Since officially launching at the end of last year, The Green Insurer has gone from strength to strength; adding top insurers to its panel, inking exclusive deals for premium financing and producing industry-leading insights into sustainable insurance practices.
Discussing the growth trajectory of the brokerage and how it reflects changing attitudes towards sustainability in insurance, CEO Paul Baxter (pictured) shared insights into how the business came to exist. The idea for The Green Insurer was rooted in the understanding that most people are concerned about the environment and the growing risks from global warming.
“We could not find any car insurance providers that we thought were doing a good, wholehearted job of focusing on this critical issue. So we came up with the idea of The Green Insurer,” he said. “The proposition at the heart of the business is that we encourage and incentivise customers to drive in a more eco-friendly way and then offset any carbon emissions from driving to mitigate the environmental impact.”
Baxter outlined the firm’s carbon objectives, in order of priority as:
Customers, in turn, are issued ‘reward points’ for minimising their miles and for driving well which can be used to buy vouchers for supermarkets, to buy green products or to cash in as a credit on their insurance account. The latter can then be spent on a new policy, a renewal or another fee for a mid-term amendment.
The progression of The Green Insurer to date has been marked by several milestones, including it gaining FCA authorisation, following which it launched to the public in December 2023. Getting approved by B Corp as a B Corp Pending - the accreditation given to new companies, under one year old, was another key date, he said, particularly as it requires many of the actions needed to become a B Corp.
From there, the broker launched its car insurance proposition, followed by van insurance. Since then, it has developed a panel of five insurers, with two or three more to follow shortly. “Getting capacity for new motor insurance brokers is very hard,” he said, “and we were delighted to get some big names on our panel early on, including Allianz, Ageas and AXA.”
Other milestones include being placed on all four of the main price comparison websites along with two smaller ones and offsetting its first 100 tonnes of CO2.
Identifying how he has seen consumer attitudes to green initiatives change during his time in the market, Baxter highlighted how people are seeing the daily impacts of global warming on their everyday lives. That includes hotter summers, more rain, coastal erosion, water shortages, pollution, and many other impacts of climate change. “Government, NGOs, campaigning organisations and high profile individuals such as David Attenborough and Greta Thunberg are all making it clear to people that we are facing an urgent and near irreversible climate crisis.
“Awareness of the issue is helped by the United Nations COP conferences and the UN Paris Agreement, where 196 respected and responsible countries pledged in a legally binding way to limit the global temperature increase to well below 2 degrees Celsius while pursuing efforts to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees. [Meanwhile], further regulatory changes such as low emissions zone and charges, the ban on new petrol and diesel cars from 2035 all help to keep climate issues at the front of people’s minds.”
As to whether this change in mentality is being reflected across the insurance ecosystem, Baxter believes it’s fair to say that the insurance industry has been “particularly slow” to respond to the climate crisis. There are continued protests against insurers who insure the most polluting and damaging infrastructure, he said, with many organisations such as Extinction Rebellion, Mothers’ Rise Up, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and others organising protests.
“These have included protests outside Lloyds of London, at the BIBA conference and at the British Insurance Awards and others,” he said. “There has been some movement in areas such as using recycled parts to repair cars, but more is required. It is essential for our industry to be more active in this area and to engage and participate fully in taking meaningful action.”
Looking to the future, Baxter said he does feel positive that the industry will take leading action to reverse and prevent further climate change. “It has not moved fast enough, but I do believe that the large multinational insurers are now serious about it and they know that their regulators, customers and investors will all demand action.”
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