Our major sustainability issues can influence the Group's commercial success in the short, medium and long term. With this in mind, we carried out an internal materiality analysis in 2014. In the context of several workshops held with the involvement of representatives from all relevant specialist units and external consulting, we identified relevant topics along the value creation chain, compulsory and voluntary standards as well as long-term trends. We then weighted the topics using an evaluation tool to determine their materiality.
Core issues associated with Environmental, Social and Governance ratings (ESG ratings) and UN initiatives are of special relevance to us. In 2015 we therefore expanded our list of material issues accordingly. Even though our company's environmental impacts are comparatively minor, we also include them – along with social concerns – in our considerations.
Subsequent clustering then adds to the clarity of differentiation between the selected topics and helps to avoid duplications. In this way, we have identified 15 material sustainability issues that are set out accordingly in the Sustainability Report:
Action field | Clustering of material issues |
Governance and Dialogue | |
---|---|
Responsible corporate governance | |
Compliance | |
Risk management | |
Stakeholder dialogue | |
Product Responsibility | |
Risk expertise | |
Sustainable insurance solutions | |
ESG in asset management | |
Customer orientation and satisfaction | |
Employees | |
Executive development / Employee advancement | |
Employee retention | |
Diversity | |
Co-determination | |
Environment and Society | |
Operational environmental conservation | |
Supplier management | |
Social commitment | |
In the context of the materiality analysis we also identified nine material issues in the area of financial performance. These are covered by the Group strategy. We report extensively on the progress of goal achievement in the Annual Report 2016.