Environment & Climate Change

Introduction

At Chubb, we recognize our responsibility to provide solutions that help clients manage environmental risks, to reduce our own environmental impact and to make meaningful contributions to environmental causes.


At Chubb, good corporate citizenship lies at our core — how we practice our craft of insurance, how we work together to serve our customers, how we treat each other, and how we work to help make a better world for our communities and our planet.

Recognizing and responding

To the reality of climate change across our businesses

Managing

Environmental risk for our customers with innovative products and risk engineering solutions

Supporting

Environmental resiliency projects throughout the world

Protecting

Biodiversity and saving land through our philanthropy

Reducing

The environmental footprint of our own operations

Overview

Chubb and climate change

Climate change is a reality and its effects can be seen by an increased frequency and severity of natural catastrophes. Climate change is contributing to higher sea surface temperatures, rising sea levels and increasing trend in extreme weather events, including floods, droughts, winter storms, heat waves, wildfires and hurricane intensity. Chubb’s business involves providing clients with insurance and reinsurance protection from the impact of natural catastrophes, including weather events that are more frequent or severe. We recognize that a changing climate affects everyone — customers, employees, shareholders, business partners and the communities we serve.

Strategy

Chubb is an underwriting company, and the company strives to emphasize quality of underwriting rather than volume of business or market share. The company’s underwriting strategy is to manage risk by employing consistent, disciplined pricing and risk selection. Underwriting discipline is at the heart of our operating philosophy. Chubb applies the same risk management rigor to its broadly diversified fixed income portfolio as it does to the company’s underwriting practice. In addition, Chubb accounts for the potential impact of catastrophe and climate risks on the company’s own facilities and operations. Direct risk to Chubb’s business operations exists to the extent that increasingly frequent or severe weather events associated with climate change occur where Chubb has offices. 

Governance

At Chubb, assessing and managing risk starts at the top, with senior management. Risk management at Chubb is rigorous, with processes and governance to provide checks and balances. Chubb’s global enterprise risk management (ERM) framework — which encompasses climate risk — is embraced by colleagues at all levels of the company, from the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Board of Directors, down to each business unit and function. It is broadly multi–disciplinary and one of its objectives is effective governance.

Risk management

The potential impacts of climate change on the insurance industry are myriad and multivariate. These risks and opportunities fall broadly into three categories: physical risks and opportunities; transition risks and opportunities; and liability risks and opportunities

 

Metrics and Targets

Chubb measures and reports on climate risk in a number of different ways. A primary objective of Chubb’s environmental program is to measure, record and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the company’s own operations.

At the end of 2019, Chubb achieved the first of its two GHG emissions reduction goals. We reduced our GHG emissions by 22% off a 2016 baseline, exceeding our goal of reducing emissions 20% by 2025. As of year-end 2021, Chubb also reached the second of its two goals by reducing our Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions by 49% off a 2016 baseline. We accomplished this goal through a combination of real estate portfolio optimization, energy efficiency projects and renewable electricity purchase.

Achieving this goal has reduced our emission by nearly 45,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalent per year. Chubb's goals are aligned with the two-degree Celsius target outlined in the Paris Climate Agreement, as well as the quantitatively supported science-based standards methodology of the United Nations Environmental Program. Chubb will continue to use these strategies to further reduce the carbon footprint of our own activities. In addition, we are considering future ambitious, but achievable, targets.

This was the third GHG emissions reduction commitment that Chubb has undertaken since launching our Corporate Environmental Program in 2006, and the first that adheres to science–based standards. This was also the first companywide goal announced since ACE Limited acquired The Chubb Corporation and adopted the Chubb name globally in 2016.

2023 REPORT
2023 REPORT

Chubb 2023 Climate Related Financial Disclosure

The Chubb Corporate Environmental Program is now in its 17th year. Chubb remains committed to communicating important information about the company’s environmental initiatives to our clients, shareholders, employees, business partners, the communities where we operate and others who have an interest in our company, our industry and the environment. Our Climate Related Financial Disclosure outlines the full scope of the company’s environmental program and initiatives.

wind turbines
CLIMATE-RELATED PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

Environmental solutions

Chubb is committed to developing insurance products and risk management services that facilitate market–based solutions to current and pending environmental and climate-related issues. Today, Chubb is one of the largest and most advanced global underwriters of environmental liabilities and pollution risk, with environmental risk units in North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America. 

Our advanced environmental insurance solutions include:

  • Coverages for premises-based exposures
  • Contractors’ and project pollution liability
  • Renewable energy
  • Clean tech and environmental cleanup projects
  • Green building consulting services
  • Property policies for greener rebuilding after a loss

Chubb’s role in mitigating supply chain and global operations risks through its risk engineering services helps organizations identify climate-related exposures and provides risk management expertise to help manage environmental challenges caused by climate change.

eco building
GREEN BUILDING PRACTICES

LEED projects

Chubb has implemented green building practices in many of our buildings. In a number of locations, we have pursued the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED® (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) certification. Green building practices help improve indoor air quality, address resource management and reduce building water and energy use. 

Both of our largest office building locations in the U.S., Philadelphia and Whitehouse Station, N.J., are LEED–certified Platinum and Gold, respectively. Our building in Bermuda is LEED–certified Platinum. Many of our leased properties around the world are also LEED–certified, including among others Paris (Platinum), Chicago (Gold), Quito (Silver) and New York (Silver). In total, 25 Chubb offices are in LEED–certified buildings.

filling water in glass
Global Goals

Corporate Environmental Program goals

The Corporate Environmental Program has additional operational goals, including establishing a recycling program in each office and working toward 100% adoption, globally discontinuing use of disposable plastic water bottles, removing all disposable Styrofoam products, purchasing only sustainable copy paper, and reducing paper consumption year over year. A number of Chubb’s offices, including some of our largest locations, have met these goals. Others are making progress on the journey to achieve them.

Volunteers cleaning park
Giving back

Environmental philanthropy

The environment is a priority in Chubb’s corporate philanthropy. Chubb supports communities around the world in which we live and work through established philanthropic entities and company-sponsored volunteer initiatives.

Grants from Chubb’s charitable foundations have helped preserve sensitive lands and habitats across the world, finance “green” business entrepreneurs, and support educational programs that promote a healthy and sustainable environment. 

Chubb Coal Policy

In 2019, Chubb was one of the first insurers with major U.S. operations to adopt a policy concerning coal-related underwriting and investment. With the policy, the company no longer underwrites the construction and operation of new coal-fired plants or new risks for companies that generate more than 30% of their revenues from coal mining or energy production from coal. Insurance coverage for existing coal-plant risks that exceed this threshold will be phased out by 2022, and for utilities beginning in 2022. In addition, Chubb will not make new debt or equity investments in companies that generate more than 30% of revenues from thermal coal mining or energy production from coal. 

hands holding a globe illustration
CHUBB ENVIRONMENTAL NETWORK

Engaging our employees

Chubb has long engaged its employees in environmental efforts. Various offices have had employee-led “green teams” for decades. However, in the interest of coordinating globally and connecting employees across the company, on Earth Day 2019 we founded the Chubb Environmental Network (CEN). 

The CEN is comprised of volunteer employees if offices around the world and acts as a resource that globally connects employees passionate about environmental sustainability. CEN’s goals are to support Chubb’s environmental goals, set office-specific sustainability goals, and be thought leaders in Chubb’s role in responding to environmental challenges.