2007 Corporate Responsibility Report - RSA Group

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY 

REPORT 2007

2 | RSA | Corporate Responsibility 2007 

Contents 

Corporate Responsibility 

3 About this report 

4 CEO Introduction 

6 About us - Highlights 

7 About us - At a glance 

8 Our approach 

1 0 Engaging with stakeholders 

1 2 

Marketplace 

Customers and products 

2 0 Suppliers 

2 2 

Environment 

Our commitment 

2 4 Our direct impacts 

2 6 Environmental Targets 

2 8 

Employees 


3 0 Global employee survey 

3 2 Training and development 

3 4 

Community 


3 6 Global initiatives 

3 8 Local initiatives 

4 0 Targets and objectives 

4 2 Environmental data tables 

4 5 GRI index 

4 7 External Assurance Statement 

Feedback on this report is encouraged and can 

be directed to us via the following address: 

Corporate.Responsibility@gcc.rsagroup.com 

Further information on our Corporate Responsibility 

please visit: www.rsagroup.com 

Alternatively if you would like to discuss our 

Corporate Responsibility activities please contact: 

For Group enquires please contact: 

james.wallace@gcc.rsagroup.com 

For UK enquiries please contact: 

paul.pritchard@uk.rsagroup.com 

For UK charitable enquiries please contact: 

shafna.chowdhury@uk.rsagroup.com 

For Scandinavian and Baltic enquires please contact: 

Dorte Eckhoff 

dec@codan.dk 

For Canadian enquiries please contact: 

Adrian_hall@royalsunalliance.ca 

For Irish enquiries please contact: 

dave.magee@ie.rsagroup.com 

For Italian enquiries please contact: 

ottavia.antoniotti@it.rsagroup.com 

For Asia & Middle East enquiries please contact: 

richard.byford@ame.rsagroup.com

ABOUT THIS REPORT 


REPORT 2007 

EMPLOYEE 

CORPORATE 

RESPONSIBILITY 

REPORT 

CORPORATE 

RESPONSIBILITY 

REPORT FOR 

SHAREHOLDERS 

2007 2007 

RSA seeks to operate according 

to our business principles and our 

specific commitments. Transparency is 

an important part of responsibility and 

this report sets out our performance 

in 2007 as well as explaining our 

approach to corporate responsibility. 

It is our eighth CR report and includes 

more comprehensive data for 

operations outside the UK. 

The report covers all our operations around 

the world but in some cases full data is not 

yet available for all country operations. 

We aim to provide a wide range of readers 

with relevant information on our activities 

covering all aspects of corporate responsibility. 

This year we have also produced separate 

documents aimed specifically at employees 

and shareholders respectively. 

Corporate Responsibility 2007 | RSA | 3 

About this report


CEO INTRODUCTION 

2007 was a challenging year for the 

industry and the impact of weather 

events was once again evident as 

communities around the world 

faced the consequences of 

changing weather patterns. 

Our response emphasised the important role 

insurance companies play in looking after and 

protecting customers. We reacted well to 

these challenges - through the response by 

our UK business to flooding and the way 

we responded to Cyclone Gonu in Oman. 

We take our responsibility to tackle social 

and environmental issues such as climate 

change seriously. These are not new issues 

for RSA and we continue to work hard to 

establish a leading position on them. 

During the year we have made good progress 

against our objectives. We are focused on taking 

action to improve our impacts as a business 

as well as through product development, 

giving customers the choice of affordable and 

innovative insurance products, which also 

have social or environmental benefits. 

Strong Financial Performance 

2007 has been a good year for the Group 

and in challenging market conditions, we have 

again delivered a strong financial performance. 

We have continued to deliver on our strategic 

priorities and our results clearly demonstrate 

the strength of the business. All our regions, 

International, Emerging Markets and the UK, 

have achieved profitable growth and strong 

bottom line results with International and 

Emerging Markets delivering over 50% of 

the Group’s premiums. 

Corporate Responsibility - 

taking action across the board 

We adopt an international approach to 

operating as a responsible business. We 

recognise that CR needs to play a key role 

throughout all of our businesses. As a result, 

we have now introduced CR into goals and 

objectives for our regional CEOs. 

Although action on climate change is of 

major importance it must not overshadow 

other aspects of corporate responsibility. 

I confirmed RSAs wider commitment to 

continuous improvement when I signed the 

United Nations Global Compact in August 

with its commitments towards environment, 

human rights, labour rights and corruption. 

2007 has also seen a real focus on our 

agenda to continue delivering our stakeholder 

commitments. I set out four key objectives this 

time last year relating to RSA as a workplace, 

our environmental management, our regional 

community engagement programmes and 

product development. The progress we’ve 

made is covered in detail in this report. 

Marketplace 

In 2007, we continued to help our customers 

manage and reduce the risks they face. We also 

responded to the increasing consumer demand 

to provide innovative insurance solutions that 

also benefit society and the environment. 

This year, we’ve launched our UK commercial 

energy audit service which aids building 

energy efficiency compliance by driving 

down costs, energy and CO 2 emissions. 

Through our Global Renewable Energy 

business we are still one of the few global 

insurers with the technical capability to 

insure both off and on-shore wind farms. 

We have continued our work with the 

NGO, Basix, to provide insurance for rural 

groups in India living below the poverty line. 

In the UK, Bridget McIntyre, our UK CEO, 

became the inaugural chair of the insurance 

working group of the Government’s Financial 

Inclusion Taskforce, ensuring we share our 

expertise as a major provider of social 

housing insurance schemes. 

Workplace 

Attracting, developing and retaining top 

talent is fundamental to the success of 

RSA. Our Technical Academy is going from 

strength to strength in developing the future 

talent in claims, underwriting and actuarial 

skills, but we have also been really focused 

on engagement: 

• Responses to the annual employee survey 

continued to improve, with employee 

satisfaction rising an additional 2% from 2006; 

• We continue to ensure over 90% of 

employees pay is linked to their performance, 

reflecting our focus on making people 

accountable for their actions and that 

we recognise and reward superior 

performance; and 

• In 2007 we launched ‘World Cafes’ - internal 

engagement events to gather ideas and 

share opinions, the outputs of these are 

having a real impact on shaping strategy.

“ We have set out a number of key 

priorities for 2008, which will help drive 

the business forward in a responsible 

and sustainable manner ” 

Community 

Our community engagement programme 

focuses on promoting common themes that 

are relevant to our business and include safety, 

social inclusion and the environment, while 

allowing the flexibility to focus on the issues 

that matter locally. 

In practice this means employees at all levels 

having the opportunity to be involved in 

community projects, making a real contribution 

to worthy causes but also learning new skills 

and promoting the Group. As a leading motor 

insurer, we are committed to improving road 

safety awareness. For example, in Chile 

we are raising road safety awareness with 

27,000 children and have donated 180,000 

reflective safety vests in Sweden as part of 

a safety awareness campaign. Our overall 

donations increased to £2.3 million for the 

Group, with a greater focus on volunteering 

through our national events in Canada 

and the UK. 

Environment 

We have made good progress on our 

environmental strategy and have in place a 

long term strategy to monitor and reduce 

our major impacts and promote energy 

efficiency. This year we have extended our 

reporting framework and although our 

carbon footprint increased by 2000 tonnes, 

this was as a result of Italy, Colombia and 

Johnson in Canada reporting for the first 

time. For 2008, we have set a challenging 

target for the entire group to reduce carbon 

emissions by 2.5% by year end. We continue 

to be a carbon neutral insurer in the UK 

only using offsets as a last resort. 

