Building a sustainable, secure future

By the very nature of what we do at Allianz Ireland we make a positive contribution to society – we protect people, assets and businesses against risk. Our ambition is to support the global transition to a sustainable future together, in every way we can. We want to move from being a responsible company in our own right to using our role as an insurer, investor, asset manager, employer and community partner to help shape what sustainability means across the financial services industry.

Getting sustainability right in our everyday practices is vital across our business and every team. After all, to achieve a secure future, together we must build a sustainable one. We are focused on making significant strides in supporting community cohesion, employee engagement, and sustainable business practices. 

To achieve this, our sustainability strategy is broken into 3 main pillars that guide our actions every day, and drives us to constantly innovate, to pursue better collaboration, and to deliver for our customers in a way that cares for their needs, their assets, and their risks.

• Net Zero – Help manage risks arising from climate change and promote transition to a low carbon economy
• Social Impact – Contribute to a more inclusive society and solutions that have a lasting positive impact on local communities
• Integration – Managing material ESG risks across all areas of business and seizing ESG Related Opportunities. This article will focus on four SDGs that Allianz is 

Ranging from community work to innovative breakthroughs, internal initiatives to external ones, the following gives a snapshot of the inspiring use cases and examples of our strategy in action.

Allianz Ireland now aims to become Net Zero by 2030, twenty years ahead of our original 2050 target. In a major step towards reducing our carbon footprint, in recent years we beat our 8% greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions target, achieving a 29% reduction overall.

Our Dublin HQ leverages sustainable, energy efficient office design, running on 100% renewable electricity with a passive management cooling system that automatically opens windows to draw in cooler air.

Digital transformation has enabled us to update and offer insurance policies in line with low-emission and zero-emission technologies, achieving on an averaged reduced paper consumption of 7% per new policy holder. Elsewhere, we also set in place a strategy to deploy a digital notification journey for pet claims with the potential to eliminate up to 30,000 paper claim forms.

As a leading insurer of Irish homes and business, we know that climate change is one of the biggest challenges that facing communities today. In a first-of-its-kind for the Irish insurance industry, earlier this year we announced that we are investing €1 million in our Climate Safe Homes project to  pioneer and develop climate adaptative home building solutions to ensure that homes in Ireland are built in a climate ready and sustainable manner.

GAA: Sport is a central aspect within Irish communities and at Allianz Ireland we believe in supporting communities to thrive. Our sponsorship of the GAA is a reflection of this. In 2022, we celebrated 30 years of sponsoring the Allianz Football and Hurling Leagues, and in 2023 we became a sponsor of the All-Ireland Football Championship and the Camogie Association. Meanwhile, Allianz Cumann na mBunscol takes place annually and aims to promote the culture and ethos of Gaelic games within primary schools across the island of Ireland.

Olympics and Paralympics: We are also incredibly proud of our partnership with the Olympic and Paralympic movement. Allianz Group officially began an eight-year partnership with both in 2021. While here in Ireland, Allianz has supported Paralympics Ireland since 2010, and since 2021 we had held a partnership with the Olympic Federation of Ireland. As part of this, we are also thrilled to support leading Irish athletes.

As an employer, we are committed to fostering a workplace environment and culture that champions diversity and values everyone equally. As one of Ireland’s leading financial institutions, we work had to embed equality, diversity and inclusion into our wider organisational systems.

We are a founding signatory of Ireland's Women in Finance Charter, a proud Equal Pay company, EDGE Move certified, Investors in Diversity Bronze accredited by the Irish Centre for Diversity, a participating employer in the Willing Able Mentoring (WAM) programme supporting access to the labour market for graduates with disabilities, and we are working to achieve accreditation as an Autism-Friendly organisation this year through our collaborative partnership with AsIAm, Ireland’s National Autism Charity.

Our company has lived through many changes, but one thing has remained constant: Our commitment to running our business sustainably and with integrity. This is how we have earned and maintained the trust of our customers, employees and other stakeholders.

For more information on Allianz Ireland’s sustainability initiatives visit allianz.ie/about/ sustainability.