Reducing our environmental impact
We’re working hard to reduce the risks posed by climate change, as well as being energy efficient and conserving natural resources
Since our last report
Looking ahead
Highlights
Carbon footprint
reduction in CO2 emissions from 2007
Waste management
increase in waste
(we’ve set ourselves tough targets for 2009)
Paper usage
decrease in paper consumption
Buildings in an urban regeneration project in Bermondsey, London – funded by Igloo Regeneration Partnership, managed by Aviva Investors – have A-rated energy performance.
Climate change and Aviva
Addressing climate change is Aviva’s most pressing environmental priority. As an insurer, we understand only too well the human and economic cost of floods, storms and extreme weather. Many experts point to the increase in frequency and severity of climate-related events as proof that global atmospheric patterns are changing.
Climate change is a risk that’s here to stay. There’s much to be done, nationally and internationally, and Aviva is committed to addressing the issue – through a combination of using our control, influence and concern:
- Controlling our own carbon footprint, mainly through energy efficiency, new technologies and purchasing zero emission electricity, but also offsetting any emissions we are unable to deal with by other methods.
- Influencing and encouraging our customers, suppliers and the companies we invest in to minimise their own impacts.
- We demonstrate our concern through active involvement in cross-sectoral business and public initiatives in the UK and elsewhere.
Protecting against harm, damage and loss is what we’re here to do, but our job is not just to help our customers get back to normal after suffering from floods, storms and other life traumas. We also have a vested interest in alleviating the underlying cause of climate change, which is man-made global warming. Once again we have reduced our CO2 emissions from energy consumption.
Our 2008 CO2 emissions are down by 6.6% when we compare our operations on a like-for-like basis to 2007, and by 3.3% overall. Since 2000, we’ve reduced our emissions by 14%, achieved in the context of strong company growth.
Carbon reduction initiatives
We maintain a strong focus on energy efficiency. We are also driving forward with our telepresence (videoconferencing) system and continue to promote its use. Between April (when the system was launched) and November 2008 we used it for 1,700 hours of meetings and saw a reduction of 25% of air travel-related CO2 emissions for those employees using it from its launch (our target was 10%).
Encouraging such shifts in behaviour is necessary if we’re to meet our carbon reduction targets and we recognise the huge part all our employees play in this. That’s why for the first time in 2008, all carbon reduction targets are included in the personal objectives of our executives, directly linking environmental performance at regional level with incentive remuneration.
Influence and concern
Climate change mitigation is part of many of our business activities – from the development of commercial opportunities to the sharing of learning. Here are some examples:
Sustainable and responsible investment
The Aviva Investors European Renewable Energy Fund was launched in 2008, specialising in developing and financing renewable energy projects in the EU. It aims to capitalise on investor interest and binding targets of the EU to increase sustainable energy consumption to 20% from 8.5% by 2020. The fund portfolio will include solar photovoltaic, geothermal, biomass, biogas and wind assets.
Joining forces with others
Aviva was a founding signatory of ClimateWise, a sector-wide collaboration now comprising over 40 companies, including global insurance firms. The group set out to create guiding principles around insurance-specific responses to climate change in the areas of risk analysis, public policy making, supporting awareness among customers, incorporation of climate change into investment strategies, reducing environmental impacts and reporting. We attend both the management committee and the working group and reported for the first time against the principles in 2008. Our adherence to the principles was reviewed by Forum for the Future who found Aviva fully compliant in all areas of the principles.
Read our full response to the ClimateWise principles
Products to help change behaviours
How we design, produce and market our products can influence our customers positively. As part of our ‘Prestige for Property Owners’ bespoke insurance solution, Aviva provides assistance to UK property owners to become carbon neutral and offers access to specialist services such as energy audits.
Our people and climate change
We encourage our employees to make a difference where they can. For example, every Australian employee is incentivised to improve energy and water efficiency at home and Aviva matches Australian government rebates up to an amount of AUS$300.
Challenges in carbon management
Measuring and managing our carbon footprint is no simple undertaking and there are challenges at several levels. As a UK-headquartered company, we support the efforts by our own government and others internationally. However, the picture is still evolving. In the UK, for example, there is no definitive approach yet on mandatory targets for business, the level at which these might be set and the timing and impact of costs on businesses.
