[GRI 2-22]
Dear Stakeholders,
The concept of ESG (Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance) has been in the limelight for several years now. Initially, it was pretty much just a fad or an own decision of an organization to accommodate sustainability principles with their business. Today’s ESG-related legislation adopted by the European Union along with applicable standards leave no room for doubt. Indeed, as a business, we do affect our environment and thus we must obey its rules. To what end? To withhold the gradual and irreversible changes taking place across the world and to minimize their adverse consequences using all available financial tools and instruments. This is a must for all. However, we at ERGO Hestia not only have to but want to do it and have done so successfully for years now. From a management viewpoint, the question often arises: is it going to pay off? What does the customer, partner or investor know about sustainable growth? It proves that emphasizing adoption and consistent pursuit of the ESG strategy is currently crucial to improving a company’s competitive position on the market. A business that cares about its environment and is responsive to social and environmental challenges should not have to fear losing reputation or trust from stakeholders. In other words – it does not need to worry about its future financial stability or prospective growth.
We are among the leaders of the Polish insurance market. Currently, the biggest challenges we are facing are climate change and social transition. Our industry plays a special role in this context. On one hand, we secure climate risks, through our daily business, educating, granting certification and mitigating our own impact. We also contribute to the bigger cause by offering products and services that secure our clients. Last year, we implemented a sustainability strategy, integrated with our “Power of Information and Power of Community” Business Strategy. It rests on six main pillars, contained in the concept of TROSKA [Polish for “care”] (T as in transition, R as in relations with customers and business partners, O as in responsible [Polish: odpowiedzialna] sales, S as in society [Polish: społeczeństwo], K as in communication [Polish: komunikacja] and A as in attractive employer).
In the area of environmental transition and mitigation of the effects of climate change, we have set ourselves ambitious goals. We make all efforts to achieve climate neutrality based on our objectives and the Ambition 2025 strategy adopted by our shareholder, Munich Re, to keep up with the goals defined by the Paris Agreement. The goal of the ERGO Hestia Group until 2025 is to reduce our carbon footprint per employee compared to the 2019 base year by 12%. Our last year’s performance proves that we are on the right track to fulfill this commitment. Yet again, we were subjected to a multi-stage verification process. We have managed to retain our EMAS (Eco-Management and Audit Scheme) certificate, which confirms that our environmental management system satisfies the highest applicable standards.
The pursuit of climate neutrality in a manner that involves not only our company, but also our clients, suppliers and business partners remains a challenge. To reflect this, we at ERGO Hestia refine our GHG methodology (for carbon footprint calculations) on an annual basis. In 2022, we expanded our calculation to include more aspects in scope 3 thereof.* We intend to deploy subsequent aspects of ESG that will enable us to assess the risks resulting from our commitments and enhance the optimization of our supply chain. We are ready to adopt the updated Code of Suppliers, containing 10 UNGC principles as its integral part, in terms of necessary processes, measures and responsibilities. Our guidelines will also refer to the basic requirements for compliance with human rights applicable to the suppliers. They will also specify how we deal with threats related to human rights in our own business activity.
ESG risk is taken into account in our underwriting activity, also within developed information platforms and educational programs for our staff. We make use of a map of areas threatened with a water deficit and our experts analyze potentially affected industries therewith. Noteworthy, in 2022, our Group joined the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) initiative. Our claims handling is under constant development to become more sustainable and environmentally friendly. Our “AutoWycena” 2.0 app has a new feature: remote visual inspection, which accelerates the claims handling process and at the same time reduces financial and environmental costs. Moreover, in our “Bike Forever” program, we offer our clients a premium bike instead of a replacement vehicle during the repair.
Last year, we largely focused on educational activities targeted at our partners. We held information campaigns for brokers and insurance agents, focusing on issues that are certain to exert a huge impact on business in the near future, such as European Union ESG regulations, related factors in risk assessment and IoT solutions.
By the end of 2023, our goal is also to increase the share of sustainable investments in our asset portfolio. Along with our in-Group and external asset managing partners, we constantly improve our strategy of sustainable investing in line with the know-how of experts in this area.
As far as the social context is concerned, we focused on implementing the concept of inclusiveness, with the great support from the Integralia Foundation. At the end of 2022, our share of employees with disabilities counted at 3.4% (102 employees). This result is one of the highest among all companies from the financial service industry in Poland. Given the fact that in Poland approximately 70% of people with disabilities remain unemployed, we still have a lot of room for improvement. Therefore, the Integralia Foundation launched a national program called “Able Internship”. The first edition was already joined by large organizations open to hiring individuals possessing specific competences, regardless of the type or nature of their disability. Last year, we aligned our key products for retail clients and information on our website with the needs of people with visual and hearing impairments. Moreover, we keep training our staff in team-building with persons with different needs.
In accordance with our Sustainability Strategy, we do our best to be considered an attractive employer – we invest in the development and support of our staff and their involvement in all our ESG activities. Our ambition is to build a friendly workplace for personal and professional development, so that our employees have favorable conditions for growing and utilizing their potential and knowledge, creating products and services of the highest quality. The outcomes of internal engagement surveys confirm our efforts and are highly appreciated by others. In 2022, ERGO Hestia was again awarded a Great Place to Work certificate and received a Top Employer prize. Moreover, last year, we anew were listed first among Polish insurance companies in the ranking of responsible companies and we advanced to the second place in the general ranking. We have also received Polityka’s “Silver and Green CSR Leaf” and for the second time in a row we found ourselves on the list of the most advanced organizations in diversity and integration management among employers in Poland, based on the “Diversity IN Check” study.
You are welcome to dive in for more information about our employees and their achievements in this report. Still, I should further mention the huge support that our employees provided to the victims of the war in Ukraine. We have assisted 250 refugees sheltered near our Head Office in Sopot. Shortly after the outbreak of the war, we started funding short-term third-party motor liability insurance for all refugees coming to Poland from Ukraine by car. As an insurer, we considered it most important to provide help also by donating our own products – a guarantee of security. Furthermore, through our Hestia Artistic Journey Foundation, we have run a project called Mother’s Dream, which was focused on children, the youngest refugees from Ukraine. Workshop participants, under the guidance of experienced animators, developed their talents and creative thinking abilities in artwork, to let them forget for but a moment about the traumatic experiences of the war.
I hope that this introduction has attracted your attention and encouraged you to learn more of our last year’s achievements. Enjoy reading our TROSKA report.
* Scope 3 includes all other indirect emissions occurring in the organization’s value chain, that is greenhouse gas emissions that the organization may affect, but does not control.
