What adults don’t tell you.

We have this favourite book series that we read with my daughter. It’s called “What adults don’t tell you” (here) and it explains important aspect of the daily life in a simplified, funny way -?an absolute bull’s eye, Sophie loves them.

Last weekend we were reading about waste and somewhere between discussing how the BP Horizon spill and the amount of waste we produce per person every year, she said with the calmest tone possible:?

-We won’t make it on time to clean the garbage so that we don’t drown in it when I’m gonna be old, will we?

There’s something deeply disturbing about the fact that, what seems obvious for a 10-year old is not obvious to the adults.??According to the book, 100 years ago, there were approximately 1.5 billion people around the globe. Before the end of this year, we will reach 8 billion. Each one of us producing trash, each one of us exponentially growing the rate of garbage “produced” per person. Countries paying other countries to take in their waste, entire industries built around the “buy more, one-off, disposable” mindset, the Pacific trash island growing bigger every day. We got it all wrong.

Cutting to the chase.?

People that are reasonable enough to use their imagination and think about the future are “concerned” to put it mildly. What they are afraid of is already inevitable without a prompt, significant change in our habits. But how to change the habits that were rooted in us for decades, if not centuries??

To be honest,??I don’t know, and as a family we can only make sure that we do not add up to this “phenomenon” too much. I only have this instinct that there are organizations (not just governments) that should be especially concerned about this situation.

So, guess who should care and has the funds to make a change plus it’s very much in their best?interest??

Let me remind you the main reason for insurance to even exist.?

In principle It’s to make a risk obsolete. So that people paying premiums do not have to worry about whatever they wish to be protected against. Easy peasy, right??

The longer we, the people, act as we do now, the more pollution will impact our health, the quality of life and it will rise all the risks we can think of, and many yet unknown to us. Not only the risks will be larger but also way more unpredictable. How to deal with it?

Insurers talk a lot about expanding their ecosystems, they want to go beyond the principal area of their business and take better care of their clients. It usually means perfect and comfortable claims settlements, predicting your travel plans to be ready with a cross-sell offering just before you departure, or even creating “helpful” apps that also track your habits just to “know you better”.?

But do you feel they actually, really, think about YOUR future??

When was the last time you saw a large-scale educational action on how to help preserve or clean the planet funded by insurers? When did you last notice their pressure on the packaging industry not to pack everything in 5 layers of plastic? When was the last time you saw big financial groups giving something back - CSR NOT used as corporate integration event or brand building operations but as actually making an impact?).

OK now to be fair, there are notable exceptions. One is Beesafe ( Beesafe sp. z o.o. ) , the company which is true to their name and has been consistently looking after wild bees since its inception.?

Another one is insurance-adjacent, The Insurance Network who is very involved in Stump Up for Trees, aka reforesting the UK.?

Just one more example could be Admiral Group Plc with their #giveaday scheme where their employees can use some time to go and help in green, or other community initiatives.?

?I like to think that I work for an organization that even if does not yet have huge funds has a proper mindset. Acini is only one year old, but still we do our best to limit the carbon footprint by getting involved in reforesting initiatives, flying only when absolutely necessary or opting out of having an office and thus not commuting to work every day.??

I am not saying others don’t do it. But I am afraid that there is still not enough of us to make a change.?

Getting back to the point. If insurers claim to offer us peace of mind, I must say I do not feel peaceful at all these days.?

If you ask me about the future of insurance, I would say insurance companies need to take their cues from the ones described above (or other similar) and redefine the business models and get a bit “back to earth” to actually earn the right to say that they de-risk our future. It does not mean that everyday-newer, better, smarter, cloud or AI technology won’t help. It’s great that lots of businesses invest in those. Technology is a great enabler of anything.?

As often now it’s not the technical “How” that needs answering, it’s about direction where are we heading that brings concerns.?

Just to clarify, I really respect insurance and I?see??great potential in that business to actually make an impact. So if you happen to read this and you know of any future-focused green initiatives, especially driven by financial industry, please share some links below and help me regain some peace of mind.

If you don’t have anything to share this just proves my daughter’s concerns are not unjustified and we all have lots of work to do. Even if it is just to spread the awareness of our common responsibility for preserving what we have for future generations.?

Stay safe.

A.

#sustainability #insuranceindustry #ecology #futureofinsurance