Material Issues
As an international company we face a variety of challenges, some common to our market and some unique to our businesses across the Group.
Our presence in developed and emerging markets means we are exposed to issues that affect countries at different stages of their social and economic development. This allows us to draw on our experience from across the Group to tackle these issues.
We focus on three key themes that we consider the most material to our business:
- Road safety;
- Environment;
- Social inclusion.
These are significant to RSA as a major provider of motor, household and commercial insurance products. We work with UK based sustainable development organisation, Forum for the Future, who conduct an annual materiality assessment for our business and the insurance industry. The 2008 assessment identified several important issues to focus on: employee wellbeing, corporate governance, responsible investment, diversity and equal opportunities, environmental management, public trust and the impacts of climate change.
We became the first carbon-neutral insurer in the UK in 2006 and in 2008 we offset 53% of our Group-wide CO2 emissions. We are strengthening our Global Renewable Energy business and have developed Centres of Excellence supporting renewable energy teams around the world covering, bioenergy, hydro, solar and wind. We take corporate governance very seriously and believe we achieve the high standards required of the financial services industry in the light of recent market turmoil. (See Governance and risk)
Materiality matrix
The materiality matrix is based on the annual materiality assessment prepared for us by Forum for the Future, stakeholder feedback and our own assessment of the material issues facing our business. The issues in bold are those we can have a major influence on through our core business.
