9.1 We are striving to achieve net zero

Joanna Lasowska. Photographer

[GRI 3-3] Striving to achieve net zero, including commitment to fight climate change and move towards a low-carbon economy.

The first pillar of our Sustainability Strategy (ESG) is T – Transition. We understand it as an effort to mitigate the effects of climate change and support the transition towards a zero-carbon economy.

On the road to sustainability, especially in the environmental aspect, we rely on international standards. In 2019, the Management Board decided to adapt the existing management system to the requirements of ISO 14001:2015 and the EU’s EMAS environmental certification scheme. The effectiveness of our activities has been confirmed by the ISO 14001 certificate of compliance and registration in the EMAS Register in January 2021. You can read more about it on our website.

2022 was a year when we introduced important tools and initiatives to support climate protection and transition towards climate neutrality.

We base our strive towards a zero-carbon economy on 3 pillars:

Projects carried out as part of our own business

Own business is an area where we can implement pro-environmental solutions first. We place particularly great emphasis on reducing carbon emissions and limiting environmental impact. We are implementing a number of projects and initiatives in this area.

iHestia – app for customers and injured parties

In our activities we rely on modern technologies. iHestia – New World of Insurance is a virtual platform for a three-way dialogue between the agent, the customer and the insurer. The system structure built in this way makes it possible to realize a mobile sales system. Approximately 80% of service and sales processes have been put in the hands of the customer and the intermediary. With iHestia, our customers can handle their insurance online 24/7 from any mobile device. We rely on new technologies because of the functional solutions, which at the same time reduce our environmental impact by reducing the amount of paper required for printing.

Earth Day 2022

In honour of the Earth Day, we engaged our sales network to participate in a campaign to promote the distribution of policies remotely to reduce paper consumption. For each policy issued that way, we ordered the planting of one tree. 2,099 intermediaries took part in the campaign and in total we planted more than one thousand pine trees.

Online Help App

Another tool we are developing is the Online Help App, which is designed to make it easier for our customers and injured parties to report and handle claims. The use of the solutions available in the app, such as the video-inspection functionality, has translated into speeding up the claims handling process and reducing the economic and environmental costs in terms of a mobile claim handler’s travel to the site. In 2022, we conducted 5,850 video-inspections (434 more than the year before).

8%more video-inspections relative to 2021, i.e.

16,2tons less CO₂ emissions in the atmosphere compared to the traditional solution

100% Green Energy

We know how important it is to use Renewable Energy Sources (RES), so the electricity supplied to all buildings in the Head Office (Sopot and Gdańsk) and some representative offices in Poland comes from 100% RES, as evidenced by relevant certificates. They are issued by the Polish Power Exchange (Towarowa Giełda Energii S.A.).

97%of the electricity purchased by the ERGO Hestia Group in 2022 came from renewable sources

Reduction of high-carbon car fleet

Our business profile entails frequent business travel. With access to detailed analyses, we know that transportation accounts for a large part of the emissions we generate, so we are taking measures to reduce them. First of all, we are modifying our car fleet – we are gradually increasing the number of hybrid vehicles. As a result, we are using less and less gasoline and diesel every year (see the Emission and resource used section for details).

Employee commute to work

We are also taking steps to improve the comfort of employees during their daily commute. All Hestians who choose a bicycle as a means of transportation are offered a free lunch at the company’s canteen or at selected locations for employees outside the Tri-City area. In addition, we provide guarded parking for 303 bicycles and adequate infrastructure (showers and locker rooms). Two bicycle repair stations have also been set up near the company.

42%of hybrid cars (vs. 41% in 2021) in our fleet

0.65% of diesel cars (vs. 1% in 2021) in our fleet

28,100Hestian bike commuting trips (vs. 20,045 in 2021)

ECO HESTIA SPA competition

Last year saw the 7th edition of the ECO HESTIA SPA competition, which we organise together with the Association of Polish SPA Communities. It aims to identify the best ideas and initiatives in the field of environmental protection. The winners receive a prize of PLN 100,000, earmarked for development of further pro-environmental activities in the awarded municipality. A total of 34 Polish health resorts have participated in all editions of the competition, and the past winners include: Uniejów, Busko-Zdrój, Inowrocław, Lądek-Zdrój, Latoszyn-Zdrój and Muszyna. In 2022, the winner of the competition was Rabka-Zdrój.

10new green areas in the public space thanks to competition

9municipalities entered in the latest edition of the competition

400,000beneficiaries of the competition - residents, tourists and resort visitors

Bees on the roof

Bees are extremely necessary for the ecosystem to function properly. While helping the environment, they themselves are at the same time highly sensitive to adverse environmental changes – in recent years there has been an visible decline in the bee population. To help them, a company apiary has been run on the roof of one of our office buildings for several years.