We have continued to lobby in the UK 

for increased Government spending on 

flood defences and we have made further 

investments in our technology, such as our 

storm prediction and flood risk tools. We 

are expanding our range of environmental 

products and have a strong pipeline of 

innovative new products which we plan 

to introduce during 2008. 

Looking forward 

Over the last few years we have worked 

hard to develop our CR programme to 

move it from a supporting role to becoming 

embedded throughout the organisation and 

we have made good progress. Today our CR 

strategy forms a key part of our overriding 

commitment to delivering sustainable 

profitable growth. 

We have set out a number of key priorities for 

2008, which will help drive the business forward 

in a responsible and sustainable manner. 


These are: 

• Rolling out our environmental 

management and targets across our 

International business; 

• Sharing best practice across the Group 

and developing new products with 

environmental and social benefits; 

• Engaging our employees and promoting 

diversity; and 

• Having a real impact for customers and 

the community through our first Groupwide 

Volunteer event. 

I look forward to updating you on our 

progress in 2008. 

CEO Introduction


ABOUT US - HIGHLIGHTS 

Our investments 

The majority of our UK investments are 

managed by F&C Asset Management. F&C 

applies a responsible engagement overlay 

to RSA equity funds. F&C has one of the 

largest Governance and Socially Responsible 

Investment teams in Europe, enabling it to 

follow a policy of active engagement across 

its portfolios on environmental, social and 

governance issues. 

Last year F&C engaged with 762 companies 

on a wide range of issues from climate change 

to labour standards, with a quarterly 

update to RSA. 

• Strong results in challenging market conditions 

• Increased net written premiums by 6% 

• Operating result up 4% to £814m 

• Underlying return on equity 21.3% 

• Completed buyout of Codan minorities 

• Successful US exit 

• Increased dividend 19% to 7.01p

AT A GLANCE 

A strong and diversified portfolio, 

balanced between attractive mature 

markets and emerging markets with 

higher growth potential 

International 

International comprises our businesses 

in the mature markets of Scandinavia, 

Canada, Ireland and Italy. 

Scandinavia accounts for 55% of International 

premiums. Our businesses, Codan in Denmark 

and Trygg-Hansa in Sweden, are ranked 

third largest in their respective markets. 

We have recently increased our presence 

in Norway and expanded into Finland. In 

Canada, we are the sixth largest general 

insurer. The business comprises Johnson 

Corporation, one of Canada’s leading 

direct writers, as well as our Personal and 

Commercial Broker operations. In Ireland, 

we are focused on the broker channel 

and are the leading provider of household 

insurance. Our Italian business distributes 

the majority of its products through non 

tied agents, with a network focused in 

northern Italy. 

UK 

We are the UK’s largest Commercial 

and third largest Personal lines insurer. 

Our Commercial business writes property, 

motor liability and marine insurance. Property 

is the largest segment, accounting for over 

39% of premiums. The business has a strong 

reputation for technical excellence. It insures 

around 80% of FTSE 100 retailers and is 

one of the leading carriers of professional 

& financial and marine risks outside Lloyd’s 

of London. Our Personal business is ranked 

third largest in the UK, and writes business 

through the broker, affinity and direct channels. 

MORE TH>N ® , our direct business has around 

2.3 million covers in place and provides 

household, motor, travel and pet insurance. 

Our Affinity business provides a range of 

insurance products to the retail customers 

of our corporate partners, and has grown 

by 23% since 2005. 


Emerging Markets 

Emerging Markets is our fastest growing 

region, covering 20 markets with high 

growth potential. 

Latin America accounts for 57% of Emerging 

Markets’ premiums. Our largest operations 

are based in Chile, where we are the market 

leader, Brazil and Mexico. We are also the 

largest private insurer in Uruguay. We are 

the largest general insurer in the Baltics, with 

market leading positions in Latvia and 

Lithuania, and in 2007 we expanded into 

Estonia. We are located in eight countries 

across Asia and the Middle East, including India 

and China. Our Central and Eastern European 

joint venture owns Link4, the leading direct 

insurer in Poland. We established a similar 

operation in the Czech Republic in 2007 

and plan to launch in Russia in 2008. 

About us


OUR APPROACH TO 


At RSA we take our responsibility 

to manage the way our business 

affects the environment, people 

and communities seriously. 

Fundamentally, that means 

behaving responsibly and ethically 

as individuals and as a company. 

We aim to make sure our approach is 

practical and focused on our main business 

impacts, delivering commercial benefits and 

recognising the value we add to society. We 

also recognise that acting in a responsible 

and ethical manner is also good for business 

and can enhance our reputation. 

Our approach to corporate responsibility 

is based on our Business Principles, which 

underpin everything we do and how 

we interact with stakeholders. These are 

supported by commitments in key areas 

(see above) and policies covering 

specific aspects. 

CR strategy 

Our objective is to run a profitable and 

sustainable business by being a responsible 

insurer. Our CR strategy supports this by 

managing our impacts in four key areas: 

marketplace, workplace, environment 

and community. 

During 2007 we reviewed the over-arching 

Group CR strategy which was approved by 

the board. Underlying this, national strategy 

reviews took place: 

• In the UK we reviewed our community 

strategy to make sure it is more aligned 

with our core business; 

• We carried out CR strategy reviews in 

Scandinavia and Canada; and 

Business Principles 

Integrity 

We will act with openness, fairness, integrity, and diligence. We will always adhere to the 

applicable laws, regulations and standards in the places that we do business. 

Performance 

We will promote a positive and challenging high performance culture. We will do this by 

encouraging personal accountability and personal development and measuring, rewarding 

and recognising success. 

Responsibility 

We will act responsibly as individuals and as a company. This applies to the management 

of our business, our approach to corporate risk and our interaction with key 

external stakeholders. 

• Started the process of reviewing national 

CR strategies in Ireland, Italy and the Asia 

& Middle East business. 

We will continue to work on integrating 

core CR initiatives across the business in 

2008 and bring all countries up to the same 

high standards to pursue our goal of being 

a responsible, sustainable insurer. 

Responsibility for CR 

Overall responsibility for CR lies with the 

Group CEO. The Board regularly discusses 

key CR issues affecting the Group, reviews 

performance and approves the strategy for 

the year ahead. There are the equivalent of 

four full time employees with responsibility 

for managing CR based around the Group. 

CR Committees consisting of employees and 

managers operate in many countries to 

determine and respond to local priorities 

where a dedicated resource is not available. 

Country and site based community and 

environment committees support locally 

relevant projects. 

In 2007 we took steps to improve management 

of CR across the Group, including better data 

collection and internal CR communications. In 

2008 we will reintroduce an executive level CR 

steering committee to oversee implementation 

of our strategy. We will also implement a 

web-based reporting system to improve data 

collection and performance monitoring, and 

improve employee engagement on CR issues. 

Material issues 

We focus on three key themes across the 

Group: the environment and climate change, 

road safety, and social inclusion. We have 

identified these because they relate to 

our core business activities, are important to our 

customers, and are areas where we believe we 

can achieve the most through our knowledge. 

As an international insurer we need to 

be aware of new and emerging risks and 

opportunities. We regularly consult with a range 

of stakeholders, not only to gather feedback on 

our performance, but also to understand issues 

they feel are material to them and the business.

“ 

Forum for the future - the sustainable development 

charity - has challenged RSA to integrate environmental 

and social considerations into their core business 

throughout our nine-year partnership.” 

Forum for the Future's mission is to 

find practical ways private and public 

organisations can deliver a sustainable future. 

It is a Registered Charity in the UK (number 

1040519). Forum for the Future is not an 

auditor or a verifier. As such these comments 

should not be read as verification of data 

or information contained within the report. 

