Entry into stage 3

We regard sustainable business practices as a decisive factor for long-term corporate success. In our opinion, a company must pass through four stages in order to firmly anchor the concept of sustainability into the strategy and business model: from the purely commercial approach through to the compliance stage and risk and value management stages all the way to the final stage of strategic differentiation, when sustainability is fully integrated into the strategy and when incentive systems and product innovations are consistently aligned with sustainability.

Until recently, UNIQA found itself in stage 2 – like the majority of companies in our sector. In 2012, we made sufficient progress so that we are now confident that we have reached stage 3. However, we still have some distance to go and will continue to work on this issue.

There are not many sectors where sustainability is clearly such an integral part of business as it is in the insurance sector. For 200 years, the most important task of UNIQA and its predecessors has been to give people peace of mind and to help them create a secure future for themselves. And this role is becoming increasingly important: the demographic shift in the highly developed, industrialised countries has created a situation where the public pension and healthcare systems can no longer fulfil their roles to the extent that we have become accustomed to for many decades. As insurers, it is incumbent upon us to help our customers respond to this trend in good time and plan for their future.

For UNIQA, sustainability means above all taking responsibility in three areas on the basis of a clear, transparent governance system: in the economic, social and ecological areas. We were the first Austrian insurer to introduce the concept of “value-oriented company management” at Management Board level in a risk management department back in 2011. In 2012, we created the necessary structures and implemented three important projects: