Environmental matters

eThis section describes the influence of environmental matters on our business activities along with the impacts of our business activities on the environment. It explains the concepts and measures in place as well as specific targets and impacts.

The following topics in particular are of material importance in terms of environmental matters: commitment to climate action, commitment to European climate targets, and advice on and prevention of natural disasters. We are tackling these challenges by supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy through our investments and insurance products. It is also our aim to structure our own operational management in an exemplary fashion, taking our environmental and social targets into account.

UNIQA climate strategy

We took our first major step towards implementing our own climate strategy in early 2019, when we approved UNIQA’s decarbonisation policy to phase out coal in our investments and underwriting. To pursue more general climate targets, we acceded to the Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance (NZAOA) in 2021 and the Green Finance Alliance in 2022, committing ourselves to more binding targets. One major success in 2023 was the validation of our interim targets for 2030 by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), both for our investment portfolio and for our own operational management.

The key objectives in UNIQA’s climate strategy are as follows:

• Pursuit of climate target trajectory in line with the 1.5 degrees Celsius target set under the Paris Agreement in investments and underwriting, and operational ecology in compliance with both EU climate change mitigation and climate change adaption targets
• Net-zero emissions in our business model by 2040 in Austria, and by 2050 throughout the entire Group
• Pursuit of and compliance with science-based interim targets for 2025, 2030 and 2035 based on climate target trajectory in line with the 1.5 degrees Celsius target set under the Paris Agreement
• Increase in sustainable investments to more than €2 billion by 2025
• Prevention of any negative impact on other EU environmental targets
• Compliance with minimum social standards

We define net-zero emissions as (a) the reduction of our scope 1, 2 and 3 carbon emissions to zero at best or to a residual level that is compatible with achieving net-zero emissions at global or sectoral level in corresponding scenarios or sector paths within the framework of the 1.5 degrees Celsius target; and (b) the neutralisation of all residual emissions to the net-zero target year and all greenhouse gas emissions subsequently released into the atmosphere.

Validation of our climate targets by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi)

Our interim targets to reduce CO₂ in our investments and own operational management by 2030 have been successfully reviewed and validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) since December 2023. The initiative defines and promotes targets based on scientific findings and independently verifies these targets set by companies. These science based 1.5 degrees Celsius targets are based on a simple principle: they focus on the amount of emissions that must be reduced in order to achieve the central aim of the Paris Agreement – to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. In line with the SBTi framework, we have set interim targets for our investment portfolio for 2030 in four areas, which account for 23 per cent of our total investment volume. We are focusing on project financing and corporate loans for power generation, other long-term corporate loans, and listed stocks and corporate bonds. We will implement our Science Based Targets by 2030 with our commitment activities and decarbonisation target trajectory. The UNIQA Group has also set itself SBTi interim targets for our operational management. We are specifically committed to reducing our direct Scope 1 and indirect Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 42 per cent by 2030 compared to the baseline year 2021.

Environmental matters in investment

In our investment strategy, we are guided by the principles of sustainability, commit ourselves to the climate target trajectory in line with the 1.5 degrees Celsius target set under the Paris Agreement to achieve net-zero emissions across the Group by 2050, and actively promote decarbonisation as a company and investor. By focusing the analysis of our portfolio on CO₂, we identify climate risks and opportunities at an early stage and can assess how ready our issuers are for the transformation in line with the Paris Agreement. Failure to comply with ESG criteria in our investment decisions not only has a negative impact on the environment and society, but also carries the risk of reputational damage. Targeted sustainable investments contribute to financing the transformation, reduce our exposure to ESG risks and increase sustainability-related opportunities. We engage in intensive dialogue with companies and asset managers to fulfil our role as an investor.

Decarbonisation strategy

As part of our membership in the United Nations Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance (NZAOA) and the Austrian Green Finance Alliance (GFA), we are committed to the gradual decarbonisation of our portfolio in order to be optimally aligned with the climate target trajectory in line with the 1.5 degrees Celsius target set under the Paris Agreement and achieve net-zero emissions for our investments throughout the Group by 2050.

This year’s successful validation of our interim climate targets by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) rounds off our sustainability strategy for investments. By 2030, we aim to gradually transform our portfolio and reduce our Scope 3 emissions, which are largely generated in Scope 3.15 (Investments) by our investments. We also encourage our investors to set science-based climate targets themselves. By working with our specialist data provider ISS (Institutional Shareholder Services), we are able to carry out a detailed analysis of our investments in relation to various sustainability factors.

These data on our investees are necessary, among other things, to ensure our exclusion or phase-out strategy, which provides for the following limitations:

Coal

• First coal exclusion criteria from 2019
• No new direct investments in companies with more than 5 per cent of their revenue from the coal business from 2024
• Phase-out of existing direct investments in companies with more than 5 per cent of their revenue from the coal business by 2030
• New investment products offered will only be coal-free

Oil

• Orderly withdrawal from oil by 2030
• No new direct investments in the expansion of oil infrastructure projects from 2025
• No new direct investments in companies with more than 30 per cent of their revenue from the oil sector from 2025
• Divestment of direct investments in companies with more than 5 per cent of their revenue from the oil business by 2030

Natural gas

• Orderly withdrawal from natural gas by 2035
• No new direct investments in the expansion of natural gas infrastructure projects from 2026
• No new direct investments in companies with more than 30 per cent of their revenue from the natural gas sector from 2026
• Divestment of direct investments in companies with more than 5 per cent of their revenue from the natural gas business by 2035
• If a company has SBTi-validated targets, carries out EU taxonomy-aligned activities or publicly commits to the Paris Agreement, an exception can be made for our limits.

Nuclear energy

• No new direct investments in the expansion of nuclear infrastructure projects from 2025
• Divestment of investments in companies with more than 5 per cent of their revenue from nuclear energy by 2035
• If a company has SBTi-validated targets, carries out EU taxonomy-aligned activities or publicly commits to the Paris Agreement, an exception can be made for our limits.

Carbon emission intensity

Our decarbonisation target trajectory focuses on individual issuers whose greenhouse gas emissions are calculated using the weighted average carbon emission intensity (WACI). This key indicator is calculated for companies as the sum of Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions relative to the company’s revenue, weighted by our investment volume. We are also observing Scope 3 emissions, but are not currently including them in the key indicator. Once we have meaningful reports on corporate Scope 3 emissions, we plan to take them into account.

We use the values for 2021 as the baseline to measure our activities and targets. On this basis, the UNIQA portfolio’s WACI has fallen by 29 per cent from 2021 to 2023 and by 27 per cent since the previous year. This shows the improvement in the efficiency of the companies in which we are invested, with regard to their Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions in relation to their revenue. As such, we have reached our emissions reduction target of 15 per cent compared to 2021, which was set for the beginning of 2025, a year earlier. The decrease from 2022 to 2023 is mainly due to the reduction in the emission intensity of our existing investments.

Carbon Risk Rating

The Carbon Risk Rating is an overall assessment of companies and countries on a scale of 0 to 100 for climate risk management, determined by ISS. A higher rating indicates improved carbon management. For companies, the assessment is based on more than 100 industry-specific indicators that classify the carbon risk at industry and subsector level. For states, the rating assesses the government’s effectiveness in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate risks. The rating is weighted by investment volume. In 2023, our rating improved by 4 per cent compared with 2022, partly due to our investment decisions and partly due to an improvement in internal risk management at the companies we invested in.

ESG performance score

The ESG performance score monitors the ESG profile of our investments and ranges from 0 to 100, with over 50 considered “Prime” and showing above average ESG performance. The score is composed of industry-specific and cross-industry indicators with different weighting depending on the industry. The topics cover dealing with suppliers, the standard of corporate governance in the company as well as environmental aspects. The score is weighted by investment volume. Our ESG performance score remained relatively stable at the ISS Prime level of 51.6 in 2023 compared with 2022.

