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Environmental Policy

As the largest independent publicly listed pan-Asian life insurance group, we focus on managing the environmental impacts associated with our operations. Given the non-manufacturing nature of our business, this primarily means reducing and recycling the waste that we produce, conducting responsible investment management, employing innovative technologies to reduce our resource consumption and emissions from business travel, and adopting sustainable practices in our approach to underwriting and other insurance practices.

This policy prescribes our approach and commitment to managing our environmental footprint across our network of operating markets. We also encourage our suppliers, business partners, and where applicable, our customers, to respect elements and practices outlined in this policy, with a goal of furthering their own efforts at environmental stewardship.

This policy has been written with reference to the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative’s Principles for Sustainable Insurance and applies across our operations. Due to the limited availability of certain resources and processes in some of our markets, consistently applying this policy across our operations may prove challenging, but we intend for this policy to evolve alongside the development of these markets. This policy represents a key part of our continued efforts to drive the creation of efficient processes across our operations and to manage our environmental impacts.

For details on our approach to addressing climate change, please click here.

Reducing the direct impact from our operations

To reduce any adverse environmental impact arising from our day to day operations, we rely on behavioural change as well as the use of efficient technology, processes and systems to drive and monitor reduction initiatives. Central to these efforts are the following objectives:
 
 
  • Comply with relevant environmental legislation and regulation in all markets where we operate.
  • Engage and consult with our stakeholders to improve our environmental performance and to mitigate adverse environmental impact from our operations.
  • Work toward implementing an environmental management system to standardise our approaches to both managing and reducing the environmental impact arising from our operations.
  • Promote and stimulate behavioural change amongst employees through internal communication, training and other means. Cultivate a greater internal awareness on environmental issues to drive the reduction of energy consumption.
  • Handle environmental complaints and respond to environmental inquiries in a timely manner, taking action to resolve problems and concerns as soon as possible. Adopt preventive measures to avoid the recurrence of similar incidents.
  • Report on our environmental impact and performance through platforms such as our website.
  • Our primary direct impacts lie in the waste we produce, energy we consume and our greenhouse gas footprint. We address each of these areas and outline our approach to managing them with the objectives outlined below:
A. Waste
 
  • Streamline procedures and processes to increase efficiency and reduce the consumption of day-to-day operational inputs such as paper and electronic equipment. Examine the feasibility of paperless systems and their incorporation within operational processes.
  • Minimise our waste footprint by recycling and reusing materials where possible and exploring the feasibility of furthering these efforts by setting up systems and practices to record the waste generated by type and weight, as well as setting waste reduction and/or recycling targets where viable.
  • Extend life expectancy of existing office equipment to minimise their premature disposal and reduce waste.
    Increase the number of products sourced from recycled or sustainable forest sources.
B. Energy Reduction
 
  • Increase the usage of innovative and energy efficient technology in our operations to reduce energy consumption arising from our day-to-day operations. For example, further the use of video conferencing technology to minimise the need for business travel.
  • Track and monitor the use of energy across our operations. To further these efforts, we aim to conduct periodic reviews so that we may drive efficiency and achieve our energy intensity reduction target of 5% by the year 2020 with 2015 as a baseline.
C. Emissions
 
  • Reduce, where feasible, the production of air pollutants, greenhouse gases and other ozone depleting emissions within our operations.
  • Since our emissions are produced as a result of our energy consumption and business travel, our attempts to reduce our energy consumption and travel, as mentioned above, will have a direct correlation to our carbon footprint.
  • Set up targets to reduce emissions, while enacting processes and systems to monitor our greenhouse gas footprint.

Managing our indirect impact

We are also aware of the indirect impact arising from our ability to influence environmental performance within our value chain and in our investments, ultimately contributing toward the goal of creating a low carbon and environmentally conscious economy. Actions we take include:
 
  • Considering ESG factors in our investments. This includes continuing to grow our portfolio of green buildings such that we are able to provide resource efficient, low carbon tenancy options in the markets where we operate. We also aim to mitigate the environmental impact arising from our current buildings during daily operations, including when subsequent renovations or refurbishments are made.

  • Influencing our suppliers by raising awareness on environmental issues, eco-friendly practices and professional environmental considerations as outlined by our Supplier Code of Conduct.

  • Continuing to raise awareness of environmental issues and promote eco-friendly practices among the communities in which we operate by partnering with industry groups and environmental organisations. These efforts also extend to facilitating and contributing to policy discourse with a goal of furthering environmental stewardship.

Monitoring & review

To ensure the effective implementation of this policy, AIA will coordinate these efforts and track the progress of various environmental initiatives. The ESG Team will be responsible for conducting any training as required.

We endeavour to report on our environmental performance in a manner which is transparent and accountable. This policy is available to our employees via internal channels and to external stakeholders via the Group’s corporate website.

This Environmental Policy shall be reviewed annually or as required to ensure its relevance and effectiveness, including with respect to any charters or policies that AIA may choose to sign or adhere to.

If you have questions on this document, please contact our ESG team at esg@aia.com.
Last updated: 28 March 2018