Aon signs up to UN Principles for Sustainable Insurance
The first business operating in the insurance broking community to adopt the Principles, Aon is proud of its commitment to supporting the UN’s goal of leveraging the insurance industry’s role across risk management, insurance and investment to help build resilient, inclusive and sustainable communities and economies.
UN Environment’s Principles for Sustainable Insurance were created to serve as a global framework and initiative for the insurance industry to use its unique role in understanding and mitigating risk to strengthen its contribution to a safer, healthier and more sustainable society. The Principles focus on managing a wide range of environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks and opportunities in core business activities, including analyzing and reducing disaster risks and health risks, insurance solutions for vulnerable communities and cities, and investments in resilient infrastructure and green technologies.
Signing up to the Principles represents part of Aon’s broader commitment as a responsible and socially and environmentally aware business. Other recent initiatives include Aon’s paper ‘An Investor’s Guide to Responsible Investment’, which examines the increased focus on responsible investment across asset classes, and the recently launched Aon Weather & Climate Risk Innovation network. This network helps clients meet demands to evaluate the potential impact of climate risk and weather on their operations, and to develop comprehensive risk financing strategies to improve resilience.
Eric Andersen, Co-President of Aon, said: “Aon has a longstanding commitment to empowering clients, colleagues, and communities, and I am proud that we are leading our sector in becoming a signatory to this important initiative. As a professional services firm focused on reducing volatility and improving performance, we and the wider insurance industry must be prepared to address critical economic, social and environmental challenges. In this regard, de-risking cities and countries has never been more important.”
“As a signatory to the UN’s Principles for Sustainable Insurance, Aon will help to build strong and resilient societies in partnership with insurers and the UN. The global, collaborative effort of the PSI Initiative is well positioned to contribute to a sustainable future for all.”
Butch Bacani, who leads UN Environment’s Principles for Sustainable Insurance Initiative (PSI), the largest collaborative initiative between the UN and the insurance industry, said: “Insurance brokers have a fundamental role to play in the insurance industry value chain. They work together with clients, insurers and reinsurers; deliver risk management services and insurance products; and create insurance markets.
“As the first global insurance broker to sign the Principles for Sustainable Insurance, Aon is demonstrating unparalleled leadership and commitment from the insurance broking community to support the global effort of building resilient, inclusive and sustainable communities and economies. Aon is leading by example.”
The four Principles are:
• Principle 1: We will embed in our decision-making environmental, social and governance issues relevant to our insurance business.
• Principle 2: We will work together with our clients and business partners to raise awareness of environmental, social and governance issues, manage risk and develop solutions.
• Principle 3: We will work together with governments, regulators and other key stakeholders to promote widespread action across society on environmental, social and governance issues.
• Principle 4: We will demonstrate accountability and transparency in regularly disclosing publicly our progress in implementing the Principles
Further details on the Principles can be found here.
Aon announced in May 2018 it will retire the business unit brands of Aon Benfield and Aon Risk Solutions, which follows the retirement of the Aon Hewitt business unit brand in 2017. This move was designed to increase the rate of innovation across the firm and make it easier for colleagues to work together to bring the best of Aon to clients. Aon has five specific global solution lines: Commercial Risk Solutions, Reinsurance Solutions, Retirement Solutions, Health Solutions and Data & Analytic Services.
About Aon
Aon plc (NYSE:AON) is a leading global professional services firm providing a broad range of risk, retirement and health solutions. Our 50,000 colleagues in 120 countries empower results for clients by using proprietary data and analytics to deliver insights that reduce volatility and improve performance.