Absolute financed emissions

Absolute financed emissions provide an indication of the carbon emissions that we finance through our investments in companies and countries. The indicator is calculated by multiplying our holding in a company by its Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions. We obtain this data from ISS. UNIQA’s financed emissions increased by 7 per cent compared with 2022, but are still 21 per cent below their 2021 level. In 2023, the share of companies that have set themselves SBTi emission reduction targets in the total emissions financed by UNIQA increased to 31 per cent (compared with 24 per cent in 2022). For this reason, we expect a future reduction in our corporate portfolio’s financed emissions.

In line with our NZAOA membership, we started monitoring other country-specific issues for government bonds in 2023 using the PCAF methodology¹⁾. The monitoring is to be used in future for NZAOA reporting and a key indicator is to be derived as a basis for future targets. We are reporting for the first time on the absolute emissions financed from government bonds for 2023.

The coverage of the total financed emissions from our investments in listed companies, corporate bonds (excluding collateralised debt), corporate loans and government bonds was 47 per cent for 2023. In the near future, we plan to increase this coverage by engaging in other asset classes.

Sustainable investments

The UNIQA Group finances issuers that contribute to emission reduction or social projects. Depending on the asset class, we are guided by the sustainability definitions for Green, Social and Sustainability Bonds according to International Capital Market Association (ICMA) principles. Funds are included in our sustainable investments in accordance with Article 9 (dark green funds) of the EU Sustainable Financial Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) and thus represent investments with the pursuit of a sustainability goal as defined by the SFDR. Qualified investments in infrastructure projects are also included in our sustainable investments. The sustainable investment strategy is set out in the UNIQA Group Responsible Investment Standard. Investments made are regularly reviewed by the Risk Management team. UNIQA’s sustainable investments increased by 67 per cent to €2.17 billion between 2021 and 2023. This enabled us to exceed our target of €2 billion for 2025 a year earlier. This target was previously set in 2021, including investments in Article 8 funds. However, due to our stricter reclassification of what we define as sustainable investments, these funds are no longer included. Nevertheless, we have achieved our target, mainly due to the significant increase in our investments in Green Bonds, which have more than doubled since 2021. In addition, the share of sustainable installations in our overall portfolio almost doubled in 2023, to 10 per cent. Our sustainable investments including Article 8 funds amounted to €1.7 billion in 2022. With Article 8 funds having been removed from our definition of sustainable investments, the figure for 2022 was €1.46 billion.

Principal adverse impacts

With reference to the EU Sustainable Financial Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) we monitor the diverse criteria for the negative impact of individual issuers on the environment and society – described as principal adverse impacts – and have been reporting on these indicators for the first time since mid-2023 for our investment activities. One focus area is the annual reduction of CO₂e emissions. Similarly, we monitor social issues such as non-compliance with the principles of the UN Global Compact or the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. We do not make any new investments in companies that violate these principles. Furthermore we do not finance any companies involved in the manufacture or sales of anti-personnel landmines, cluster ammunition or chemical and biological weapons. We also do not finance any countries with no tax cooperation arrangements in place with the EU and do not make any investments in their government bonds.

Engagement strategy

As part of our engagement strategy, which was launched in 2022 and expanded further in 2023, we rely on both proactive and reactive engagement in direct and indirect contact with our investees. This engagement is designed to improve the performance of our investees, especially in terms of their climate strategy and decarbonisation targets and measures. We rely on active dialogue to promote the idea of transition in order to prevent the divestment step if possible.

By proactive engagement we mean direct bilateral contact with individual companies. The focus is on those companies that together account for 65 per cent of our financed emissions. Over the next four years, we will be supporting these companies to achieve their goals in bilateral discussions with the ESG teams.

By reactive engagement we mean, on the one hand, collaborative engagement, which we have been pursuing since 2022 as part of our membership in the Climate Action 100+ (CA 100+) investor initiative. In this case, a group of international investors contact one of the 170 companies that have the highest emissions globally, to align its climate strategy and reporting with science-based climate targets.

