At the heart of the organisation working on sustainability at Baloise is the Group-wide sustainability network. Group-wide means that all national subsidiaries and Group functions, such as Group Compliance and Group Human Resources, are represented. The network’s tasks are strategic and consist of further developing and steering the principle of how Baloise pursues sustainability and providing guidelines for everyone.

To be able to implement projects in a company of a certain size, the perspectives of the employees and management both need to be considered. The network is in regular exchange with the Corporate Executive Committee, while sustainability representatives from the national subsidiaries in Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg are part of the group-wide sustainability network.

The Corporate Executive Committee provides feedback on proposals to the Group-wide network and facilitates implementation. In addition, the Corporate Executive Committee is the link between the sustainability network and the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors is responsible for developing the sustainability approach at Baloise, embedding it in the overall strategy and overseeing it. Since 2022, the Board of Directors’ strategy and governance committee has also monitored developments in the area of sustainable management.

The sustainability representatives of the national subsidiaries are the link to the local sustainability networks and the local Executive Committees, as well as the local Boards of Directors. The local networks focus on the market-oriented implementation of sustainability in all facets. However, the implementation is not the exclusive responsibility of the local networks. Together with the local departments, they coordinate which measures are implemented, as well as when and how they are implemented.

To sum up: there is a strategic sustainability network that develops guidelines for everyone and passes them on to local networks so that they can be implemented everywhere.

But it’s not a one-way street. Constructive criticism and ideas from the local networks are very welcome in the Group-wide network. After all, in order to seriously implement sustainability, we have to work on it together – in every area of life.

Do you want to meet the people behind sustainability at Baloise? If so, you can look forward to our upcoming interview series where we introduce the people responsible for sustainability at the national subsidiaries!