RSA is one of Forum for the Future’s 

Corporate Partners. Through this partnership 

RSA makes a direct financial contribution 

to Forum for the Future. Last year Forum’s 

income from RSA represented not more 

than 0.25% of Forum’s turnover. 

The partnership is in its ninth year. 

“In 2007, we were encouraged to see 

products emerge that create sustainable 

consumption patterns and foster clean 

technologies. RSA can go considerably 

further to include sustainability across its 

product range. It is also in a key position 

to share their insights of new and 

emerging risks, particularly the impacts 

of climate change. 

Looking forward, we have agreed 

transformation targets for 2008. These are: 

to build the sustainability capability of a 

selection of senior managers from across the 

UK business; to strengthen sustainability links 


across the group and to communicate success 

stories better. A stakeholder positioning 

exercise will also help RSA focus on the 

important sustainability issues group-wide. 

Together, these should widen RSA’s 

eyes further to the risks and opportunities 

presented by today’s agenda, helping equip 

RSA to act in a positive way to create 

tomorrow’s solutions.” 

Will Dawson, 

Senior Sustainability Advisor, 

is the Partner Manager for RSA. 

www.forumforthefuture.org.uk 

Our Approach


ENGAGING WITH STAKEHOLDERS 

External Relationships 

We work with our partners and 

peers to share best practice and help 

us and the industry to achieve our 

sustainability goals. In 2007 we 

participated in the following initiatives: 

• The FORGE Group, a financial services 

industry initiative designed to improve 

environmental management and reporting. 

• The Association of British Insurers Climate 

Wise initiative, a group of insurers committed 

to tackling and raising awareness of 

climate change. 

• The Climate Group’s ‘We’re in This Together’ 

campaign which provides practical ideas for 

individuals to reduce their CO 2 footprint. 

• The Chartered Institute of Purchasing 

& Supply’s Financial Services Purchasing 

Forum CR working group, which works on 

managing social, ethical and environmental 

issues in the supply chain. 

Rewards and recognition 

Organisation Reward/Recognition 

BITC 

FTSE 

The Times Newspaper 

Good Shopping Guide 

Storebrand 

Innovest / Observer 

Goldman Sachs 

FTSE4Good 

• The Financial Inclusion Taskforce, a UK 

government initiative to improve access 

to financial services for those living on low 

incomes and deprived areas. 

In 2007 we became a signatory of the 

UN Global Compact, a voluntary initiative 

committing us to comply with ten principles 

on human rights, labour, the environment and 

anti-corruption. Please see page 45 and 46 for 

a table showing how we are making progress 

against the ten principles. 

Public policy 

We contribute to public policy debate on 

issues relevant to our business in countries 

where we operate, either individually of 

through industry bodies such as the Association 

of British Insurers and Confederation of British 

Industry. In all instances we operate in 

compliance with local laws and our Public 

Affairs policy. We do not make political 

contributions or support political parties. 

In 2007, we contributed to public policy 

debates on the following issues: 

Achieved 94.5%, gold rating in the ‘Top 100 companies that count’ 

Member of FTSE4Good 

Top 50 Companies for Women to Work 

Ethical Choice 

‘Best in Class’ Environmental & Social Performance 

Ranked 23rd in survey of most ethical companies 

Highlighted as ‘one to watch’ in ESG investor review 

• We lobbied the UK government for 

adequate spending on flood defences, 

changes to planning regulations to reduce 

building in flood areas, and changes in 

building regulations to reduce the risk 

of flood damage. 

• Through Climate Wise we worked 

with partner companies to encourage 

the UK government to promote climate 

friendly behaviour. 

• We participated in UK government 

consultations on the proposed emissions 

trading scheme trading for financial services, 

and the Pitt Review investigating the 2007 

summer floods. 

• We support research projects to raise 

awareness and contribute to the debate 

on road safety. 

In 2008 we will continue to lobby for 

improved flood defences and steps to 

tackle climate change.

Our Commitments set out standards for dealing with stakeholders. 

They include a commitment to engage with and communicate in an open and transparent manner. 

Customers 

Communities 

Employees 

Investors & shareholders 

NGOs 

Regulators 

• Customer surveys 

• One-to-one communications 

• Focus groups 

• CR committees 

• Global employee survey and Performance 

management survey 

• Consultative forums 

• Online forums 

• World Cafés 

• Technical Academy 

• Investor meetings 

• Web based communications including 

webcasts 

• Annual general meeting 

• Responding to surveys by investors 

• Partnerships 

• Complaints 

• Membership of industry bodies 

• Participation in government consultations 

• Lobbying on specific issues relevant to our 

business 


Stakeholder Examples of engagement How we’ve responded 

Providing dedicated managers and contacts 

for us to respond more effectively to our 

customers. 

Providing more support for causes 

employees care about and can get actively 

involved, e.g. aligning our foundation in 

Scandinavia to support children. 

Conducted annual employee surveys. 

Held World Cafés for employees 

to voice their opinions and ideas. 

Holding CR engagement meetings 

with three of our largest institutional 

investors to assess the progress we 

are making. 

Continue to partner with Forum for the 

Future to address our strategic issues whilst 

engaging with a wide range of community 

partners in each country where we operate. 

Responded on a range of UK government 

consultations calling for greater flood defence 

spending, improved building regulations for 

flood risk and tougher standards 

for climate change. 

Engaging with Stakeholders


MARKETPLACE 

CUSTOMERS AND PRODUCTS 

Our customer commitment 

A satisfied and loyal customer base is core to our business. 

We are committed to: 

• Delivering consistent and reliable levels of customer service 

• Acting with integrity, due care and diligence 

• Communicating openly, honestly and with sensitivity and understanding 

• Listening to our customers 

• Handling complaints fairly and promptly 

• Respecting our customers’ rights to privacy and confidentiality 

• Protecting our customers and our business from fraud 

We have over 20 million customers 

in 130 countries worldwide. 

We are committed to providing 

all our customers with the best 

insurance products and excellent 

customer service at competitive rates. 

Opening shareholders' funds 

Retained (above) 

Closing shareholders' funds 

Social and environmental changes create 

new insurance needs. We are creating ways 

to help our customers respond to these 

changes, including developing products 

that encourage climate friendly behaviour 

or increase social inclusion. 

Creation of Value 2007 £’m 2006 £’m 

Net earned premiums 

5,607 5,292 

Net investment return 

709 600 

Other operating income 

113 121 

Net claims and benefits 

(3,657) (3,453) 

Underwriting, policy acquisition and other costs 

(1,207) (1,082) 

Additional gains, losses and other movements 

(20) (505) 

Total 

1,545 973 

Distribution of Wealth 2007 £’m 2006 £’m 

Employees 

694 653 

Corporate and social responsibility 

2 2 

Government (taxes and social security) 

103 239 

Servicing of finance 

104 92 

Shareholders (dividend and minority interest) 

126 112 

Retained for investment 

516 (125) 

Total 

1,545 973 

2,561 2,686 

516 (125) 

3,077 2,561 

Our products 

Our main products are: 

• Commercial insurance services 

for businesses 

• Personal insurance products 

(eg household, motor and travel 

insurance) sold directly to consumers 

• Personal insurance products sold to 

consumers through intermediaries 

such as insurance brokers and agents 

We expect this to become an increasingly 

important commercial opportunity for our 

business and we have already achieved 

some significant business wins. For example 

premiums from our renewable energy 

business were up 25% this year. 

Product innovation 

We look for opportunities to create new 

products with social or environmental 

benefits and to adapt existing products to 

meet emerging risks and customers needs. 

We use a range of methods to create tailored 

and relevant products for our customers. In 

addition to our product development teams, 

new product propositions are developed in 

a number of ways including: 

• Teams of senior managers on our 

Executive Development programme 

• Our Technical Academy which brings 

together employees from our underwriting, 

claims and actuary departments 

• Our strategy, marketing and customer 

teams who look for opportunities to 

extend innovative individual products to 

new markets and customer groups

“ 

Poor rural families in India are particularly vulnerable 

to illness or other damage to their livelihoods. They 

would really benefit from the protection provided 

by insurance, but are rarely able to afford it.” 

• By employees across the business who are 

encouraged to share ideas through initiatives 

such as the World Cafés (see page 28). 

Inclusive products 

People on low incomes are often the most 

in need of insurance and the protection it 

provides. We aim to provide insurance that 

addresses the needs of as many customers 

as possible: 

• UK: Over 3 million UK households living in 

social housing do not have insurance for 

their possessions. RSA is a leading provider 

of insurance to social housing schemes, 

operating 172 schemes providing 

approximately 250,000 customers with 

affordable insurance. We offer products for 

social housing tenants in the UK including: 

low cost weekly insurance; with-rent 

insurance schemes (where the insurance 

premium is paid weekly with the tenant’s 

rental payment); and group schemes that 

keep premiums as low as possible. The 

products are designed to increase financial 

inclusion. For example, customers can pay 

in cash and don’t need a bank account, no 

excess is payable when making a claim and 

weekly premiums can be as low as £1.50. 

RSA and Basix in action 

• India: We are working with NGOs and 

other partners to provide insurance for 

traditionally financially excluded rural 

groups such as low-income women and 

Affordable insurance in India 

“My job is to develop affordable insurance 

products that help protect them against 

these risks. 

The main products we provide are livestock 

cover and health and personal accident 

insurance. I work with various NGOs, 

micro-financing institutions and co-operatives 

to develop new products, offering training, 

advice, and help with claims processing. 

We face a number of challenges. Our products 

have to be affordable, with premiums that take 

account of the often irregular income of rural 

households. Even more challenging is that rural 

populations have little awareness of insurance 

and its benefits. Those that do are often 

distrustful due to negative experiences with 

insurance companies in the past. 

tribal communities. We also provide a 

range of low-cost policies to farming 

households such as livestock insurance, 

health insurance and micro enterprise 

insurance. Seven percent of gross written 

premium of our Indian business is made 

up of sales to the rural sector, exceeding 

the government’s 5% target. 


To tackle this we spent a lot of time 

working with our main partner, Basix, 

forming relationships with communities to 

raise awareness and explain our products 

in an open and transparent manner. 

Although micro-insurance in India is very much 

in its early stages we’ve had a lot of success. 

The feedback from our partners is positive. 

Working with Basix, we’ve developed a 

product range and delivery model that can 

easily be adapted to meet the needs of rural 

communities in other countries. 

We are also helping RSA to understand and 

tap into the potential of the micro-insurance 

market in rural communities. When you 

consider that 70% of the Indian population 

lives in rural areas, that’s a big market.” 

P. Srikanth, 

Assistant Manager, Rural Business 

Marketplace Customers and Products


MARKETPLACE 


Populations in many countries are changing 

as many people live longer. This has a 

number of implications for the insurance 

industry. After retirement, many people are 

on a lower income. We are launching new 

products that provide the right services for 

this group at an affordable price, such as our 

50+ insurance launched in Italy and Canada. 

Safety 

As a leading motor insurer we have a wide 

range of products and services to help 

improve road safety. For example: 

• UK: Drive Time encourages young drivers 

not to use their cars between 11pm and 

8am when most deaths and accidents 

among 17-25 year olds occur. Drivers are 

monitored by a tracking device and those 

who don’t use their cars between these 

times pay a lower premium. 

MORE TH>N ® Drive Time 

• Denmark: we run a cerficate programme for 

truck drivers in association with the Danish 

Transport Logistic Association. Companies 

who take part in this programme can qualify 

for lower insurance premiums with RSA. 

• In both Sweden and Denmark we offer a 

programme called "StopDamage" for truck 

drivers, where participating companies 

have experienced damage cost 

reduction by 30%. 

We operate education programmes and 

initiatives on road safety in Chile, Singapore, 

Sweden, UAE and the UK (see page 36 for 

further details). 

Climate change: 

new products and services 

We are introducing products that support 

customers who adopt climate-friendly behaviour 

and help those affected by climate change. 

We are one of the leading insurers to the 

renewable energy (RE) industry. We are a 

leading insurer to the wind energy industry, 

with Codan, our business in Denmark, now 

insuring more than 15% of Denmark’s total 

electricity production. We have created 

centres of excellence around the Group 

for wind, bioenergy, solar and hydro power. 

These centres will provide the key area 

for expertise in RSA on these particular 

energy sources. 

In 2007 we launched our global RE division 

to make it easier for our RE customers to 

take out insurance on a global basis. Our 

insurance covers the lifecycle of renewable 

energy projects from planning to disposal. 

Other examples include: 

• Energy services to help commercial 

property clients in the UK identify energy 

savings. We signed an agreement with 

the Prudential in 2007 to audit all their 

commercial buildings in the UK. 

• Insurance premium discounts for drivers 

of hybrid and alternative fuelled cars in the 

UK and Ireland. 

• Our green telematics pilot project which is 

using satellite technology to monitor driver 

behaviour. Drivers will be given a webbased 

tool to adopt fuel efficient driving 

techniques, with the potential to help 

cut CO2 emissions and reduce vehicle 

wear and tear. 

Assessing risk 

We use the latest technology to ensure 

customers have the right level of cover 

and are offered competitive and responsible 

rates. Our Geographical Risk Assessment 

tool helps us determine customer insurance 

RSA flood mapping in 2007 

premium levels and inform customers of risks 

to their property. It includes factors such as 

flood risk, subsidence, arson and theft down 

to an individual postcode in the UK. 

During the UK floods we were able to 

anticipate which areas would be worst 

affected, helping assess risks for the 

customer and RSA, (see page 18).

We are partners in the development of 

the European weather forecasting tool, 

Eurotempest. The system alerts us to 

severe weather conditions up to five days in 

advance ensuring our loss adjustors, claims 

specialists and emergency response teams 

are ready to respond. 

We regularly provide our customers with 

advance warning of adverse weather conditions 

which may affect them through our websites 

and email alerts via Eurotempest. We are 

piloting an SMS warning service in the UK so 

customers can receive alerts via their mobile. 

Customer Service 

We want to be known for excellent customer 

service. Our commitment to customers is 

set out in our Business Principles. We aim 

to provide high standards of service and 

communicate with all our customers clearly 

and consistently. 

Customer communication 

It is important that we communicate clearly 

with our customers so they understand the 

costs of our products and know what will be 

covered by their insurance policy. This applies 

to all our advertising and marketing and to 

our policy documents. 

In the UK, the Financial Services Authority 

(FSA) requires that customers receive clear 

information pre and post sale. 

Many products are sold through brokers. We 

work closely with our brokers to ensure they 

are constantly up to date with our current 

products, so they are able to explain policies 

and coverage in detail to their clients. Material 

supplied to brokers is also reviewed through 

the same channels and sign-off processes. 

Employee development 

Employee training and development is essential 

to our ability to deliver a consistently high 

quality service. We ensure all our customer 

service teams are provided with ongoing 

regular training. Feedback from call monitoring 

helps improve the customer experience. 

Further details on our training programmes 

are included in the Workplace section. 

We encourage employees to come up with 

new ways of improving our customer service. 

For example, we held a series of ‘World 

Cafés’ during 2007, enabling employees from 

all areas and levels of the business to generate 

creative ideas improving all aspects of our 

customer service, see page 28. 

Personal Customer Managers 

Building on the success of Johnson in 

Canada, our MORE TH>N ® business in 

the UK have introduced assigned service 

supervisors or personal customer managers 

(PCM). Customers are able to contact their 

PCM by email or phone and receive a 

guaranteed reply within 24 hours. Our 

research shows customers with a PCM are 

more likely to have a positive experience 

and this in turn has increased customer 

satisfaction and positively impacted on 

our retention rates. 


Claims management 

It is important that we respond promptly to all 

insurance claims and support our customers 

when events occur and they have suffered loss 

of or damage to their possessions. 

Our approach to effective claims management 

and responding to weather related events are 

mirrored across the Group. Following the 

cyclone in Oman similar practices were put 

into place, with loss adjustors being brought 

in from Canada to help the recovery of the 

region and get our customers back on their 

feet. Helping customers to recover more 

quickly can also reduce costs for RSA. 

Our group wide technical academy helps 

us to improve our approach to claims 

management and share best practice across 

the group, see page 32 for more details. 



MARKETPLACE 


Customer satisfaction 

We use CMAT, a tool to assess customer 

management against best practice standards. 

In 2007, Johnson Inc, our business in Canada, 

was given the highest CMAT rating out of 

750 organisations worldwide. We created a 

Group Strategy, Marketing and Customer 

function to ensure we develop consistent 

practices and standards across all our markets. 

We monitor customer satisfaction levels to 

track our progress and review the effectiveness 

of our customer service. This includes 

customer surveys, focus groups, mystery 

shopping and call monitoring. 

We follow up with a sample of customers 

who have recently made an insurance claim. 

We ask about their experience of our call 

centres, how well our loss adjustors and 

emergency response units have performed 

and whether the claim process has gone 

smoothly. These reviews provide qualitative 

feedback on our customer service and help 

us identify areas for improvement. 

Customer Voice is a new feedback system 

that collects information via the telephone, 

directly from the customer, on the service 

they have received. When customers call 

RSA they will be offered the chance to give 

feedback by taking part in Customer Voice 

WWTC in Singapore 

at the end of their call. The results can 

be viewed at individual, team or centre 

level enabling us to identify strengths and 

development areas for individuals and 

reward excellent customer service. 

We track customer satisfaction in our 

markets. Examples from 2007 include: 

• Canada (Johnson) - our customer 

satisfaction score for 2007 was 97%. 

• Denmark - customer satisfaction rates 

were 76 for personal customers and 73 

for commercial customers out of 100. 

• Lithuania - 88% of our personal customers 

are committed to remaining with RSA, 

compared to 74% for our nearest 

competitor. For small and medium business 

customers the figure is 75% compared with 

47% for our nearest competitor. 

• Mexico - our customer satisfaction score 

for our motor insurance products was 79%. 

• Sweden - customer satisfaction rates were 

66 for personal customers and 67 for 

commercial customers out of 100. 

• UAE - 89% of direct customers rated their 

experience with RSA as good or exceptional. 

• Ireland - household claim satisfaction for 

2007 was 89%, with commercial new 

business at 91%. 

Improving customer satisfaction in our 

Emerging Markets 

‘Winning with the Customer’ (WWTC) 

is a new initiative to improve customer 

service in our Emerging Markets business 

by involving our employees. 

Customer facing employees are often 

well aware of issues that affect customer 

satisfaction and have strong views on 

potential solutions. WWTC encourages 

them to take ownership of these issues 

and go the extra mile to deliver a 

world-class customer service. 

WWTC in Bahrain 

Employees take part in independently 

facilitated problem-solving workshops. 

They are asked to consider real-life issues 

affecting customer satisfaction and put 

forward their own ideas for improving 

the customer experience. For example, 

in our Saudi Arabian business employees 

came up with a solution that halved the 

delivery time of new Medical Insurance 

Cards to customers. 

Our goal is for every employee in the 

region to get the opportunity to voice 

their opinion by attending at least one 

workshop.

“ I started my career with Johnson Inc. after 

finishing high school. I began as a file clerk, 

and 27 years later I am now the first point 

of contact for more than 3000 clients.” 

Complaints 

Our policy is to respond to all complaints as 

quickly as possible. To assess how we perform, 

in the UK we participate in the Association of 

British Insurers annual benchmarking survey on 

complaints handling. This assesses companies 

against five categories: awareness of and 

access to the complaints process; process for 

complaints handling; customer experience; 

lessons learned and root cause analysis; and 

resources and training. In 2007, our overall 

performance was rated among the top 25% 

of participating companies. 

Privacy 

It is important that we take a rigorous 

approach to data protection and ensure that 

we have strong systems in place to govern 

the collection, use, storage and transfer of 

customer data. 

Our Guidelines on Information Security provide 

information to help employees handle sensitive 

data and comply with legal requirements 

such as the Data Protection Act. 

Our information security policies are 

designed to satisfy three key requirements: 

• Confidentiality - making sure that information 

is only accessible on a 'need-to-know' basis 

and that access to sensitive data is particularly 

restricted; 

• Integrity - making sure that the information is 

only amended in an authorised way, so that we 

can trust the reliability of the information; and 

• Availability - making sure that, although 

protected, information is available when 

needed for proper business use. 

“As a personal service supervisor, I am 

responsible for handling customer inquiries, 

processing renewals, receiving payments, 

building my client base, and providing clients 

with information. 

For me, business is personal. My job is to get 

to know my clients and personalize the service 

they receive. I take pride in knowing about 

their families, careers, and acknowledging 

milestones in their lives. My co-workers and 

I have been known to add ‘Happy Birthday’ 

stickers to our mailings. My motto is to 

provide “best friend” advice to my clients. 

Clients know my phone number off by heart 

and know they can call me anytime. 

In Newfoundland and Labrador the majority 

of our customers visit the branch. In other 

parts of Canada and the world, most business 


is conducted over the phone or using email. 

While we also offer these channels of 

communication, it’s great to have the 

opportunity to interact face-to-face with clients 

on a regular basis. In that way, our business is 

still operated like a small, family-business. 

The biggest challenge of my job is explaining 

that we can’t be flexible on rates. At Johnson 

Inc. we don’t try to match the price of the 

competition and therefore we are not always 

the cheapest. Sometimes we lose clients as a 

result, but overall our retention rates are very 

high. I know that my clients are with us for 

the service and not just for the savings.” 

Darlene Sutton, 

Service Supervisor, Johnson Inc. 

Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada 



MARKETPLACE 


Responding to floods in the UK 

During summer 2007, the UK was hit by two 

major floods. The first affected areas around 

Hull, Doncaster & Sheffield and a second caused 

widespread damage in Gloucester, Worcester, 

Oxford and areas of South West London. The 

scale of the flooding was unprecedented - with 

a month’s worth of rain falling in just a day. 

UK floods in 2007 

We have an established emergency response 

procedure in place to ensure we provide the 

best customer service during incidents like 

this. It includes: 

Gary Chapman, Household Claims Specialist 

Emergency services at the scene 

• A system to monitor weather conditions 

and to anticipate potential incidents. 

Expected rainfall, windspeeds and gust 

levels are tracked daily. This enables us to 

mobilise our claims centres and in-house 

Loss Adjusting Service and bring in extra 

staff to handle customers’ calls. 

• Our Emergency Response Team which 

remains on permanent standby and can 

be deployed to affected areas at very 

short notice. 

