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Allianz Belgium, also committed to Sustainable Development

Sustainable Development is a major point of interest for the Allianz Group. In Belgium too, Allianz is very sensitive to this crucial challenge of social risk management, both towards its brokers and towards its clients and employees.

Green products for our clients

Allianz is an insurance company that is conscious of its role within society in general and, as such, it designs insurance plans or adapts existing products and services to meet the expectations of its brokers and clients more efficiently. As part of this policy, it has launched new products geared at sustainable development. It has also reviewed the general terms and conditions of certain other products in parallel, and these now contain clauses relating to sustainable development.

Here are a few examples:

  • in Individual Life Assurance, the "Safe & Green" structured fund, which was launched in June 2008
  • in Individual Non-Life Insurance Plans, the Green bonus has been integrated into Car Plan (cheaper rate for vehicles that produce less C02), the basic cover of solar panels in the glass breakage warranty (i.e. panels broken by hail) in Homeplan / Biz Plan / Biz Solution insurance plans, etc.

Promoting Sustainable Development within the company

A working group has been set up with the task of promoting Sustainable Development and ensuring that Allianz provides all the resources necessary to honour the commitment made by the group in Belgium: i.e. to reduce by 2012 the greenhouse gasses emitted by each employee of the group by 25% (based on 2006 levels). The members of the working group are aided by volunteer employees, the "Green Coaches", who increase awareness among colleagues about behaviour that can impact on reducing our CO2 emissions.

This is a non-exhaustive overview of the initiatives taken by Allianz Belgium.

  • Identifying the causes

    A global study of the sources of CO2 emissions enabled us to speedily identify the main action points required in order to reduce their impact. Heating, electricity consumption as well as business travel together represent more than 95% of the CO2 emissions produced by our company. At the same time, a campaign to gather suggestions from employees resulted in a record number of 316 ideas in just six weeks. More than 40% of them were retained by the Sustainable Development working group and most of them will be implemented before the end of 2009.

  • Adapting the heating

    This has been achieved by optimising heating hours and implementing different measures to regulate thermostats at certain times. A ‘thick sweater day’ has been in force every Friday since 15 September 2008 in the form of a pilot project. The heating temperature of our premises (offices in Brussels, Antwerp and Ternat) has been reduced slightly. Staff who are more sensitive to the cold only need to wear a light pullover. This has been enthusiastically received by the staff members and will be continued (except for when it is freezing cold of course).

  • Reducing electricity consumption

    A supply contract for “green” electricity was negotiated during the third quarter of 2008 and will come into force in April 2009. This contract covers 100% of our needs without any additional cost. Different specific initiatives have also made it possible to raise awareness among staff, even creating considerable reductions in electricity consumption. Below you will find a non-exhaustive overview:

    • applying ‘lights out’ stickers in all rooms in order to remind staff that they need to turn off the lights when leaving a room
    • reducing lighting in certain types of areas (hallways of lifts, etc)
    • activating the screen savers on computer screens after 10 minutes of inactivity
    • an appeal to turn off computer screens completely as much as possible (zero consumption) when not in use, at lunchtime for instance, with automatic shutdown of PCs at night and during the weekend
    • adapting the temperature of the air-conditioning in the IT rooms and the meeting rooms of the Brussels offices

  • Optimising business travel

    The company car purchasing policy was overhauled with a view to adopting a more ecological perspective. At the same time, it was decided in an initial phase that all sales staff should take part in an Ecodriving course from 2009. By implementing these two measures, we expect to achieve approximately 30% reduction in fuel consumption and in CO2 emissions. Free car parking is also offered to staff members who take advantage of car-pooling opportunities.

  • Encouraging the use of public transport or alternative transport

    In order to encourage people to use public transport between home and work, employees may travel on public transport for free. Anyone travelling within Brussels for business can obtain free MIVB/STIB tickets on request.

    In May 2008, Allianz Belgium started participating in a campaign called "Friday Bikeday", the aim of which is to encourage the use of bicycles for commuting between home and work. Since the campaign started, 50 employees have cycled a total of 31,000 kilometres, which represents a saving of 5.64 tons of CO2!

  • Reducing paper and water consumption, the volume of waste, etc.

    In order to reduce the impact on the environment, Allianz Belgium uses recycled paper almost exclusively. Awareness campaigns are carried out throughout the year in order to reduce the volume of printed paper. These include:

    • including the mention "think before you print" in the signatures on e-mails
    • not printing certain general conditions that are now available via the internet
    • In terms of water consumption, the flow rate of water from the taps on washbasins has been reduced. And finally, an awareness building message to reduce the volume of waste produced has been published on the Intranet. Rubbish bins that enable selected sorting have also been introduced in areas where drinks are consumed and in the cafeteria.