Commitments to protecting the environment

Commitment linked to the business of Financial Protection

This commitment primarily concerns the effective management of environmental risks for businesses, through our role as an insurer and asset manager.

• Educating our corporate clients about the importance of environmental risk prevention in countries where AXA has property & casualty operations.
• When required, helping such clients to identify environmental risks and take the preventive measures needed.
• Encouraging environmentally responsible behavior by businesses and governments through the development and/or promotion of specialized funds for our retail and institutional clients.

Further details on the strategy as well as examples of this business commitment can be found in the Customers, Property and casualty, Environment section.

Commitment to reduce our direct environmental impact

We are committed to managing our own direct environmental impacts by setting up an environmental management system for all of our administrative sites worldwide. This is notably based on an annual reporting system which enables us to optimize the management of our major environmental impacts, including paper, power and water consumption, as well as the production and recycling of electronic waste.

International commitments

• Signed up to the Statement of Environmental Commitment by the Insurance Industry in 2002, created under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).
• Signed up to the UN Global Compact, and commitment to upholding its 10 universal principles, in particular those relating to the protection of the environment : support for a preventive approach in dealing with environmental problems, adoption of steps to promote a greater sense of environmental responsibility, and working towards the development and diffusion of environmentally-friendly technologies.
• Founding member of Entreprises pour l'Environnement (EPE), a non-profit organization that groups together some 50 large businesses committed to proactively supporting sustainable development. Within this framework, we are supporting the EPE's partnership with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).
• Support and partner with the Carbon Disclosure Project (www.cdproject.net) since, respectively, 2003 and 2005.

A strategic priority: environmental site management

In line with its sustainable development strategy, AXA has identified the environmental management of its sites as one of its strategic priorities, which must therefore be covered by a specific and coordinated policy and process, overseen worldwide by the Group sustainable development department.

This commitment is notably reflected in the definition of objectives for the entire Group. It is taking shape through four objectives: to reduce consumption levels (paper, power, water), manage electronic waste responsibly, implement the environmental reporting process around the world, and apply high environmental standards for all new office facilities.