Travelers Publishes Its 2019 Sustainability Report
The Travelers Companies, Inc. (NYSE: TRV) today published its 2019 Sustainability Report, outlining the company's multifaceted strategy for creating shareholder value over time.
"We take a holistic approach to sustained value creation, understanding that our commitments to our customers, communities and employees ? what we call the Travelers Promise ? all play a role in our long-term success," said Yafit Cohn, Chief Sustainability Officer at Travelers. "Sustainability has been ingrained in our company for decades, and our report demonstrates how economic, environmental, social and governance practices are inextricably linked with our business strategy."
The report provides an in-depth review of the 16 topics that Travelers has identified as its key drivers of sustained value: Business Strategy & Competitive Advantages; Capital & Risk Management; Climate Strategy; Community; Customer Experience; Data Privacy & Cybersecurity; Disaster Preparedness & Response; Diversity & Inclusion; Eco-Efficient Operations; Ethics & Values; Governance Practices; Human Capital Management; Innovation; Investment Management; Public Policy; and Safety & Health.
Performance highlights from the company's 2019 report include the following:
Climate Strategy
- The company grew gross written premiums in its Global Renewable Energy Practice by nearly 30% year over year.
Community
- The company contributed more than $24 million in philanthropic support to help improve academic and career success, develop thriving neighborhoods and create culturally enriched communities, bringing total contributions for the past decade to more than $220 million.
- Employees collectively logged more than 130,000 volunteer hours, bringing the total for the past decade to more than 825,000 hours.
Customer Experience
- The company resolved nearly 95% of property claims arising out of catastrophes within 30 days.
Diversity & Inclusion
- Women and people of color represented approximately 55% and 25% of the company's U.S. workforce, respectively.
- In each of the last 10 years, Travelers has increased the percentage of women and people of color in its management-level positions.
- The company spent more than $100 million with Tier 1 and Tier 2 diverse suppliers.
Eco-Efficient Operations
- The company reduced its Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 39%, achieving 97% of its goal to reduce its overall emissions by 40% by the end of 2020.
Human Capital Management
- The company's voluntary employee turnover rate was 7.4%.
Investment Management
- The company invested $5.2 billion in municipal bonds that support water and sewer projects, $8.8 billion in K-12 education, $3.8 billion in higher education and more than $1.2 billion in fixed income securities classified as "green bonds" by Bloomberg.
Cohn added, "The initiatives featured in our report are great examples of the shared value we create for our customers, communities and employees, on the one hand, and our shareholders, on the other, by delivering on the Travelers Promise."
Sustainability initiatives in the report include:
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Using satellite and geospatial technology to view disaster areas. The Travelers Catastrophe Map Viewer provides agents and brokers with searchable, high-resolution before-and-after images of areas affected by disasters. Images are often available within one or two days after a catastrophic event, enabling the company's distribution partners to quickly notify customers about the condition of their property and begin the claim process if needed.
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Using data to protect customers. The company introduced a Wildfire Defense Services endorsement for California home and landlord policies ? providing an added layer of wildfire protection for customers at no additional cost. Travelers began working with Wildfire Defense Services, a firm that specializes in wildfire protection, to help provide loss prevention services that supplement the efforts of local firefighters and other first responders who are deployed before, during and after active wildfires.
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Offering a windstorm mitigation discount. In many states, the company's newest homeowners program offers a discount of up to 18% on hurricane premium for homes built to the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety FORTIFIED Goldtm Standard.
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Committing to plant up to one million trees to aid reforestation efforts. The company partnered with American Forests, the country's oldest nonprofit conservation group, to fund the planting of up to one million trees ? one for each Personal Insurance billing account converted to paperless billing.
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Supporting diverse entrepreneurs. The company initiated a partnership with Village Capital, an organization that supports seed-stage startups, to provide investment-readiness education to six diverse entrepreneurial support organizations focused on social enterprise, innovation and access to capital.
- Focusing on life balance and mental health. The company launched an internal campaign to help remove the stigma around mental health by sharing voluntary employee testimonials and enhancing related benefits, including providing five free sessions of professional counseling.
The company's sustainability reporting was guided by the input of key stakeholders and multiple sustainability disclosure frameworks. Travelers is a leader among domestic property casualty insurance companies in publishing reports responsive to the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) standards for the insurance industry and the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). To learn more, visit sustainability.travelers.com.
About Travelers
The Travelers Companies, Inc. (NYSE: TRV) is a leading provider of property casualty insurance for auto, home and business. A component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Travelers has approximately 30,000 employees and generated revenues of approximately $32 billion in 2019. For more information, visit www.travelers.com.
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