On the other hand, we have been pursuing controversial or standards-based engagement, which is led by ISS, since 2023. ISS enables investors to engage with companies that commit serious and structural violations of normative criteria in the areas of corporate governance, human and labour rights, the environment, bribery and corruption or fail to take measures to adequately respond to these violations and to take countermeasures. These include, in particular, violations of the principles of the UN Global Compact (UNGC) and of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.

As part of our engagement, we try to convince our investees to do the following:

• Implement a governance framework that defines climate risk responsibilities and supervisory duties
• Take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions along the entire value chain in line with the Paris climate target of 1.5 degrees Celsius and set SBTi-validated targets, if not already in place
• Transparent disclosure to demonstrate the resilience of the corporate strategy with regard to different climate scenarios

We review our engagement activities on the basis of key indicators. In line with our proactive bilateral engagement strategy, we contacted two companies selected for their high share of our financed emissions and obtained an initial overview of our engagement partners’ climate-relevant targets, measures and strategies in 2023. Together, these two companies represent 33 per cent of our financed emissions. As part of our membership in CA 100+, we participated in a collaborative case of engagement last year. Together with ISS, we joined 25 standards-based engagements in the 2023 reporting year. These included 15 cases of social violations and ten cases of environmental violations. In 23 cases, measures or commitments have already been adopted by the companies concerned to remedy the violation. Under our membership in the Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance, we took part in another collaborative engagement with one of the world’s largest asset managers in 2023, focussing on climate-specific issues.

1) PCAF methodology: (investment position in government bonds (EUR)/GDP adjusted for purchasing power (EUR) * country’s Scope 1 production emissions [t CO₂e])

Environmental matters in underwriting in the Retail segment

As one of the leading insurers in Central and Eastern Europe, we bear equal responsibility for protecting the personal living standards of our customers and the value added processes of our company. Risk prevention and mitigation are key areas in which environmental and social impacts increasingly need to be incorporated into the advisory approach. Sustainability factors are therefore increasingly being taken into account in the underwriting process as well as products and services within our insurance business.

Every product development follows a structured, transparent process, which is laid down in our policy and our product development process standard. An internal audit process ensures that any product development in Austria is also examined and evaluated from an ESG perspective. This process was further developed and consolidated in 2023.

UNIQA Austria’s life insurance is also adaptable. Thanks to highly flexible policy structures and transparent, easy-to-understand cost models, it can be tailored to customers’ needs. In endowment life insurance, we launched another UNIQA portfolio in category c (sustainability category according to IDD) in autumn 2023 and thus integrated a standardised product range focused on sustainability for various risk classes.

In property insurance, UNIQA Austria is focussing on important future issues such as the circular economy and alternative energies. The new “Privatschutz Wohnen & Freizeit” household and homeowner insurance launched in 2023 includes, for example, increased natural disaster relief and a module for circular economy and renewable energies.

We support contemporary medical care in health insurance in Austria, motivating our customers to live healthier lives by building medical centres, expanding our partner network LARA, offering telemedicine surgeries and trained VitalCoaches.

UNIQA Austria has been offering a new senior citizens’ casualty insurance product since 2023. In particular, it provides older customers with security in covering care costs so that their standard of living can be maintained. This contributes to more equal access to care services and reduces social inequalities in healthcare.

In the bancassurance sector in Austria, we are increasingly focused on funds that take social, ecological and ethical criteria into account when it comes to unit-linked products. We also provide special subsidies for taking out homeowner and household insurance policies with ecological elements such as photovoltaic or solar systems, as well as for motor vehicle insurance for electric vehicles.

Likewise, we are gradually integrating sustainability into our insurance products on international markets, such as insurance coverage for electric vehicles at UNIQA Czechia and UNIQA Slovakia. UNIQA Poland addresses social needs through enhanced cover, taking into account the needs of older people in relation to specific services, as well as student insurance with a focus on diversity and psychological support.