When the floods hit, we identified all 

postcode areas under water and all MORE 

TH>N ® customers that might have been 

affected. We contacted all customers in 

Clean up in progress 

these areas to find out if they had suffered 

damage or needed assistance. We made 

direct payments to customers to pay for 

emergency accommodation, clothing and 

other essential items. 

We also set up local Emergency Response 

Centres in the worst affected areas to 

give advice to all residents, not just our 

own customers. 

During the floods: 

• 90% of customers were proactively 

contacted within 24 hours 

• 100% of customers were proactively 

contacted within 72 hours 

• 85% of customers were visited by one of 

our claims specialists within five days 

• 100% of customers were visited within 

eight days

“ Much of my work involves researching 

emerging risks, understanding the impact 

they might have on the business.” 

“The risks are varied, ranging from fire, arson, 

crime and flooding, through to issues like Avian 

Flu and the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. 

Undoubtedly the biggest challenge we faced 

in 2007 was the UK floods. As the RSA 

floods spokesperson I put my media training 

to good use, speaking daily to the press and 

doing radio interviews. 

I work closely with the Group Public 

Affairs team responding to UK Government 

consultations where we want to make sure 

that insurance implications are understood 

and taken into account. We've been 

lobbying the Government to increase 

funding for flood defence and prevention 

measures, adding our voice to that of the 

Association of British Insurers. 

I'm supported by our Geographical Risks 

team who develop the geographical risk 

models we use to identify and price risk. 

We’ve had a flood map since 2002 which 

has been expanded to include subsidence, 

crime and arson. 

After the floods we carried out a review of 

our property accounts, and it is clear that our 

flood map has helped us to have a much 

better understanding of flood risk at individual 

property level. This in turn means we are 

not unfavourably exposed to flood risk, 

which is good news for our customers 

and our shareholders.” 

Alan Gairns 

Technical Manager, Property Underwriting, 

RSA UK 


Aftermath UK 2007 floods 



MARKETPLACE 

SUPPLIERS 

Our Commitment to our suppliers: 

We demand high standards from the companies we work with and believe that 

they should expect the same from us. 


• Carrying out our business with fairness and integrity 

• Being reliable and quick to respond 

• Awarding contracts and selecting business partners solely on the basis of fair and 

objective business criteria and having regard to high ethical standards 

• Behaving ethically with the giving and receiving of corporate hospitality and gifts 

• Respecting all obligations on confidentiality 

• Protecting our customers and our business from fraud 

As a general insurer, aside from the 

typical supplies of an office based 

organisation, our claims teams 

procure motor, household and other 

services on behalf of customers. 

We aim to work with suppliers to improve 

the social and environmental impact of our 

purchases across the lifecycle of products 

and services, enhancing communities and 

the environment where possible. 

UK motor repair centre 

Responsible procurement 

principles 

• Treat suppliers in a fair and 

reasonable manner. 

• Aim to reduce the environmental and 

social impact of RSA and influence 

business partners through the choice 

of procurement. 

• Work with existing suppliers and 

partners to establish and then reduce 

environmental and social impacts. 

• Work where possible with companies, 

charities, social enterprises or not-forprofit 

organisations which will enhance 

the community and environment. 

• Reduce the full life-cycle impact 

and cost of products and services 

(in particular waste disposal) where 

possible. 

• Engage with the supplier to work 

towards joint solutions where suppliers 

or products used by RSA have a high 

risk of environmental impact. 

In 2007, we adopted responsible 

procurement principles to underpin our 

supply chain responsibility. The principles 

help suppliers to understand our objectives 

and lead to detailed supply guidelines. 

They commit us to: 

Assessing suppliers 

We began assessing existing suppliers against 

their alignment with the principles in the first 

quarter of 2008 in Scandinavia and the UK. 

Each region has selected a small number of 

priority suppliers for the pilot stage, based on 

their size, the level of our spending with them, 

or our assessment of risk based on our 

knowledge of their policies and commitments. 

The suppliers complete a questionnaire 

providing information about their policies 

and practices. RSA staff will assess responses 

and judge the level of risk in each area. If a 

high risk is detected we will engage with the 

supplier as a priority to discuss our concerns 

and help the supplier to address the issues.

The Treehugger desktop recycling box 

has been used in Group Corporate 

Centre, Ireland and parts of the UK. 

Industry collaboration 

The supplier questionnaire is based on 

guidelines developed in 2007 through a project 

with the Financial Services Procurement Forum 

(FSPF) with RSA as a lead developer. These 

common supplier guidelines for corporate 

responsibility will cover: 

• Governance and business strategy 

• Products 

• Their supply chain criteria 

• Environment 

• Employees 

• Community 

We are participating in the development of a 

common web-based system for suppliers to 

submit information based on the guidelines. 

This will mean that suppliers will provide 

the basic information required by all financial 

services buyers in one set of information and 

will no longer have to answer multiple, 

slightly different CR questionnaires from 

financial services customers. 

In a single year alone Group Corporate Centre 

recycled an additional 6.2 tonnes of paper, 

up from only one tonne the year before. 

There are many different recycling solutions 

around the group, all of which help prevent 

waste going to landfill. The Treehugger 

allows each employee to contribute in 

helping the environment and in achieving 

our environmental targets whilst driving 

efficiency improvements. 

We work together with our procurement 

specialists to provide solutions improving 

the environment both inside and outside 

our offices. 




ENVIRONMENT 

Our commitment to the environment 

We believe in continuous improvement of our environmental performance. 


• Identifying, measuring and reporting on the environmental impacts associated with our 

business and using this information to achieve continual improvement 

Group impacts 

285,009 

253,160 

5,080 

4,440 

Inclusion of marketing materials in 50% of operations 

Revised in CR report 2006 

Includes expansion of Canadian reporting, inclusion of Italy and Colombia for first year 

Note: Data covers 85% of RSA 

RSA takes environmental issues 

seriously. We started reporting our 

environmental impacts in 1999 and 

continue to look for innovative 

ways to address issues such as 

climate change. 

We are a leading provider of environmental 

and climate change related insurance services 

to our customers. To offer these services 

with integrity we believe it is vital that we 

also manage our own environmental 

impact effectively. 

Environmental issues are increasingly 

important to both our employees and 

our customers. In a recent MORE TH>N ® 

customer research survey over 70% of 

participants said environmentally friendly 

1,827 

2,155 

124,976 

119,324 

Water (m3 ) Paper (tonnes (1) Waste (tonnes) 

206 

) Energy (MWh) 

49,889 

52,226 

Our strategy for reducing our 

environmental impact is to: 

• Measure and report our impacts and 

CO2 emissions in accordance with 

DEFRA, ISO 14064, the Carbon 

Disclosure Project and Greenhouse 

Gas Protocol guidelines 

• Set targets for reducing environmental 

impact 

• Improve energy efficiency, waste 

disposal, travel practices and resource 

use in our buildings and work practices 

• Offset our remaining CO2 emissions - 

in 2006 we became the first UK insurer 

to go carbon neutral 

practices are important in their choice of 

insurer. Taking action on environmental 

issues also benefits our business by 

improving efficiency and reducing costs. 

Climate Change 

Climate change continued to rise up the 

political and business agenda in 2007. 

A growing body of scientific evidence is 

confirming that human behaviour is driving 

climate change. The UK government’s Stern 

Review has highlighted the potentially high 

cost to the economy if action is not taken 

to combat climate change. 

This strategy builds on our long-standing 

environmental reporting programme. Our 

environmental data covers over 90% of the 

RSA Group countries and 84 % of employees. 

We focus our efforts on offices of over 

50 employees. 

In 2006, we were the first UK insurer to go 

carbon neutral and we are pleased to report 

that our UK business remained carbon 

neutral during 2007. 

In 2007 we continued to invest in renewable 

wind energy in India through our carbon 

offsetting. Our carbon credits comply with 

the Voluntary Carbon Standard (www.v-c-s.org) 

and the United Nations Framework on 

Climate Change and are calculated in 

accordance with ISO 14064 guidelines on 

carbon footprints. The projects will be visited 

in person by our own renewable energy 

engineers in India to verify the authenticity 

of the offsets and impact they are having. Our 

carbon footprint is checked by the Edinburgh 

Centre for Carbon Management to ensure 

we meet best practice standards and the 

underlying data verified by the Corporate 

Citizenship Company. 

We only buy carbon offsets that support 

renewable energy projects. We only use 

offsetting as a last resort, applying only to 

regions where we have a track record of 

target setting and emissions reduction.

“ In Ireland the environment is rapidly 

moving up the political and social agenda.” 

Environmental costs savings in the UK 

Energy (MWh) 

Water (m3) 

Paper (tonnes) 

Energy (MWh) 

Water (m3) 

Paper (tonnes) 

1 Based on 2007 prices 

2007 

impact 

2007 

Cost (£) 

72,477 3,789,431 

120,708 276,421 

1,122 894,447 

2006 1 

impact 

2006 

Cost (£) 

73,172 3,825,785 

143,039 327,559 

1,267 1,009,636 

Environmental reporting 

We are proud of our record of open 

disclosure on our environmental impacts and 

continue to manage in accordance with the 

Greenhouse Gas Protocol, DEFRA, GRI and 

Carbon Disclosure Project We disclose our 

performance in our Annual Report & Accounts 

in compliance with DEFRA guidelines and 

informed by the new connected reporting 

framework, ‘Accounting for Sustainability’. 

Eco-friendly headquarters for 

Irish business 

“To become a greener company we 

need the support of our employees. We 

developed the Green Agenda to educate, 

promote and encourage RSA employees 

to take personal responsibility for the 

environment. We communicate our green 

message through the intranet site, posters, 

emails, employee induction packs, our staff 

magazine and Green Notice boards. 

We have a created a Green Team with16 

employees from across the company to 

identify opportunities for improving our 

environmental performance. 

We’re very proud of what we’ve achieved 

so far. Through making even small changes 

we have already reduced our electricity bill 

by 16% in one month. With the continued 

interest and support from employees and 

senior management we hope to become a 

carbon neutral company by the end of 2008.” 

Sinead Nolan, 

Green Team Champion 


“In Ireland the environment is rapidly moving up 

the political and social agenda. It’s important 

we show our customers, brokers and suppliers 

that we are committed to being an 

environmentally responsible company. 

We’ve designed our new headquarters to 

help reduce our CO 2 emissions by up to 

30% compared to a normal office building. 

The layout is designed to make maximum 

use of natural daylight, reducing the need for 

artificial lighting. But external shading reduces 

the amount of energy needed to cool the 

building during summer. 

Internally we’ve introduced low usage water 

fittings to save water. Movement detectors and 

daylight sensors control the general lighting, 

reducing energy consumption by up to 20%. 

The use of chilled beams for cooling instead of 

traditional fan coils will increase efficiency of the 

air conditioning system. It’s also much healthier 

as it uses fresh air rather than recycled air.” 

Iain Walsh, 

Premises Relocation Sponsor 

Environment


ENVIRONMENT 

Our direct impacts 

Our key impacts are: Energy, Travel, Resource 

Use, Water, Waste and CO 2 equivalent 

emissions. We report our progress on each 

of these impacts and where possible set 

targets to help us achieve continual 

improvement. All environmental data is 

verified by the Corporate Citizenship 

Company, an independent consultancy. 

Energy 

Energy consumption fell across the group 

during 2007, with our UK business seeing a 

drop of over 3,000 MWh, a total cost saving 

of several hundred thousand pounds. The 

inclusion of Italy and Colombia for the first 

time largely offset any major decrease in 

absolute emissions. 

In the UK over 80% of our electricity 

consumption is from climate change levy 

exempt sources (electricity generated from 

sources that produce fewer CO 2 emissions), 

such as CHP (combined heat and power). 

Travel 

In 2007, business travel (including road, air 

and rail) accounted for approximately 30% 

of our total carbon footprint. 

We seek to reduce the environmental 

impact of business travel by: 

• Encouraging the use of video and teleconferencing. 

For example, we have reduced 

business air travel in the UK by 17% on 2006 

levels by increasing monitoring of travel 

spending and raising employee awareness of 

our travel policy and conferencing facilities. 

• Selecting more fuel efficient cars when 

we upgrade our vehicle fleet. 

• Providing guidance on eco-driving 

techniques to employees through our 

intranet site. 

Resource Use 

As an office based organisation, paper use 

is a key environmental impact. Our paper 

use increased in 2007. This reflects 

improvements in our data collection, which 

now includes paper used in our marketing 

for the first time from many more countries. 

Energy consumption in our offices (MWh) Electricity use Gas use 

100,000 

MWh 

86,977 

42,844 

77,591 

35,769 

0 

88,617 

33,599 

90,391 

29,862 

83,838 

29,486 

02 02 03 03 04 04 05 05 06 06 07 07 

(95% of UK electricity sourced from Combined Heat and Power Tariff in 2007) 

83,224 

36,100 

2500 

0 

300,000 

10,000 

Paper use (tonnes) 

808 

557 

1,049 

995 

1,772 

2,156 

02 03 04 05 06 07 

Water use (cubic metres) 

0 

Waste disposed (tonnes) 

0 

270,954 

02 03 04 05 06 07 

8,083 

207,506 

5,787 

239,252 

6,234 

247,941 

4,698 

261,884 

4,887 

253,159 

4,440 

02 03 04 05 06 07

We aim to reduce paper use by communicating 

with customers and shareholders electronically, 

for example through electronic billing, whilst 

continuing to meet our legal obligations. 

Water 

Consumption has decreased during 2007. 

Small reductions were achieved in some of 

our premises through the introduction of 

water minimisation techniques such as low 

flush technology. 

Many countries still have no facility to 

adequately monitor water consumption by 

way of meters and is incorporated into an 

overall service charge. 

Waste 

Across the group we continue to increase 

the accuracy of our waste data through our 

supplier agreements, and reduce the amount 

of estimated data. 

For example, we are implementing a national 

waste strategy in the UK during 2008. Waste 

disposal and recycling will be managed through 

a single contractor helping us to accurately 

monitor and measure waste reduction. 

Percentage 

70 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

0 

% Waste Recycled 

CO 2 Equivalent emissions 

Our UK and Group HQ operations continue 

to account for the majority of our climate 

impact of approximately 64%. 

Our total carbon footprint in 2007 was 

52,226 tonnes. This has been calculated 

using the Greenhouse Gas protocol, DEFRA 

guidelines, and ISO 14064 best practice 

standards. The total footprint has increased 

due to inclusion of Italy, Colombia and a 

greater coverage of Johnson in Canada. 

The majority of our carbon footprint is due 

to energy consumption, as defined in the 

second protocol of the GHG protocol. 

Our remaining emissions are largely due 

to travel (protocol three). 

We successfully achieved our CO 2 targets 

for 2007, in the UK business and RSA 

Canada. Unfortunately, our Irish business 

did not achieve the travel related CO 2 

target and will be tackled again in 2008. 

Our data and carbon footprint calculations 

are checked by the Edinburgh Centre for 

Carbon Management. 