900,000bees under our care

8active beehives

40species of plants pollinated by bees

Hestia Park

Hestia Park was established in 2016 on land leased from the City of Sopot. Under the signed agreement, we not only created a park, but also undertook to maintain it. Tens of thousands of plants, a spring feast of flowers, and thousands of square meters of Hestia Park’s lawns connect the company’s headquarters with the sports and entertainment hall with which we cooperate – ERGO ARENA. The park’s space is open to all visitors. It is designed unconventionally as it serves as an open-air sculpture gallery. It also one of the examples of the ERGO Hestia Group’s contribution to sustainable development and ecology. For more on the park itself, see Chapter 8. Impact on society.

20,000m² of space

95,000shrubs, perennials, grasses and flowers

150deciduous and coniferous trees

“To Plant” campaign

In 2022, we and our employees engaged in the “To Plant” campaign to help restore areas damaged by the hurricane several years ago – by planting trees. Nearly 850 people, employees of Tri-City companies, took part in the campaign. With the support of foresters, we jointly planted 80,000 young trees, which in a few decades will be a dense, soaring forest, rich in larches, pines and birches, among others.

62people from ERGO Hestia took part in the campaign*

3editions of the event in which we participated

8 hahectares of forested land

^* The number of participants was limited by the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in effect at the time. As a partner, we were able to enrol about 60 people.

Our insurance and investment portfolio in the context of the environment

[GRI 2-6]

Insurance of RES installations

We know how important it is to develop renewable energy sources, therefore we develop our products to help move toward a zero-carbon economy. Consistent efforts in this direction have allowed us to take our place among the companies offering insurance for renewable energy installations in Poland.

The capacity of the photovoltaic farms we insure is approx. 520,000 kWp (kilo watt peak). That is more than 5 times as much as in 2021.

Our offer includes property insurance for photovoltaic farms and installations. It is aimed at business customers, regardless of the scale of their operations. The insurance is designed to cover property damage (both natural risks and malfunctions) and the interruptions in production of electricity caused by them. An additional element that distinguishes our offer is the coverage of losses incurred due to lower insolation of photovoltaic modules, and thus lower power production.

We have also tailored our offer to individual customers, who can cover their photovoltaic installations and solar panels as part of their home insurance.

Eco Hestia

Our portfolio offers specialized insurance to protect the natural environment. As one of three insurers in the Polish market, we have developed an offer in which we cover the costs of restoring the environment to its pre-damage state. The scope of cover of this insurance includes, among other things, the cost of removing pollutants from land or water and the cost of restoring protected natural habitats and protected animal and plant species. Included in the coverage is the insured’s administrative liability resulting from causing an imminent threat of environmental damage or actual damage to the environment.

Wojciech Radwański. Photographer

Green Reconstruction Clause

Environmental protection is an important aspect of our offering, both in terms of the subject of insurance and the handling of the damage that has occurred. In 2020, we decided to introduce a Green Reconstruction Clause to our corporate insurance offering. This is the first and only such offer available on the market. It is an add-on to corporate property insurance programs, thus protecting the building in which the business is conducted. It allows the compensation payment to be increased by the cost of applying environmental solutions in the event of total damage.

Financial guarantees, property and motor insurance

When thinking about our partners and business clients in the sustainability context, we pay attention to the needs of the respective industry. We offer financial guarantees to companies that operate in the waste management chain.

In addition, in our offer for individual customers, we provide packages that cover damage to installations of private PV and solar (thermal) collectors.

Content of the clause: ERGO Hestia shall reimburse, against an additional premium, the additional costs of purchasing electricity resulting from the interruption of the operation of the photovoltaic installation in the event of its damage, destruction or loss due to a covered event. The maximum period for which ERGO Hestia shall reimburse the costs indicated in the preceding sentence is 90 days.

IoT systems (Internet of Things)

In cooperation with our customers, we also take care of sustainability at the design stage of IoT solutions. The systems we have implemented allow us to monitor risks in real time. Customers gain the possibility to use standard components, such as engines, to connect with smart sensors that alert them early of potential threats. The use of the IoT technology allows us to build insurance models aimed at prevention, business continuity and minimizing CO₂ emissions into the atmosphere. Detailed information about the service is available Here.

Bicycle Forever programme

In our environmental-oriented activities in cooperation with customers, we want to build on various levels of involvement, treating some of them also as a form of education and awareness-building for environmental efforts. We have launched the Bicycle Forever program for our customers, as well as the injured parties covered by our insurance. It is implemented in cooperation with KROSS S.A. Thanks to the adopted solutions, any person who is entitled to a replacement car can instead choose a bicycle, which they keep. In this way, we want to encourage the use of bicycles and show that they are an environmentally friendly alternative to cars.

648number of bicycles we handed over in 2022

Responsible Investment Guideline

We want to shape our impact not only through the products and services we offer, but also the investments we make. Building on our long-term commitment to sustainability, we have decided to introduce new guidelines in the area of responsible investment. They concern setting out the investment rules, limits and ESG factors that should be taken into account during the investment process. Responsible Investment Guidelines apply in the area of investments made by the ERGO Hestia Group at its own risk. The document also regulates investment rules in the ERGO and Munich Re Group.

9. Environmental impact