iA Financial releases sustainability report for 2021

As a retrospective look at its activities last year, iA Financial Group has released its Sustainable Development Report for 2021, which looks back at the company’s initiatives and milestones in the environmental, social and governance-related (ESG) spaces.

For the year 2021, iA Financial reported that it was the second straight year that it was declared a “carbon-neutral company.” The company released a total of 13,767 tons of greenhouse gasses – most of which was from the energy consumption of its buildings. To offset this, iA Financial worked with Planetair to invest $187,600 in environmental and sustainability projects with global reach – which include a biomass project in Brazil and a biogas project in Thailand. The insurer has also committed to reducing its GHG emissions by 20% per employee by 2025.

iA Financial also noted that it took an even more active stance in the fight against climate change by adopting a three-part strategy that takes into consideration the following recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD):

Developing and disclosing a positioning statement on climate change
Creating a task force on climate change to conclude the “For a carbon-free future” project
Establishing, deploying and implementing an action plan to reduce our carbon footprint

On the diversity and inclusion side of things, iA Financial said that it ran several related activities throughout 2021, such as managerial training on how to overcome unconscious biases. The insurer also committed to appointing more women to senior management positions at a ratio of 40% to 60% by 2025.

The company had also started including an ESG component in the variable compensation for senior executives in 2021 – fulfilling a request that iA Financial’s shareholders made in 2019. This meant that there is now “an additional link between senior management compensation and the importance of client satisfaction,” the company said.

iA Financial also noted in a release that it donated more than $7.5 million to various social and community organizations in the health and education segments in 2021.