Sustainability

Committed to making a positive impact

Our sustainability strategy focuses on three pillars

Changing the insurance narrative

Using insurance as a solution to the major challenges the world is facing; helping society build resilience against climate change and other related risks.

Being a responsible business

Striving to understand and reduce our impact on the planet and improve our environmental performance, creating an inclusive workplace where everyone feels proud to work, and having the governance in place to manage our business effectively and ethically.

Giving back

Helping others through our global volunteering and fundraising activities, to support and raise awareness of the issues our planet and communities face, and supporting our employees, charities and projects dedicated to helping all those in need.

Photograph of the sustainability report brochure

Howden Group Sustainability Report

Our latest Sustainability Report is a great place understand more about what Sustainability means to Howden, what we have been working on, our progress and plans, and a range of case studies to bring it all to life.

Mission update: FSO Safer

One of the world’s largest environmental catastrophes has been averted. We were appointed to arrange insurance cover for a weeks-long, UN-led mission to de-risk a deteriorating floating oil storage, holding 1.14 million barrels of light crude oil, off the coast of Yemen. We spoke to over 100 underwriters and worked around the clock amid a range of environmental, geopolitical and humanitarian risks – another example of how we’re using insurance as a force for good. Read more about our work on the operation.

FSO Safer alongside a vessel to remove its oil

Selected case studies

Some recent initiatives and highlights   

Amazon rainforest

Case study: 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.”

Plastics in the ocean

Case study: Ocean impact

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 initiatives. Over time, our shared commitment to addressing plastic pollution evolved into a comprehensive plastic waste management effort.

Howden's support enabled the development of a meaningful river plastic collection project in Bangkok, Thailand. This collaboration extends beyond philanthropic support, emphasising a holistic approach to corporate plastic governance encompassing measurement, reduction, offsetting, and community engagement.

Together we've successfully removed 287,532 kg of plastic waste from beaches and mangroves, accounting for our global plastic footprint spanning 54 countries, an impact that is growing year-on-year.

ELX Annual Congress

Case study: Event Leaders Exchange

The Group has joined the ELX (Event Leaders Exchange), an initiative driven by large corporate leaders and organised and facilitated by industry veterans that work in a peer to peer network.

A core goal of the network is to work as a collective to push the sustainability and D&I agenda through consistency in requirements on supply chains. With one third of large corporations hoping to achieve net zero within seven years for their events programmes, the aim is to use the block buying power to push agencies, hotels, TMCs, and venues etc. to respond and action the changes we need to see.

Kate Scully, Howden Group’s Head of Business Travel Ops & Providers, sits on the steering committee with the aim of driving best practice and new products and services.

A group of Howden staff volunteering outside

Global Group Giving Month

Every May, our teams around the world get together for a focused effort on giving back to charities, communities and causes close to their heart. 
 
For this year's 'Global Group Giving Month', we donated blood, cleaned beaches, helped out at animal shelters, planted mangroves and distributed food. We ran, cycled, rowed, danced and walked and raised awareness of important causes.

Together, we raised over £144,000, volunteered over 4,250 hours and supported over 110 charities worldwide. 
 

Three trucks under water in a severe flooding

The Howden Foundation

As a company we have a fundamental belief that a great business takes care of people, communities and the world around us, now and in the future. One of the ways we do this is through our independent corporate foundation.

The Howden Foundation is a registered charity with a mission to protect people against the social and economic effects of climate change. With an approach that mirrors our own DNA, the Foundation funds entrepreneurial and innovative solutions that will save lives, reduce poverty and address underlying inequalities.