Sustainability
Committed to making a difference
Howden's sustainability report
Read our latest sustainability report to see how we're putting our three pillars in action.
Highlights
Read on for some recent initiatives and success stories
The Howden Foundation
The Howden Foundation is the corporate foundation of Howden, extending the charitable work of the business and its people across the world since 2014. As a Howden shareholder, its ability to create meaningful impact is powered by the business's success.
It supports people and communities in adapting to the impacts of climate change, and champions causes nominated by Howden employees through the People First Fund. Every employee can play a part in the foundation's impact, in whatever way feels right for them - bolstering the foundation's work, inviting them to present at a meeting, participating in match funding or nominating for a charity award.
The Howden Foundation is a charity registered in England & Wales (Charity Number 1156286). Governed by an independent board of trustees, it is a corporate foundation funded by Howden and its employees.
Humanity Insured
Humanity Insured was incubated by Howden and launched in 2024 with support from seven major insurers. It is an independent charity with a mission to stop climate disasters from driving poverty, by making insurance protection accessible to the world’s most vulnerable communities.
It helps pay for a portion of insurance premiums, creating a safety net that gives communities both financial security when disaster strikes and the confidence to invest in their future. Humanity Insured's bold ambition is to protect 30 million people with $2 billion of insurance coverage by 2030.
In its first year, the charity-funded initiatives paid out over £6.2 million, helping communities to recover quickly. Thanks to a pioneering drought insurance funded by Humanity Insured in partnership with the World Food Programme (WFP), a $7.9-million payout was triggered to respond to the worst drought in 50 years. This early funding is helping WFP deliver food assistance to nearly 120,000 people, supporting faster recovery and long-term resilience.
Strengthening assurance in aviation carbon offsets
In 2025, we were appointed by the world’s two largest independent greenhouse gas crediting programmes – Gold Standard and Verra – to assess and approve insurance policies that support the eligibility of carbon credits under the Carbon Offseting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA).
From 2027, CORSIA will require nearly all international airlines to offset any emissions that exceed 85% of their 2019 levels. Our evaluation led to the approval of the first private insurance policies for use under CORSIA.
Ocean impact with Seven Clean Seas
Howden has a longstanding collaboration with Seven Clean Seas, an organisation dedicated to generating ocean impact and addressing the plastic pollution crisis in Southeast Asia. Our partnership began in 2020, initially rooted in educational beach clean-up initiative. We have since helped prevent over 700,000kg of plastic from reaching our oceans so far.
Watch a video about our plastic collection project in Bangkok, Thailand, and read more about our collaboration.
World-first voluntary carbon credit insurance product
In 2022, we worked with carbon finance business, Respira International, and Nephila Capital, a leading investment manager specialising in reinsurance risk, to develop a carbon credit invalidation insurance solution to increase confidence in the Voluntary Carbon Market.
The product protects buyers and sellers of carbon credits against invalidation due to fraud or negligence. David Howden, Group CEO: “This is a perfect example of the insurance market doing what it absolutely must do to drive climate resilience; bringing the client, insurer and broker all to the table to create brand new products that help to accelerate and de-risk the move to a more sustainable future.”
Global Group Giving Month: our annual flagship giving campaign
Every May, our employees come together to give back to the causes and communities they care about most.
In 2026 we raised over £135,000 globally, volunteered over 2,700 hours and supported 355 charities around the world.
Our Global Group Giving Month continues to demonstrate the strength of Howden’s global community and our focus on supporting local and international causes. This is one way we work together to build a business we're proud of.