ESG strategy & responsible business approach

Now more than ever, businesses are expected to play their part in tackling the issues facing society.

Insurance has always had a clear social purpose at heart: by pooling risk with others, we can help people bounce back when the worst happens and enable more confident living in the everyday.

For Lloyd’s, that’s captured in our purpose of sharing risk to create a braver world.

That purpose drives everything we do: from the products we develop, to the culture we create and the research we produce. But we also have specific plans in place to make sure we deliver the societal impact our purpose demands of us. These are our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) plans.

We’ve committed to embedding these principles and commitments in our market, in order to support our climate, culture and communities.

We’ve also committed to report on them every year – encouraging transparency, and ensuring action.

Underpinning our core mission

Lloyd's responsible business approach underpins our core mission, which is to support global economic growth, enable human progress, and help nations, businesses and communities recover post disaster by paying claims. We want to be known as a responsible business leader, operating in a way that makes those who work for us feel proud of their contribution to what we do and how we do it.

Our programmes focus on four key themes which are integral to Lloyd’s and the wider insurance sector. These are:

• Innovation
• Managing risk
• Building resilient communities
• Empowering individuals to reach their potential

United Nations Global Compact

As part of our journey to become a more responsible business, we have signed up to the United Nations Global Compact to commit to their sustainability principles. As we publish our second United Nations Global Compact report, we aim to reflect Lloyd’s’ ambition to build sustainability and responsibility into all our core activities.

In publishing this report, we hope to demonstrate that this goal is being achieved and we are developing real momentum across a broad spectrum of activities and delivering on our commitments.

This report sets out our achievements in 2020 and our approach for 2021.

These include the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) Insurance Task Force which commits its participants to provide climate positive financing and risk management solutions to support and encourage individuals and businesses around the world to accelerate their transition to a sustainable future.

In 2020, we also published our first Environmental and Social Governance Report, which recognises that we must go wider if we are to tackle the many challenges society faces, such as inequality, poverty, disease and climate change. As part of that Report, we outlined our six priority Sustainable Development Goals which help maintain our focus and ensure we work consistently towards this ambition. Later in the year, we signed HRH The Prince of Wales’ Sustainable Markets Initiative and simultaneously published our Climate Action Paper.

This report represents a continuation of Lloyd’s journey to become a more responsible organisation. Our clear ambition is to continue to build on our progress and commitments as laid out here to benefit our people, our customers and society. Thank you to everyone across the Corporation who contributed to the report and for your commitment to the principles.

Lloyd’s is committed to working towards a sustainable underwriting approach, with a portfolio of customers and business that supports our ambition to achieve net zero by 2050. To support the market in that effort, we have provided directional guidance and best practice for establishing an ESG framework, as well as approaches to responsible investment and sustainable underwriting. This approach will need a concerted effort by all market participants in putting their own ESG strategy in place which considers the wider responsibilities we have collectively and individually in playing our part in the global transition to net zero through the risks we share and the investments we make, to the way in which we support societal progress and inclusion in everything we do.

Lloyd’s investment philosophy focuses on generating long-term, sustainable capital growth for Central Fund assets. Our approach to responsible investment is detailed in our strategy for the Lloyd's Central Fund and is built upon three core pillars; Protecting, Providing and Promoting.

Lloyd’s mission is to deliver an effective and sustainable approach to all third party sourcing and supplier management, with a clear purpose to support our Protect, Promote and Provide principles while achieving maximum value, minimising risk and driving efficiencies to invest in the future.

Please see our vision and our expectations from our suppliers in our Sustainable Procurement Statement and our Supplier Code of Conduct.

As part of our commitment to being a responsible business, Lloyd’s is part of the Living Wage campaign.

The campaign for a working living wage for all employees started in east London 16 years ago. Today over 30,500 businesses across the UK are part of the Living Wage campaign. Our commitment to the initiative means that all Lloyd’s employees, including those working for our sub-contractors, are guaranteed a fair wage that accurately reflects the cost of living.

We are committed to ensuring that there is no modern slavery or human trafficking taking place in our supply chains or in any part of our business. We continue to implement appropriate policies to support our commitment to act ethically and with integrity in all our business relationships.

You can find out more in our Modern Slavery Act Statement.