Non-financial performance indicators

The member companies of the Talanx Group demonstrate their sense of responsibility to the environment and society in a broad variety of ways. Three courses of action are available to our insurers: sustainable enterprise management, the development of products that promote criteria such as environmental conservation, energy consumption and social responsibility, and observance of such criteria in their own investment decisions.

Several companies are reducing their paper consumption through the use and further expansion of end-to-end digital processes for applications handling, portfolio management and archiving. One helpful aspect here, for example, is that faxes are mostly received and forwarded by digital means. Energy-saving measures take many forms, including for example replacement of incandescent light bulbs with energy-saving bulbs and automatic deactivation of lights at night, adjustments to the heating system at certain times of the day and energy-efficient office equipment. At Hannover Re such measures are brought together in the “Ecological Project for Integrated Environmental Technology” (Ecoprofit), the goal of which is to reduce CO₂ emissions. As far as the office buildings are concerned, here too close attention is paid to environmentally compatible construction activities and ecologically friendly operation: Neue Leben, for example, decided on the Lindley Carrée development for its new headquarters, which it expects to occupy in mid-2010. This is the first office complex in Hamburg to have been certified as a “green building”. The certification requirements include, inter alia, particularly non-polluting and energy-saving construction as well as environmentally compatible operation of the building.

In the course of their business operations our insurers develop products for customers who are clamoring for investment products that address the issue of sustainability. One example of such a product is the unit-linked annuity policy “neue leben futureprotect”, which invests in funds managed according to ecological, social and ethical criteria. The unit-linked annuity products offered by CiV Leben place a similar emphasis on investments in sustainability.

HDI-Gerling Firmen und Privat Versicherung AG is also paying closer attention to the issue of environmental protection. In motor insurance, for example, customers whose vehicles are powered by alternative energy sources – hence helping to reduce CO₂ emissions – are assisted with discounts. What is more, coverage is offered in home insurance for systems that generate renewable energies (photovoltaic technology).

Our Group invests in accordance with regulatory requirements with an eye to the greatest possible profitability, liquidity and security so as to be able to render the agreed insurance benefits at all times. If investment options are available to us that accommodate special ethical, social and ecological concerns while at the same time meeting the aforementioned requirements, these are normally preferred.