
Using the challenge of solving social issues to provide insurance value
Insurance value and sustainability
The MS&AD Insurance Group believes that the role of insurance is “not only to compensate for economic losses but also to find and prevent risks and to reduce the impact of risks,” and we support the safe and secure lives and business activities of our customers accordingly. Accompanying customers in resolving the challenges they face today and in the future is the most important pillar of this effort.
In addition, the sustainability of the insurance business comes from the sustainability of society. This is because the need for insurance arises from the desire to “continue current lifestyles and businesses tomorrow and to make them better tomorrow.” Our key sustainability issues of “Symbiosis with the global environment,” “Safe and secure society,” and “Happiness of diverse people” are social issues, and at the same time, they are the foundation on which our business depends.
Working together with customers to solve social issues they face, I am convinced that this is the proper role of insurance and the only solution that will enable the sustainable growth of the Group. I also believe that these efforts come from the heartfelt feeling of all officers and employees that their “day-to-day work is connected to solving social issues.”
Incorporating sustainability into our work and making it into “earning power”
Since FY2024, we have incorporated sustainability into organizational and individual plans and targets to ensure that we put into practice the sharing of connections between the work of all officers and employees and sustainability. Then, in line with our plans and targets, we implement a cycle of working together with customers to resolve issues such as climate change, natural capital, biodiversity, and respect for human rights, then reviewing such efforts.
We position the annual “MS&AD Sustainability Contest” as one opportunity to review our efforts. This fiscal year, the purpose of the contest was to create “earning power” for the Group, and it was an opportunity to encourage employees to take on the challenge of solving our customers’ issues.
Working together for “Green Resilience”
In November 2023, we set and announced an interim target*1 for 2030 for the reduction of greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions by our major business partners in Japan. As part of efforts to address climate change, which is the most important issue, it should be a mission of insurance and financial service providers to reduce the GHG emissions of their business partners through insurance underwriting, investment, and loans, while also working to reduce their own GHG emissions, of course. By confronting this difficult issue head-on together with our many business partners, we hope to increase our contribution to solving the issue, while at the same time capturing business opportunities for the Group. With this in mind, we determined that our targets will apply to all business partners for which premiums income exceeds a certain size, regardless of industry.
We have also been engaged in activities to preserve and restore the natural environment, under our approach of creating a virtuous cycle that mitigates damage from natural disasters and revitalizes communities, while making the most of nature’s bounty and protecting biodiversity, which we call “Green Resilience.” We intend to use the slogan “Green Resilience” as a new value that we offer to customers through the development of our products and services, as it will make it easy for our employees to feel the close connection with our Mission.
Specifically, in collaboration with a start-up company capable of analyzing river and groundwater flows, we have begun providing services to help companies assess and disclose their water-related risks, and we are developing tools to assess how the environmental and biodiversity impacts of corporate activities such as urban and agricultural land development affect companies’ financial position.
We are also taking on the challenge of investing in and fostering start-ups with promising solutions through an alliance of four financial companies*2 formed in February 2023, as well as establishing a “water positive system”*3 in areas where groundwater resources might be depleted owing to the presence of large industries.
Furthermore, we intend for our “environmental and social risk assessment,”*4 which checks the risk of damage to biodiversity associated with large-scale development and the status of certification in the supply chain, to also cover some renewable energy power plants where there is large-scale development, from the perspective of preserving natural capital and disaster prevention and reduction. Addressing climate change requires a balance between both the preservation of natural capital and disaster prevention and reduction, and at the same time, the introduction of renewable energy has been expanding rapidly in recent years, and the increasing burden on the natural environment has become an issue. We will use the “environmental and social risk assessment” more proactively in our dialogues with business partners, as an effective means of reducing our impact on the environment and local communities.
*1 We will reduce GHG emissions across approximately 3,300 major domestic business partners by 37% compared with FY2019 by FY2030.
*2 “Finance Alliance for Nature Positive Solutions (FANPS)” launched with Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Inc., Development Bank of Japan Inc., and Norinchukin Bank
*3 A system in which businesses that have reduced stormwater infiltration capacity through land use, alteration, etc., pay at least the equivalent amount for restoration to businesses that have increased groundwater recharge capacity through nature-based solutions.
*4 This applies to new projects in agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and hydroelectric power generation that involve large-scale development in currently undeveloped areas.
Taking pride in changing society
We expect the Group to secure a strong reputation among customers when all officers and employees believe and act on the belief that our role is to work with customers to solve the social issues they face and that this is the value we should provide to them. Through our strong reputation among customers, we will reaffirm the value of insurance and the pride we take in our work and again ensure that this is a core part of our approach. We intend to involve various stakeholders in this spiral and make it a significant movement that changes society.
That is the Group’s aspiration.
Naomi Motojima
Managing Executive Officer
Group Chief Sustainability Officer (CSuO)