Guide To Ethical Insurance Companies

Unfortunately many Insurance Companies’ record on ethical investing, historically at least, has not been the greatest; however there are a growing number of companies specialising in ethical insurance policies for the serious ethical investor.

These include ethical insurance for homes, travel, contents and especially life assurance and ethical pensions; with a large focus on environmental issues.

While big insurance companies such as CIS – now The Co-operative Insurance – are making great strides in terms of developing ethical policy, and are also worth checking out; this guide focuses on more specialist ethical insurance providers:

Ethical Insurance Companies

Naturesave Policies

Naturesave Policies Ltd covers home, contents, travel, accident and illness insurance, and business insurance, all policies coming to you with an ethical, environmentally friendly bent. Naturesave Policies are underwritten by Lloyds of London. Naturesave’s central mission statement is a commitment to sustainable development programmes.

Naturesave was founded and is based in Totnes in Devon, and with its commitment on environmental issues and ethical business practices has attracted a wide following.

The company’s philosophy is that if you want to see change you have to get involved and so they offer insurance that tries to encourage the insurance industry to adopt a more sustainable, environmentally friendly position.

Ethical projects and services include contributions to specific environmental and conservationist programmes, free environmental performance reviews for Small Medium Enterprise (SME) clients, carbon offset grants for SMEs; and lobbying within the insurance industry.
They have funded a broad variety of projects throughout the UK involving everything from water voles and bats to renewable energy and recycling projects. They have also assisted many businesses and organisations in becoming more environmentally aware in their trading practices. They attract both commercial clients with advanced ethical policies but also those who they say are eco-curios and want to start down the road towards a more eco-friendly business position. Ten per cent of the premium made from each policy goes towards the Naturesave Trust, offering grants for environmental and conservationist projects.

Animal Friends Insurance

Animal Friends Insurance is a small insurance company specialising in animal insurance products, the only UK pet insurance company to donate 100 per cent of its net profits to help animal charities worldwide, and is one of the UK’s fastest growing pet insurers.

Animal Friends Insurance has supported many UK pet charities and protects endangered species through a number of donations and schemes.

As well as providing a commitment to donating profits to ethically aware animal charities; it also claims to try and influence the policies of underwriters. The company’s ethos is best described as working with good charities and it supports worthy animal welfare projects which will help improve the lives of animals, combat animal abuse and cruelty, assist in the protection of rare and endangered species, help conserve unique and vital habitats for the benefit of animals and humans alike and assist local communities to protect their heritage. Offers a wide range of animal insurance products.

Climatesure

Climatesure is a travel insurance specialist, travel of course being one of the main contributors to climate change; with flying especially damaging as a producer of CO2 and other greenhouse gases.

Climatesure offers unique insurance package dedicated to environmental ethical policy. When you buy a policy, Climatesure will calculate the CO2 you produce by flying overseas and pay for it to be ‘offset’ by Climate Care, a leading carbon offset company. This payment is part of the price, and does not cost you any extra. The insurance offsets your CO2 emissions through funding sustainable energy projects, which then will reduce CO2 emissions by the same amount as your activities produce.

Climate Care fund carbon offset projects around the world, including:

• Renewable Energy – Replaces non-renewable fuel such as coal.
• Energy Efficiency – Reduces the amount of fuel needed.
• Forest Restoration – Absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere as the trees grow.

One of Climatesure’s flagship programmes includes funding a project in India to introduce stoves into schools that run off a renewable fuel source, replacing stoves that use fossil fuels. Crop waste is being used to make biomass briquettes for the stoves, providing extra income to farmers but a much cheaper and new renewable fuel for the schools. This project is expected to save 11,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions.