Environmental management – Setting standards

We take a systematic approach to environmental protection. Environmental management systems are already in place at several of our office sites and are scheduled to be established at others.

Munich Re’s main objective is to minimise the environmental pollution caused by our business operations. We are therefore reducing our consumption of paper, water and energy and cutting our travel, waste and energy emissions. In doing so, we apply the highest technical standards wherever economically feasible.

Munich Re Group’s environmental management systems

To anchor our environmental guidelines in our various operational processes, Munich Re, the ERGO Insurance Group in Germany and DAS UK have implemented environmental management systems. We have drawn up codes of conduct to encourage our staff to take into account the effects their actions and decisions have on the environment. We are also continuously extending the scope of the environmental data we record, as much as 60% of our workforce being covered in 2010, so that we can measure and evaluate our environmental footprint.

ISO 14001 certification standard

Environmental management systems systematically record the effects our actions have on the environment, helping to keep the potential consequences to a minimum. However, such systems can only work if the results can be documented and verified. Our aim is to achieve certification to » ISO 14001 throughout the Group as a whole. Just over 20% of Group staff already work at office sites that have been certified. The internationally recognised ISO standard sets out the requirements that an environmental management system has to meet. The results and data are regularly inspected by independent environmental verifiers.

Leading the field in primary insurance: ERGO

The scope of the environmental management system operated by Victoria, now ERGO, from 1998 was extended in 2010. As a basis for certification of the ERGO Insurance Group as a whole to ISO 14001, ERGO has published guidelines setting out its responsibility for environmental and climate protection. “Our efforts range from modernising our office technology to sharing environmental tips with our employees”, says Ulf Mainzer, who is in charge of environmental matters on the Board of Management of ERGO Versicherungsgruppe AG. “All measures are very well received and the annual 'Cycle to work' campaign organised among our staff has proved especially popular.”

DAS UK also operates an environmental management system. Its Bristol, UK, head office was certified to ISO 14001 in 2003, making it the first legal expenses insurer to earn this accolade – a distinction all its office sites in the UK and Irish Republic now share.

Environmental management: Organisational structure

Organisational responsibility for environmental protection at Munich Re’s head office in Munich has been allocated as follows: the full Board of Management, represented by Chairman Dr. Nikolaus von Bomhard, is responsible for our environmental protection strategy and measures. Dr. Astrid Zwick, Head of Corporate Responsibility and Environmental Officer at Munich Re, advises the Board on environmental issues and reports to it on current projects.

ERGO has also allocated responsibility for environmental management according to a defined structure. Dr. Ulf Mainzer, ERGO’s Board member for Human Resources and General Services, is responsible for environmental matters. In 2009, ERGO set up an independent employment, health and environmental protection unit, responsible for developing the environmental management system on the basis of ISO 14001.