In 2019, almost 30 employees came to together to form the Group-wide Baloise network for sustainability. Each of these people work in a department which is influenced by the social, ecological or legal aspects of sustainability or have an influence on sustainability themselves in their respective department. Examples of these include Logistics, Human Resources or Asset Management. Together they draft content which is then discussed and approved by the Corporate Executive Committee, the CEOs of all the countries in which Baloise operates, and finally by the Board of Directors.
The network ensures that sustainability is considered holistically and devised the Baloise value creation model in 2019. It is based on the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) model. The initiative is dedicated to further developing corporate reporting and aligning this with value creation. The model, which is tailored to Baloise’s business model, offers a comprehensive overview and answers the question of how Baloise creates value for six different resource groups.
These groups are not restricted solely to employees, customers and investors; partners, society as a whole and the local and global environment have also been integrated and are involved or considered in decisions and activities. The model summarises all measures and activities that Baloise undertakes for the resource groups mentioned and maps the respective focus areas where Baloise sees itself as currently having the greatest influence.
The idea of this holistic perspective is to ensure that Baloise is operating sustainably across all resource groups. That also includes the interdependencies of impacts on the different groups. In future, it will provide a means of demonstrating the impact that measures aimed at one resource group can have on other resource groups.
For instance, our education and further training programme for employees has implications for the level of education within the society too, and our voluntary commitment in the field of education for young people in turn has an impact on the level of education of potential future employees. Likewise, reducing our carbon footprint in operational business and in our investments has an impact on all resource groups as well. The purpose of our annual objectives will be to focus measures in such a way that an optimal balance can be achieved across all groups.
Our value-added model is also influenced by other opinions. We will actively seek a dialogue both now and in future with various groups such as employees, customers, investors and the wider public by means of discussions and surveys, incorporating the results in the annual review of our model and in the definition of measures.
In addition to maintaining a dialogue with key stakeholder groups, transparent communication on eye level is very important to us. That is why we supply details of our value creation model as well as specific measures and their impact on our website. We value feedback and suggestions, which is why we also provide contact details for suggestions regarding sustainability on our website.