakers, through thought leadership such as research, articles, public statements, and collaboration.

 

Further reading

• CII Broking Community report - ESG: The Brokers’ Perspective
• Paris climate change conference and its implications for insurance