Aviva Canada takes great step towards sustainability
But is that all it takes to be a 5-Star Carrier?
With dialogues over climate change resilience now front and centre – Canada’s new National Adaptation Strategy and the COP15’s Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework serving as very recent and crucial examples – it is high time that the insurance industry took a lead role in helping mitigate future risks. And Aviva is taking that great first step.
When Insurance Business asked Aviva Canada SVP corporate affairs Court Elliott why the company was previously awarded P&C Insurer of the Year, he said that the company’s recent sustainability efforts and community efforts were likely big factors in why it won.
“We’re constantly pushing the envelope when it comes to things like sustainability; we’re constantly out there, growing and evolving and investing in the community,” said Elliott.
Aviva has been making good on its pledge to become a sustainable insurer; earlier this month, the insurer released its inaugural biodiversity annual report, which examines the company’s commitments to biodiversity in relation to investments and underwriting activity.
The report noted that Aviva’s key achievements since the launch of its biodiversity policy a year ago include the development of a classification system for biodiversity risk; significant engagement with organisations on biodiversity issues; the launch of a natural capital transition fund; and the acquisition of 6,300 hectares of Scottish moorland in West Aberdeenshire for afforestation and peatland restoration.
“Last year, we committed to report annually on biodiversity,” said Aviva group chief executive Amanda Blanc. “Having policies on climate-related issues without reporting on progress is no longer enough; all businesses need to be transparent about their impact on biodiversity, and this report is a good start.”
But Blanc also said that “far more is required” from the company and the rest of the financial sector if they are to reverse nature loss this decade.