Environmental matters in underwriting in the Corporate Business line

At a time marked by the challenges of climate change, the role of corporate business is growing beyond the mere coverage of risks. As a facilitator for improving financial resilience, UNIQA is at the interface between the development of the industry and responsibility for sustainability. Sustainability developments have a significant impact on the insurance industry and on the insured companies. These include the increase in climate-related damage and the increased market demand for new sustainable products and product components. The UNIQA Group is responding by integrating ESG risks into the underwriting process, incorporating ESG criteria into customer analysis and disclosing the underwriting portfolio’s sustainability performance. These innovations support sustainable business and new technologies.

Sustainability strategy in UNIQA’s corporate business

Our sustainability strategy approach in UNIQA’s corporate business comprises three main directions:

1. Advice on strengthening resilience to climate-related risks

The UNIQA Group offers companies advice to strengthen their resilience to climate risks and to overcome challenges. “First-aid measures” expand the recommendations for risk prevention.

2. Decarbonisation of the underwriting portfolio

The UNIQA Group aims to achieve net-zero emissions in the underwriting portfolio by 2040 in Austria, and by 2050 in CEE. Decarbonisation steps include the phase-out of coal (since 2019), oil (by 2030), and gas (by 2035) in corporate business.

3. Development of new sustainability products and components

UNIQA Corporate Business supports customers in their sustainable economic growth and in developing new sustainable technologies through innovative products. The focus is on the circular economy and environmental liability components in insurance solutions.

Insurance-associated emissions

As a member of the Austrian Green Finance Alliance (GFA), we aim to report on our insurance-associated greenhouse gas emissions and to set targets to reduce our emissions to net-zero in Austria by 2040 and in CEE by 2050. In the 2023 reporting year, we completed the analysis of our Austrian corporate portfolio for the 2022 financial year using the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF) methodology for measuring insurance-associated emissions. We also carried out the calculation for 2023 in Austria. 2022 serves as the baseline year for future target tracking. The interim targets up to 2040 and 2050 have been drawn up for the entire UNIQA Group and can be found with the emission levels for Austria in the following table:

Proxies and estimates used

a) Calculation of insurance-associated emissions

Externally-sourced industry data on the business activities’ carbon emission intensity (Scope 1 & 2) (according to NACE codes) were used to calculate the insurance-associated carbon emissions in the underwriting portfolio. We calculated the total amount of carbon emissions from these data, combined with our customers’ business activity, revenue, and annual insurance premium, using the PCAF formula. The calculation corresponds to a PCAF data quality factor of 5.
Estimates: where public information on revenue was not available, other public sources containing the companies’ financial data, including estimates, were used. Internal estimates were used for public institutions, companies with negative revenue and non-commercial companies.

b) Definition of decarbonisation targets

• The interim decarbonisation targets were defined taking into account:
  the local decarbonisation ambitions of the main UNIQA markets from a premium volume perspective (Austria, Poland, Czechia/Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Croatia and Bulgaria),
• our portfolio’s current industry distribution,
• major decarbonisation initiatives (such as the phasing out of fossil fuels, growth of the renewable energy business),
• the countries’ nationally determined emission reduction plans for the relevant industries represented (in particular energy, heavy industry, transport and waste).

The level of ambition for the interim targets corresponds with the decarbonisation commitments of the states represented and is reinforced by the comprehensive decarbonisation agenda at UNIQA Corporate Business.

ESG risk assessment

In May 2023, UNIQA Corporate Business introduced the ESG standard for the underwriting process, which integrates the corporate business’ ESG risks into the process. The underwriting platform’s special functions enable automated risk assessment of the submitted quotes with regard to their exposure to environmental, social and governance risks. The risk assessment is carried out by an external data provider and is based on the guidelines of the Principles for Sustainable Insurance (PSI) “Management of Environmental, Social and Governance Risks in the Non-Life Business”. Of the 15,006 customers rated in the Austrian portfolio, 45 per cent were assigned at least one ESG risk. Of these, 45 per cent had at least one high environmental risk, 68 per cent at least one high social risk, and 42 per cent at least one high governance risk.

The results are consistent with the assumption that many of the industries in our underwriting portfolio are potentially exposed to at least one of the high ESG risks. We will publish the progress made in analysing the company data in relation to ESG risks in the next sustainability report.

