Green Insurer Doing Its Part to Heal the Planet

As Earth Week (April 21-25) continues, Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company – the nation’s first provider of green insurance – will highlight its commitment to environmental responsibility and sustainability through a series of activities at its headquarters.  
  
From special parking privileges for bicyclers and hybrid drivers to environmentally friendly product giveaways and meetings with local environmental leaders, the company encourages its employees to be committed to earth-friendly living.  
  
Fireman’s Fund employee engagement programs have helped to reduce the company’s environmental impact. Its aggressive recycling program has achieved a 74 percent diversion in solid wastes going to landfills. Since 2001, conservation at the company’s headquarters, which houses 1,500 employees,  
has reduced energy use by over 35 percent and reduced water consumption by over 40 percent.  
  
Fireman’s Fund is listed as #1 in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. The headquarters in Marin received the Energy Star Business rating in 2007 and recognition from the Marin Environmental Agency.  
  
Climate change poses significant risks throughout the U.S., particularly to coastal, flood-prone and fire-prone areas. In response, Fireman’s Fund has focused on developing and introducing environmentally friendly insurance products to support broader climate-change initiatives and realities.  
  
In October 2006, Fireman’s Fund launched the first green insurance coverage for commercial buildings. The first financial incentive for green building owners, a five percent discount on the policy premium, is offered for LEED®-certified buildings. Vegetated roofs, plumbing and electrical systems,  
commissioning and the extra costs to apply for green certification are all included coverages that fill the gaps in traditional insurance policies.  
  
The Commercial insurance division has expanded its green offerings to historic buildings, hotels, restaurants, manufacturing and commercial auto. Commercial and Specialty both offer green builders risk insurance. Homeowners with policies after the Southern California wildfires last summer were given the opportunity to rebuild green.  
  
“We developed green insurance for homeowners, but were waiting for approval from the department of insurance at the time,” said Doug Martin, Fireman’s Fund vice president of government affairs. “But after the wildfires, we wanted our policyholders to have this opportunity to rebuild green and to replant with vegetation that will decrease their future wildfire risk. We’re rolling this coverage out to homeowners nationwide this year.”  
  
Allianz SE, Fireman’s Fund’s parent company, has a long history of sustainable practices including partnership with the World Wildlife Fund, the 2005 release of the Climate Change Study discussing climate risks and social responsibility to the environment. Allianz has asked that all of its subsidiary  
companies reduce their carbon footprint by 20 percent in 2012.