Recognizing that the earth’s climate may be changing in a way that poses serious challenges to society, Travelers, a leading property casualty insurer, has taken action intended to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change, encourage environmentally responsible behavior and conserve natural resources.
These efforts are described in a report to issued September 24, 2007, by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a coalition of global investors interested in examining the risks and opportunities facing the world’s largest publicly traded companies due to climate change.
“As a major property casualty insurer, we focus on the evolving insurance requirements caused by changing climate conditions to address consumers’ needs,” said Robert Flynn, Travelers vice president of strategic policy. “We regularly seek to identify and pursue opportunities for innovation to protect our customers’ physical assets and financial future.”
In its fourth year participating in the CDP report, Travelers highlights its actions to address the implications of climate change on its business in three major areas: risk management, insurance products and services, and corporate operations.
Risk Management
Travelers seeks to raise awareness of climate change and thereby mitigate the effects by:
• Initiating a series of business continuity planning workshops for commercial policyholders in catastrophe-prone regions;
• Providing strong support to the Institute of Business and Home Safety (IBHS) to promote property damage mitigation strategies; and
• Sponsoring the National Hurricane Survival Initiative to promote hurricane preparedness through various media and a dedicated Web site at www.hurricanesafety.org.
Products and Services
Committed to staying in-synch with customers’ ever-changing needs, Travelers established its own Climate Change Committee, a cross-functional team working to identify emerging risks that may require new underwriting strategies or the development of new types of coverage that are responsive to a changing climate. Some examples include:
• The first national insurance discount of 10% for hybrid drivers, providing incentive for individuals to minimize their impact on the environment;
• New Generation Boiler & Machinery product, which provides for the replacement of damaged equipment with “equipment which improves the environment, increases efficiency or enhances safety”; and
• Insurance programs tailored to emerging clean energy technology such as wind power farms.
Corporate Operations
As a large financial services company with more than 30,000 employees across the United States, Travelers is taking steps to reduce its impact on the environment:
• Travelers’ two main campuses in St. Paul and Hartford have been certified as “Energy Star” by the EPA for energy efficiency.
• Regarding carbon emissions reduction, the company has joined the Business Roundtable Climate Resolve Initiative Group and the EPA’s Climate Leaders Program to better understand how to measure and assess results of reduction programs and to establish measurements.
• Travelers also participates in, and responds to, external climate change initiatives such as CERES, the Carbon Disclosure Project and the Minnesota Governor’s Climate Change Task Force.
Travelers’ complete response to the Carbon Disclosure Project questionnaire is available online at www.travelers.com in the Corporate Responsibility section.
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