With its Sustainability Report on the 2016 financial year we are publishing information on social, environmental and governance topics within the Group for a sixth consecutive year. Our Sustainability Report was drawn up in accordance with the G4 Guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) as well as the Sector Disclosures for the Financial Services industry. The report has been compiled in conformity with the "Core" option, which contains the essential elements of a sustainability report. Furthermore, with a view to satisfying the information requirements of our stakeholders and the rating agencies as comprehensively as possible, we are providing additional information. The reporting period is from 1 January to 31 December 2016. Significant developments in 2017 have been included up until the editorial deadline in August 2017. Unless otherwise indicated, the particulars refer to the entire Hannover Re Group.
The report was submitted for the GRI Materiality Disclosure Service and GRI has confirmed the correctness of the location of the G4 Materiality Disclosures (G4-17–G4-27).
The present Sustainability Report reflects the issues and challenges of sustainable development that are material to our company. It takes into account the requirements of stakeholders who are of major significance to our company. The fundamental principles on which the report is based are materiality, the inclusion of stakeholders, the sustainability context and comprehensiveness. A materiality analysis was carried out in 2014 in order to identify the issues most relevant to the company.
The following overview differentiates between the material action fields and issues according to their internal and / or external relevance and indicates which GRI aspects are covered.
Action fields / Material issues | Differentiation | |
---|---|---|
Relevance within the Group | Relevance outside the Group | |
Governance and Dialogue | ||
X | X | |
Compliance | X | X |
Risk management | X | X |
Stakeholder dialogue | X | X |
Product responsibility | ||
Risk expertise | X | X |
Sustainable insurance solutions | X | X |
Environmental, Social and Governance criteria (ESG criteria) in asset management | X | X |
Customer orientation and satisfaction | X | X |
Employees | ||
Health management | X | |
Executive development / Employee advancement | X | X |
Employee retention | X | |
Diversity | X | |
Co-determination | X | |
Environment and Society | ||
Operational environmental conservation | X | |
Supplier management | X | |
Social commitment | X |
Unless otherwise stated, we report on our activities Group-wide.
Until 2015 inclusive the Group-wide headcount refers only to employees working at Group companies allocable to the operational insurance business. From 2016 onwards the employees of all companies included in the financial statement of the Hannover Re Group are counted. For this reason, the Group-wide employee numbers for 2016 are only comparable with those of previous years to a limited extent.
The stated environmental indicators refer to the Hannover location (degree of coverage: 46.6 % of worldwide workforce). We use data collected internally from various departments as well as consumption data contained in the bills received from our electricity and district heating supplier.
For the purpose of calculating our CO2 emissions from business travel we adopt the calculation methods of our offset provider "atmosfair" and of Deutsche Bahn AG. We establish the CO2 savings from the use of videoconferences by utilising data from our service provider "Tata Communications" as well as our own internal calculations and estimates made on this basis.
In order to make the report more easily readable we have avoided gender-specific duplications and instead used the masculine form throughout.