We now look forward to sharing our Climate Positive Plan and to helping create a collective, resounding call for change. We are not claiming to be perfect, neither are we judging others, however we are totally committed to acting as a regenerative business with environmental protection as one of our core objectives
Why Are We Doing This?
Naturesave was founded in 1993 to help create a more sustainable insurance industry, so tackling environmental issues is written into our DNA. We believe that the insurance industry has a significant and unique role to play in tackling the climate crisis, for two very distinct reasons. Firstly, the industry is one of the world’s biggest investors in fossil fuels and secondly, no fossil fuels could be extracted without the provision of insurance.
What steps has Naturesave already taken?
In 1995, Naturesave set up The Naturesave Trust, a charitable trust which provides grant funding for environmental projects. Naturesave has donated over half its profits every year into the Trust. In January 2021 our total donation to the Trust, surpassed £1 million. Over the years the Trust has supported grassroots projects across the country in areas such as recycling and repair, education, nature conservation and renewable energy.
The Naturesave Trust also funds a program to assist SME’s in operating more sustainably, working in accordance with Bioregional’s One Planet Living framework.
We work hard to limit the impact of our operations. As business travel is our most impactful activity, we operate a no-fly policy and use mostly public transport. We have also recently moved to a four day week, reducing our commuting emissions by 25%, with some additional savings in day to day office emissions. In addition, since 2009, we have offered additional paid holiday to any staff member who chooses to travel overland for their holidays instead of flying. (more details here)
Having declared a climate emergency what steps are we now taking?
We will conduct and publish an environmental review of our business operations with a plan to operate as a carbon neutral business.
We will also adapt the Naturesave Trust’s program of advising SME’s on sustainability, to incorporate the concept of planning for Net Zero emissions and acknowledge the limitations of carbon offsetting.
We will promote our policy of offering employees extra holiday to ditch the plane in the form of the Climate Perks campaign along with our partners, Possible.
We now plant a tree for every insurance policy we issue – this planting is part of a regenerative project with our partners, Trees For Life.
We will work with those in finance, pensions and investments to highlight the positive impact consumers can make in switching providers and lobbying their current providers to offer more sustainable financial products.
We will support and promote the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill, a cross party private members bill that, if passed into law, would transform the UK’s approach to tackling the climate and biodiversity crisis.
We will work harder to encourage our underwriters to divest of their fossil fuel investments and restrict their underwriting activities of fossil fuel extraction, particularly coal. We will also encourage these organisations to join us in declaring a climate emergency and align their businesses in accordance with the Paris Agreement.
In order to join Business Declares an organisation must:
- Acknowledge the Climate and Ecological Emergency
- commit to create an ambitious and credible Climate Positive Plan driven by the executive leadership to engage all employees and stakeholders
- Set a challenging net zero target, which accelerates action towards 2030 or as near to this date as possible depending on the business complexity
- Consider Scope 1,2 and 3 emissions, biodiversity loss and social justice, recognising the interconnected nature of environmental and social issues