Decarbonisation of the underwriting portfolio

We are tracking the business volumes in all our markets with companies in sectors that use coal, oil and natural gas as part of our commitment to exit the fossil fuel business. We have defined a clear timetable for this exit and see clear progress in decarbonising the portfolio, as measured by the absolute premium in Corporate Business (business lines: property, technology and liability insurance). We plan to incorporate further business lines into the analysis in 2024.

The decline in the coal business in Corporate Business by almost half in 2023 is due to essentially meeting the exit commitments in our Polish portfolio. We monitored all remaining coal customers in the portfolio in 2023 based on available data with regard to their commitment to climate-related targets and relevant climate strategies. We also want to conduct this analysis in 2024 for all oil and gas companies in our portfolio. With respect to the analysis of coal customers, the results of our first step (monitoring publicly available data) provide us with a clear overview of those customers that may be subject to written commitment. In accordance with our decarbonisation declaration, we are committed to exiting all portfolio items in companies that generate more than 5 per cent of their revenue from activities in the coal sector by 2030. This does not include companies that have set science-based climate targets (time horizon: 2050, including five-year interim targets) and are decarbonising their core business in line with the Paris Agreement, or projects that are in line with the Paris targets. Our customers who have published such commitments already, make up 25 per cent according to our analysis of the open data. We will work with those customers who have not yet defined their own decarbonisation pathway to obtain confirmation of their climate plans by the end of 2026. We will gradually stop extending policies for those coal customers who do not commit to emission reduction plans in line with the Paris Agreement.

Renewable energy business

We intend to expand our business activities with companies from the following sectors across the Group as part of our solutions for renewable energies: solar power, wind power, hydropower and biomass energy. In 2023, we increased our premium volume in renewables by 20 per cent. There are multiple UNIQA markets behind this growth, i.e. Austria, Romania and Bulgaria, where we are experiencing significant growth in the renewable energy business and technical consulting for photovoltaics.

Environmental matters in operational management

An environment that is as clean and intact as possible is the basis for functioning economic systems and societies. As UNIQA, we can contribute to this by promoting sustainability and reducing negative impacts both through our business activities and in our own company. Failure to comply with environmental criteria in operational management may have negative impacts on the environment (e.g. increased carbon emissions), which may harm UNIQA’s reputation. Negative impacts on the environment and society (such as breaches of social standards) and reputational risks for UNIQA may also occur in procurement. Environmental management in our own operations is therefore a key aspect of our sustainability strategy and the introduction of a certified environmental management system in Austria is one of our most important strategic ambitions.

The steps we are taking to reduce our carbon emissions are based on the application of international certifications and standards in our dealings with suppliers and on the optimisation of our internal environmental management systems. We are increasing our use of renewable energy and reducing carbon emissions by systematically conserving resources and encouraging the use of low-emission mobility options.

At group level, we successfully completed the process for calculating and validating science-based climate targets in accordance with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in 2023. These targets not only include aligning our investments with the trajectory for the 1.5 degrees Celsius target set under the Paris Agreement, but also reducing greenhouse gas emissions from our own operational management (direct Scope 1 emissions and indirect Scope 2 emissions from purchased electricity and heat). We are specifically committed to reducing our direct Scope 1 and indirect Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 42 per cent by 2030 as against the baseline year 2021.

In 2024, we will conduct a comprehensive detailed survey of Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions for our Group’s own buildings. In the course of 2025, the data quality will be improved so that we can draw up a strategy to achieve our SBTi targets with action plans from 2026 onwards. By implementing this strategy, we aim to achieve net-zero emissions in Austria by 2040 and in CEE by 2050.

