In July 2013, the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) ran a programme for leaders of the Brazilian insurance industry to think differently about the future and to embed sustainability across the sector. This programme, commissioned by the Brazilian Insurance Confederation (CNseg) and the School of Brazilian Insurance, comes at an important time. CNseg estimates suggest that sector will grow at 55.8 per cent between now and 2015. Making sure that decisions are informed by the best insights into the local social and environmental issues will be crucial to maximise the positive impacts of this rapidly changing sector. |
"This has been a wonderful opportunity because of the importance of this issue, a current theme, crucial to the growth of the sector, and vital to the growth of the country. The seminar gave us time to reflect and think differently in our own companies."
Marco Antonio Rossi, President of CNseg
This 24-hour seminar convened 30 senior leaders, including Chief Executives and Presidents, from major global and local insurance and reinsurance companies. The programme designed in collaboration with ClimateWise, aimed to establish a shared understanding of the scale and urgency of the sustainability challenge in Brazil, develop an understanding of how leading companies are responding, and highlighted the existing tools and voluntary standards such as the Principles for Sustainable Investment and ClimateWise that could be used to catalyse action.
The seminar combined roundtable discussion, debate and hand-picked presentations from experts such as Richard Burrett (a CISL Fellow), Swenja Surminski (a Senior Research Fellow at the London School of Economics) and the Chief Executive Officer of Allianz Seguros SA, Edward Lange. Together these perspectives from academia, practitioners and business leaders, engaged, challenged and inspired delegates to understand the risks enveloped in the changing context and to identify what they could do differently.
