In this section:
BUILDING SAFER COMMUNITIES
REDUCING RISK IN THE ENVIRONMENT
REDUCING RISK IN THE WORKPLACE
Crime, safety and the environment have an enormous impact on our business, influencing our ability to calculate risk, pay claims and provide affordable insurance to our customers.
That's why we invest in programmes to address these issues. We can help to minimise their impact on our business now, and for the future, at the same time as making our community a better place to live.
Our inaugural Sustainability Report will be released later this year, providing detail on our strategies to reduce risk in the community, our environment and the workplace, as well as our broader social performance. This section provides a summary of our achievements during the year.
Our community investment strategy goes beyond the traditional ‘philanthropy' model and has become the way we do business. Annually, we invest more than $10 million in community programmes and partnerships aligned with our guiding principle of managing risk.
Partnerships
We support organisations that share our goal of reducing risk and
making Australian communities safer. As part of our $1.5 million
partnership with St John Ambulance Australia, we introduced many joint
initiatives including first aid training programmes and public awareness
campaigns to improve safety in the community. We also continued to
partner with NRMA Careflight, The Salvation Army Emergency Services,
KidSafe, Volunteer Rescue Association, Fire and Emergency Services
Authority Western Australia and the Sydney Theatre Company Access
Programme. We also introduced new partnerships with Surf Life Saving
Australia and the Royal Flying Doctor Service. All of our partnerships
have had a significant impact on the community.
Community Help Grants
We continued to provide grants of up to $5,000 to local community
groups with initiatives aimed at reducing risk and making local
communities safer. This year, we received more than 700 applications,
up from 400 in 2003. In total, we provided more than $500,000 (up
from $250,000 in 2003) to more than 130 community groups across
all States and Territories of Australia.
Crime prevention
Our national theft reduction strategy continued during the year, with
the launch of three pilot programmes in high burglary areas of NSW –
Dubbo, Shellharbour and Redfern/Waterloo. Working in partnerships
with local communities and police, we provided funding of $150,000
and specialist information to tackle burglary and car theft. Initiatives
included the ‘Never Again' programme to prevent repeat burglary, car
park security checks and ratings to reduce vehicle theft in public places,
the ‘BizSafe' programme to assist businesses manage security, a
mobile crime prevention van and support for the Aboriginal Employment
Service in Dubbo. Results from these pilot programmes will assist us
develop crime prevention strategies at a national level, providing
customers, the community and governments with practical ideas and
information to reduce the incidence of theft.
REDUCING RISK IN THE ENVIRONMENT
Climate change, which is driven by greenhouse gas emissions, is a key issue for insurers. Increasing frequency and severity of weather related events such as storms, cyclones, hail and drought have a major impact on our business. That's why we're committed to improving our own environmental performance, as well as promoting the importance of managing climate change externally through sharing data and influencing the behaviour of our key stakeholders.
Our own performance
A key priority during the year was to establish systems across our
organisation, to accurately monitor and manage our impact on the
environment. In particular, we are focused on improving our
performance by reducing our:
- electricity use;
- fuel use;
- air travel; and
- paper consumption.
Baseline data will be reported in our upcoming Sustainability Report.
Initiatives to reduce our environmental impact included our purchase of 36 Toyota Prius hybrid cars, with 14 more on order, for our ‘tools of trade' vehicle fleet for our motor assessors, one of the largest fuelusing areas of the organisation. The Prius uses 50% less petrol than comparable cars and contributes 90% less greenhouse gases. We are progressively extending our paper recycling systems across our offices and branches and commenced the conversion to energy-efficient computer hardware.
Influencing the broader community
Recognising the significant influence we can have on the environmental
performance of our customers, suppliers and the broader community,
we undertook a number of initiatives.
We launched ‘Risk Radar', an interactive CD ROM to help smash repairers identify and minimise the impact their business poses to the environment and to their workers. In addition, we introduced a Waste Management Strategy to help smash repairers reduce the environmental impact of waste generated by their business.
We launched ‘Home Help', a website that provides comprehensive advice about reducing environmental and safety risks around the home, and information on energy-efficient whitegoods, securing homes against theft and reducing the risk of property damage from bushfires, storms and floods.
In July 2004, we joined WWF Australia and a team of scientists to form the Australian Climate Group which launched its inaugural report ‘Climate Change: Solutions for Australia' and continues to actively engage governments, other corporates and the community on steps we can take now to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change.
REDUCING RISK IN THE WORKPLACE
As Australasia's leading private sector provider of workers' compensation services, we recognise that the onus is on us to use our expertise to build leading safety practices in our own organisation. Our goal is simple – to ensure no employee at IAG suffers an accident in any of our workplaces.
We developed the ‘besafe' programme to encourage our staff to participate in keeping our work places healthy, safe and clean. To assist us in improving our safety performance we train our people in:
- Prevention – creating safe and secure working environments and promoting safe behaviour to avoid harm;
- Treatment – prompt reporting and early intervention to minimise harm; and
- Rehabilitation – focusing on early recovery and return to work.
Almost 500 employees have undertaken a St John Ambulance First Aid Training Course since December 2003, adding to the growing number of staff trained throughout the organisation.
We also include safety standards in our contractor/supplier relationships, our workers' compensation services and the insurance products we offer our customers.
Of course, occupational health means more than just protecting our people from workplace accidents. We recognise that our people have a variety of responsibilities outside of the workplace. That's why we've developed a Work and Life programme designed to recognise and understand our people's commitments outside the workplace.