Our internal environmental management strategy is underpinned by our commitment to the Paris climate targets, which we have implemented with an initial programme of operational milestones and measures in 2022 for all sales offices in Austria. This plan includes the following key pillars:

• Use exclusively ecolabel 46 certified green energy from 2024 onwards
• Increase energy efficiency in our buildings by at least 33 per cent by 2040 compared with 2019
• Expand photovoltaic capacity to at least 600 kWp by 2035
• Phase out all oil and gas heating by 2035 at the latest
• Change over to 100 per cent electric vehicles in the company fleet by 2030 at the latest

Introduction of an EMAS-compliant environmental management system

UNIQA actively promotes environmental protection as part of the Group’s sustainability strategy and as a member of the Green Finance Alliance. To implement this commitment, an environmental management system according to EMAS (Eco-Management and Audit Scheme) will be introduced at the Austrian location by the end of 2024. EMAS improves operational environmental performance by assessing key areas such as energy efficiency, emissions and waste management. We have already collected relevant data, evaluated and implemented processes and published our environmental policy. Recycling islands were introduced to improve waste separation and recycling rates in the company. Regular audits will ensure the effectiveness of the environmental management system. We will continue our efforts to reduce our ecological footprint.

Sustainability in procurement

UNIQA’s Group Procurement Policy lays out our procurement model and our clear commitment to high social and environmental values, including the integrity of our suppliers and the strict prohibition of corruption and bribery. UNIQA is committed to high social and environmental standards, including the selection of suppliers who follow our value system and demonstrate a high level of integrity. Supplier registration verifies the company’s master data, cost-effectiveness, certificates (e.g. ISO) and compliance with laws and conventions. Since July 2023, the UNIQA Code of Conduct has been integrated into the supplier registration process, which includes human rights, labour standards, environmental protection and the fight against corruption. The largest suppliers are assessed annually, also taking into account advanced security, data protection and ESG factors.

Corporate carbon footprint

Using the energy consumption figures and environmental data available for the 2023 financial year, we have once again calculated UNIQA’s corporate carbon footprint (CCF). This quantifies the greenhouse gas emissions in our head offices and Austrian regional offices and includes company-specific and other relevant emissions, measured in CO₂ equivalents. The figures cover the main offices in 18 UNIQA countries (including Russia) as well as 9 regional offices in Austria and, for the first time, the 2023 report also includes roughly 55 service centres in Austria. The CCF reflects all emissions directly produced within the company (Scope 1) as well as indirect emissions resulting from bought-in electricity and heating (Scope 2). Additional indirect emissions caused by business travel (by plane and train) are also included (Scope 3.6). In 2023, we introduced changes to the process for calculating the CCF. For example, environmental data collection was switched to a professional web-based tool. This has significantly improved the process, both in terms of collecting data and monitoring the results. The transition also led to a change in the calculation, since other emission databases are used in some aspects. In order to compare 2023 with the previous year on the same basis, the 2022 CCF was recalculated using the new tool. The total carbon emissions for the 2022 financial year increased by around 3 per cent as a result of the changeover. This increase is partly due to using different emission factors: in the previous year, we used emission factors from Ecoinvent, the Federal Environment Agency, VDA and the IEA, but in the new calculation, Ecoinvent emission factors were used across the board for consistency. Due to system constraints in the choice of emission factors, a higher emission factor was used for flights. The new calculation used a technology-based factor for district heating consumption (compared to a country-specific factor with the old calculation). Fuel consumption for hybrid vehicles was also included. The table below shows the original and recalculated values for 2022. The targets validated by the SBTi will be recalculated for the 2024 financial year following the future availability of data from all owner-occupied buildings, re-submitted for validation and then disclosed accordingly.

In 2023, absolute market-based greenhouse gas emissions increased by 19 per cent to 9,909 metric tons of CO₂ compared with the previous year, while greenhouse gas emissions per employee fell by around 3 per cent. The increase in absolute emissions is explained by the expansion of the accounting group by a further 55 offices in Austria, which has mainly increased Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions in heating, and by the first inclusion of the general electricity at the Warsaw office. Similarly, Scope 3 emissions in mobility increased dramatically across countries as business travel resumed after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, refrigerant consumption was included in the CCF calculation for the first time in 2023, which increased emissions by almost 200 metric tons alone. The ongoing transition to green electricity tariffs cushioned the impact. This and the high level of greening for the new sites added to the accounting group in 2023 led to a slight reduction in carbon emissions per employee.