Sustainability governance

The Board of Directors plays an active and creative role in our sustainable corporate management and reviews the Group’s sustainability management activities several times a year. It reviews and defines the Group's material topics, develops and manages the implementation of the sustainability strategy and reports to the Board of Directors on its progress. It also informs the Board of Directors about current, emerging and potentially relevant developments in the area of sustainability. As the company’s supreme management and administrative body, it bears responsibility for approving the key sustainability topics, the sustainability strategy and the sustainability goals defined in it and oversees the Helvetia Group’s system of sustainability management. Every six months, the Board of Directors confers with internal and external sustainability specialists and is thus kept abreast of relevant developments in the field of sustainability, e.g. sustainability trends and changes in regulatory requirements.

Responsibility for developing and implementing the Group-wide sustainability strategy rests with Group Executive Management. It reviews and defines the Group's material topics, develops and manages the implementation of the sustainability strategy and reports to the Board of Directors on its progress. It also informs the Board of Directors about current, emerging and potentially relevant developments in the area of sustainability. In the course of managing the company’s operations, and with a view to implementing the sustainability strategy, Group Executive Management defines sustainability management requirements across all business areas, e.g. for risk management, underwriting, claims management, or more generally, in relation to leadership and employee conduct. Finally, it also ensures that the human and financial resources for Group-wide sustainability management are appropriate and enables an opportunity- and risk-based management approach.

The Group Sustainability Committee is a committee of the Group Executive Board that has been expanded to include specialists and key functions. In particular, it reviews the implementation of the sustainability strategy and assesses current sustainability trends. The Group Sustainability Committee is made up of the Group CEO, the three segment CEOs and heads of Group functions as well as the Group's Chief Sustainability Officer and Chief Risk Officer. The Group Sustainability Committee is also a preparatory discussion body for proposals and decisions that have to be made at Group Executive Board (or Board of Directors) level. It also serves as an escalation and decision-making body for the integration of sustainability issues, with the exception of risk management and individual transaction decisions.

The Chief Sustainability Officer is responsible for Group-wide functional management within the framework of the given sustainability strategy and sustainability governance system, and of the topics determined for Group-wide sustainability management. This includes ensuring compliance. The Chief Sustainability Officer is supported by a team of sustainability specialists as well as specialists representing other Group functions. The Chief Sustainability Officer’s tasks include actively managing and coordinating implementation of the sustainability strategy and helping the business units to make sustainability management an integral part of their core business (ESG integration), measuring and assessing sustainability performance, and reporting regularly to the Group Sustainability Committee, Group Executive Management and the Board of Directors.

The Group business areas and the executive management teams of the country markets are responsible for implementing and integrating the sustainability strategy as well as for ensuring compliance within their spheres of responsibility. They are supported in these tasks by the Group Sustainability Team and local specialists.

Each of the Group’s country markets has its own sustainability organization, which reports to local management Local sustainability officers bear responsibility for the operational implementation of sustainability strategy measures, for monitoring goal achievement and for supporting local executive management in ensuring regulatory compliance within their respective local jurisdictions. They provide support of a general nature to the local executive management so that the latter can fulfil its sustainability management responsibilities. They also coordinate local communications and reporting. The local sustainability officers report to local executive management and also, in functional terms, to the Chief Sustainability Officer.