Our approach
We aim to manage our business responsibly and ethically and to make a positive impact on the environment, people and the communities in which we operate.
Three business principles underpin our approach:
- Integrity: we adhere to applicable laws, regulations and standards, acting with openness, integrity, fairness and diligence;
- Performance: we promote a positive, challenging, high performance culture, encouraging personal accountability and development, measuring, rewarding and recognising success; and
- Responsibility: we act responsibly in managing our business and in our interactions with stakeholders.
Our approach to CR is practical and focuses on three themes: safety, social inclusion and the environment. We consider they are important to our business, provide an opportunity to differentiate ourselves from competitors and are areas where we can make a significant contribution. Our community programmes support our business strategy by addressing these three themes.
All employees are assessed against our Brand Beliefs, including ‘Doing the Right Thing’ which encourages each employee to take an active role in being responsible. Priorities for 2011 are the major partnership with the environmental organisation WWF, extending our road safety programme to new countries and embedding our CR policies across the Group.
Strategy and Policy
Our CR strategy aligns with our business strategy of providing innovative general insurance products that help people to manage risks and protect against loss. Our long term vision is to become a leading sustainable insurer.
Our CR policy applies to all operations, including wholly or majority-owned subsidiaries and associated companies where RSA has management control. Individual policies cover the environment, community impacts and human rights.
We regularly contribute to public policy debates on issues relevant to our business, either individually or through industry bodies such as the Association of British Insurers and the Confederation of British Industry. In 2010 we contributed to public policy debates on a range of issues including climate change, flooding and waste water management. Details of these activities can be found in our 2010 CR report. We always comply with local laws and with our Public Affairs Policy. We do not make political contributions and we receive no forms of financial assistance from governments.
Dialogue and Partnership
Engagement with a wide group of organisations and individuals helps us understand risks and how best to respond to them, as well as improving other people’s understanding of our approach and their knowledge of the insurance industry.
An annual materiality assessment by Forum for the Future helps us to identify the main impacts of our business from an external perspective. We use the materiality assessment, together with a stakeholder engagement consultation, employee CR survey and external benchmarking to prioritise challenges and opportunities and reassess our strategy each year.
A global partnership with the environmental NGO WWF involves extensive dialogue and is a major element of our CR activity. We launched it in 2009 in the UK, Canada, Sweden, Denmark and China. Our work with WWF supports research relevant to our business and we are developing new products which respond to the risks of environmental change.
Governance and Management
Overall responsibility for CR lies with the Group CEO. The Board routinely discusses CR issues affecting the Group and conducts an annual review of performance and future strategy. The Group Executive Committee acts as the CR Steering Committee, supported by the Group CR team.
The Steering Committee meets twice a year to oversee development, implementation and progress of the CR strategy and monitor compliance with our global CR, Environmental, Human Rights and Community policies. Full details on our CR management are included in our 2010 CR report and see our annual report for coverage of corporate governance.
Reporting
We publish a Group corporate responsibility report each year. The CR report covers all our UK, International and Emerging Markets businesses, including wholly owned subsidiaries, leased premises, relationships with suppliers and our joint ventures.
As a member of the insurance industry’s ClimateWise initiative we report annually on our major actions relating to the six ClimateWise principles; our 2010 submission is available here. We also publish the annual Feedback Report we receive as part of our inclusion in the Business in the Community (BITC) Corporate Responsibility Index (2 Mb PDF).
The criteria for the preparation of our non-financial data and information are covered by the RSA Reporting Guidelines which can be found here. External assurers ensure that the data and claims in the report are fair and accurate. Separately, our environmental data is quality assured by independent specialists.