Accurate monitoring of corporate footprints, by corporates themselves, is also work in progress. Methods vary and there is no single accounting standard that would provide comparability. For our part, we are continually improving how we collect, measure and report environmental data. This year, for example, we have moved to an online data collection and reporting system. Our approach has been influenced by the Accounting for Sustainability framework, which we helped to develop. For the second year, we follow its guidelines in reporting our key environmental indicators.
As well as managing our direct emissions, we want to enable our customers to choose products to help mitigate climate change. Our Pay As You Drive™ car insurance, launched in the UK in 2003 and later adopted in Canada, is one example of innovation, but it is also an example of the challenges involved. Pay As You Drive™ offers drivers the ability to make informed choices about when, where and how often they use their car, with lower premiums available for lower mileage – good news for the environment too. In 2008 we extended Pay As You Drive™ to France and Turkey. However, Pay As You Drive™ was removed from the UK market in June 2008 by Norwich Union, a difficult decision taken after very careful consideration. This points to the challenges involved in developing new, responsible products. Questions remain about how to stimulate the market and incentivise consumers – and who should act first in order to create demand. There is no doubt that governments, individuals and businesses all have equally important parts to play and we remain committed to acting where we can.
Other impacts
Water
We are intensifying our water conservation efforts, especially as we operate in countries where it is scarce. For example, the state of Victoria, where our Australian head office is located, will be receiving two-thirds of its drinking water from desalination plants by 2012.
In 2008 our water consumption decreased by 1% compared to 2007. We aim to reduce water use by 4% in 2009.
Our water reduction target will be challenging but the conservation measures we are putting in place are part of our commitment to reducing consumption. These include flow straighteners, reduced water consumption urinals, measured toilet flushing cisterns (UK), reduced-flow taps (France head office), the use of grey water for flushing toilet cisterns and garden-watering (India head office), and timed water systems (Canada head office). As these are rolled out we hope to see the benefits achieved in our next report.
Waste and recycling
We now recycle 84% of waste, which exceeds the recycling target we set ourselves of 80%.
In 2008 our waste volume increased by 2% compared to 2007. In 2009 we aim to reduce the volume of waste by 4%.
Paper
We aim for our written communications to be as concise as possible without compromising clarity or regulatory requirements; we source paper with recycled content and we recycle paper waste. For example, through online tools, Hibernian Aviva in Ireland enables brokers to choose to suppress the amount of documentation generated.
We reduced total paper consumption by approximately 14% in 2008.
More detailed data on all our environmental impacts is available on the environmental performance page.
Case study
Saving wood, saving CO2
We offset our outstanding carbon emissions by retrospectively investing in a balance of social and commercial projects around the world that generate carbon credits. In rural East Africa we have joined forces with NGO CO2 balance to help householders replace open fires that they use for cooking with energy-efficient stoves. As well as being 70% more energy efficient, villagers don’t have to spend as much time collecting firewood and more efficient stoves also mean less wood is burnt, so helping to prevent deforestation. A further benefit is that the stoves are built within the villages, creating employment in local areas. Such offsetting projects are part of our carbon reduction strategy and helped us to become the first carbon neutral insurance company on a worldwide basis, which we achieved in 2006.
Case study
Why mangroves matter for carbon capture
The capture and storage of carbon (known as sequestration) is an important area of research in climate change mitigation. Aviva is providing five-year funding for an Earthwatch investigation into the sequestration potential of mangroves in Kenya, which will also provide an economic model for avoiding deforestation and ensuring the sustainability of these natural flood defences. Projects involving the use of forests as carbon sinks have been criticised by some as the planting of trees can dry out soil and compromise existing flora and fauna. This is not the case with mangroves as they are planted in saline, are native to the area (so do not displace any other species) and are long-term carbon sinks. The research supports Aviva’s commitment to provide carbon finance in Africa where we believe there is an urgent need. It will demonstrate exactly how much carbon can be stored in mangroves over time, and will lead to the development of carbon credit verification.
Aviva around the world
