Being a market leader comes with significant responsibility. We continue to partner with government and community organisations to improve safety and resilience at home, in business and on the road.
A RESILIENT SOCIETY
As the founding member of the Australian Business Roundtable for Disaster Resilience & Safer Communities, we are sharing our risk management expertise and using our influence to make Australia more resilient to natural disasters and their devastating impacts.
Currently, government spending on disaster recovery far outweighs its spending on resilience measures. Informing the Roundtable’s activities is a belief that this balance is unsustainable and counterproductive to building safer communities. With the support of five high-profile member organisations, the Roundtable released a White Paper in June 2013 which had a major impact on the national debate on resilience issues in the media, in Parliament, in business and in the communities where the Roundtable’s work aims to make a difference.
During the year this White Paper, Building our Nation’s Resilience to Natural Disasters, underpinned a submission to the Productivity Commission Inquiry into Natural Disaster Funding Arrangements. Because the White Paper showed potential for governments to save money on post-disaster recovery by investing in pre-disaster resilience, it also informed a submission to the Australian Government’s Commission of Audit looking at the efficient use of taxpayer money.
IAG was also involved in the resilience debate at an international level. As a result of the Roundtable’s work, the United Nations PSI established a Global Resilience Project, which is being led by IAG. This project is deepening understanding of disaster risk reduction activities and investments and identifying the economic, social and human costs of disasters. Its insights will support risk reduction activities and investments.
In 2014, the project analysed the effectiveness of disaster risk reduction techniques for floods, cyclones and earthquakes to determine what drives success or presents obstacles. Its findings will encourage a shift from relief and recovery to prevention and reduction, supporting our goal of creating safer, stronger and more confident communities.
In July 2014, the Australian Business Roundtable for Disaster Resilience & Safer Communities followed up on the White Paper by producing a Research Paper that shows that wider access to accurate and relevant data and information would facilitate better decision making for mitigation investments and generate even greater financial savings than calculated in the White Paper. Building an Open Platform for Disaster Resilience Decisions calls on government to take a fresh approach to natural disaster mitigation by centralising key natural perils data, removing existing barriers to research and collaboration, and establishing a national framework for the prioritisation of resilience initiatives and research.
RESEARCH AND EDUCATION
In 2014 we continued to invest in educational initiatives to help manage risk. Bringing together NRMA Insurance, local councils and emergency services, we piloted a flood awareness seminar programme in high flood risk areas of New South Wales. The seminars helped communities better understand the risks they face, the pricing and role of insurance and how we can work together to manage floods. To reach younger generations, we prepared a case study about risk, insurance, safe communities and resilience that was distributed by The Australian Financial Review to around 580,000 students in schools, colleges and universities in Australia and New Zealand.
IAG is the only insurance group in Australia that invests in its own Research Centre. We conduct vehicle testing and research on popular cars, motorcycles and building materials with a focus on vehicle safety, security and repair costs. Through this research, we have been able to influence manufacturers to build cars that are safer and cheaper to repair. Additionally, our accident ‘black-spot’ research is making it easier for drivers to avoid the most dangerous places on our roads as well as helping governments to understand what additional road safety measures may be needed.
Partnerships
IAG’s Community Grants programme continued for the 12th consecutive year in 2014. The programme provides grants to grass roots initiatives that support risk management, social inclusion and sustainability. In 2014, it awarded more than $680,000 to the projects of 156 local organisations that were focused on crime prevention, road safety, the environment and emergency readiness and response.
We continued our strategic partnerships with groups sharing our goals including partnerships with the State Emergency Services in Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales and Queensland, the Queensland Fire and Emergency Service Safehome programme, NSW Volunteer Rescue Association, the NSW Police Force and Kidsafe.
CGU FOUNDATION MAKES A DIFFERENCE
Thanks to support from CGU, Lifeline was able to take an extra 1,600 crisis support and suicide prevention calls during 2014. The CGU Foundation also enabled The Smith Family to support 25 students from disadvantaged backgrounds through various stages of their tertiary education.
In its first full year of operation, the CGU Foundation inspired CGU employees to support the community through workplace giving and volunteering. Workplace giving doubled from 2013 figures with contributions of more than $600,000 (including matched donations). Meanwhile, three times more employees took volunteer leave in 2014 compared to 2013, contributing more than 280 volunteer days.
THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT
As an insurer, we see the devastating impact of natural disasters on families, businesses and the community. We believe we can make a difference by supporting mitigation and adaptation programmes. We support the Geneva Association Climate Risk Statement which details the substantial role of insurance in complementing global activities to mitigate and adapt to a changing climate.
We also believe an important part of mitigation is managing our own environmental footprint. This year, we prioritised our carbon emission reduction activities by focusing on the areas that generated the most emissions: electricity use, business travel and our supply chain.
In 2014, we invested in efficiency measures at some of our most energy-intensive buildings, including installing energy-efficient LED lighting in our Australian and New Zealand headquarters. To further reduce business travel, we continued to encourage the use of tele-presence or video conferencing as an alternative.
We reviewed and upgraded EcoSmash, the environmental management programme we provide online to smash repairers. EcoSmash helps repairers better understand the environmental impacts of their businesses and arms them with tools and resources to make changes.
Our commitment to neutralising our carbon emissions remained unchanged. As we cannot totally eliminate our carbon emissions, we purchased offsets to achieve carbon neutral status. For more information see our carbon neutral disclosure.