04 05 06 07 04 05 06 04 05 06 07 04 05 06 07 04 05 06 06 07 

Canada Denmark UK Ireland Sweden Brazil 


60,000 

0 

3000 

0 

55,652 52,402 49,889 

52,061 55,550 

52,226 

02 03 04 05 06 07 

per capita 

(kilograms per employee) 

2,870 1,949 2,313 

1,699 

1,836 2,292 

02 03 04 05 06 07 

by source 2007 

Rail 

709 

Air Long Haul 

3,590 

Air Short Haul 

3,396 

Gas 

7,332 

Road 

10,360 

Electricity 

26,831 

Environment


ENVIRONMENT 

Environmental Targets 

We set ourselves a range of stretching 

targets in 2006 and are pleased to report 

achieving 12 out of 17 of them. Achieving 

these targets is helping drive cost reductions 

across the group as well as reducing our 

environmental impacts. 

Continue to expand scope and quality of environmental reporting 

Reduce UK energy use by 5% 

Reduce Denmark energy use by 10% 

Reduce Sweden energy use by 6% 

Reduce Ireland energy use by 5% 

Reduce Lithuania energy use by 5% 

Reduce Denmark steam use by 10% 

Reduce Sweden steam use by 5% 

Reduce RSA Canada CO2 emissions by 5% 

Reduce Ireland CO2 emissions from travel by 10% 

Reduce UK CO2 emissions from travel by 10% 

Reduce UK water use by 10% 

Reduce Lithuania water use by 10% 

Reduce UK waste by 10% 

Reduce Denmark waste by 10% 

Increase Canada recycling by 10% 

Increase Hong Kong recycling by 20% 

We made good progress towards achieving 

the remaining four except for our air travel 

target in Canada. Air travel has increased in this 

region due to business growth and acquisitions, 

and a lack of viable alternative transport 

methods. Although we promote video and 

audio conferencing this is not a complete 

substitute for face-to-face communication. 

In response to feedback from socially 

responsible investors we have set our first 

Group-wide CO 2 target to reduce emissions 

by 2.5% in 2008. All our environmental targets 

are due for completion by the end of 2008, 

and we expect to set more aggressive targets 

the following year. Turn to page 40 for 2008 

targets and objectives. 

2007 targets & objectives Progress 

2 Refers to international flights, with a 5% target for domestic 

Italy, Colombia and rest of Johnson 

in Canada included 

✓ 

✓ 

✕ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✕ 

✓ 

✕ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✕ 

✕ 

✓

Our offices 

Our buildings account for the majority of 

our environmental impact. We are focusing 

on improving energy efficiency as part of 

our climate change strategy. We are also 

committed to reducing the paper and water 

we use, the waste we produce and increasing 

the percentage of waste we recycle. 

Irish Headquarters 

We use office moves and refits to improve 

the environmental performance of our 

buildings, often incorporating elements from 

recognised environmental building design 

standards such as BREEAM and LEED. 

For example: 

• During refurbishments at our Horsham and 

Birmingham sites in the UK we installed low 

energy lighting and improved facilities for 

employees who cycle to work. We are also 

incorporating a ‘green roof’ at Horsham that 

reduces building energy consumption. 

• RSA Canada’s new office in Nova Scotia is 

37% more energy efficient than Canada's 

required Energy Code standards. Building 

features include high efficiency heating and 

air conditioning systems and water efficient 

toilets and fixtures. 

• Our new Irish HQ due for occupation 

June 2008 is being built incorporating best 

practice BREEAM standards. 

Embedding a green culture 

We work hard to involve employees in our 

environmental initiatives and this is led from 

the top of the organisation. 

Environmental reduction targets are included 

in the goals and objectives for the regional 

CEOs of RSA. Their performance is assessed 

during the appraisal process and can have an 

impact on remuneration. Progress against our 

targets is reported twice a year to the Executive 

Committee and annually to the Board. 

We aim to raise employee awareness of our 

environmental progress and encourage them 

to adopt environmentally friendly behaviour. 

Methods used include our intranet site, 

intranet based carbon calculator, environmental 

events held during our annual volunteer week 

and discussions during our World Café series 

(see page 28). 

We have appointed green champions or 

committees in the UK, Ireland, Canada and 

Scandinavia, to lead our efforts at a local level 

and encourage employees to get involved. 

In 2007 we surveyed UK employees about 

their attitudes to RSA becoming carbon 

neutral. The survey found that 77% were 

positive about the initiative, and 63% said it 

had changed their behaviour in the office 

regarding switching off equipment. 

Working with partners 

We work with others in our industry to 

address climate change together, for example 

through the FORGE Group, a financial 

services industry initiative. In 2007, FORGE 

published Managing Climate Change in 

Financial Services: A Guidance Framework. 


This contains a list of practical actions to help 

key corporate functions (such as strategy, risk 

and procurement) and business lines (such as 

retail banking and general insurance) to meet 

the challenges presented by climate change. 

We responded to a number of UK 

government consultations relating to 

climate change, expressing our support. 

These included: 

• DEFRA consultation on the proposed 

Energy Performance Commitment (EPC) - 

a mandatory emissions trading scheme. 

• House of Commons Environmental 

Audit Committee Inquiry into the voluntary 

carbon offset market. We expressed our 

support for the adoption of a common 

offsetting standard to improve transparency 

and ensure offset schemes are effective. 

Indirect impacts 

We can have an influence on the 

environmental behaviour of others through 

our investment portfolio, the standards we 

set for our suppliers, and the products we 

offer to customers. See the Marketplace 

section (pages 12 - 21) for more information. 

The way we respond to insurance claims 

has an environmental impact. For instance, 

whether scrap from damaged cars or waste 

generated from building repairs is reused 

or recycled, and whether we specify more 

energy efficient options when replacing 

damaged appliances. We are working 

with the Financial Services Procurement 

Forum (FSPF) to improve environmental 

performance in this and other areas of our 

supply chain (see page 21 for more details). 

Environment


EMPLOYEES 

Our commitment to our employees 

We recognise that a motivated and skilled workforce is critical to our success. 

To achieve this, we are committed to: 

• Fostering a positive and challenging high performance culture 

• Rewarding superior performance 

• Encouraging personal development 

• Encouraging a culture of frank and honest communication 

• Encouraging teamwork and strong leadership 

• Providing a safe and secure working environment 

• Encouraging diversity and equal opportunities 

• Ensuring that grievances and unethical behaviour can be raised without fear 

of discrimination 

In 2007 we employed a total of 

over 22,000 people in 28 countries. 

Employee engagement 

We engage with employees to understand 

their views on what we do well, what we 

don’t do well, and to communicate plans 

for the business. We want to make sure 

they understand the Group's strategy, feel 

motivated and proud to work for RSA. We 

believe there is a direct correlation between 

how employees feel that their company treats 

them, and how they treat their customers. 

Our main engagement measurement tools 

are the annual Global Employee Survey and 

Performance Management Survey. We use 

them to gauge employee attitudes and 

develop our strategy. 

World Café in action 

We hold an annual European Consultative 

Forum for employee representatives and 

management to discuss issues of concern 

and business developments. In 2007 the topic 

was employee engagement and the Global 

Employee Survey. Delegates discussed our 

strong performance in several key areas 

including performance culture, recognition, 

job satisfaction, management expectations 

and training and development (see survey 

results on page 30). 


We have a number of additional, less formal, 

ways for employees to provide feedback. Our 

UK CEO has a blog which employees can post 

questions on, and there are several employee 

discussion forums on our intranet site. 

We recognise the right of employees 

to freedom of association and collective 

bargaining. In the UK and Ireland we 

recognise the Unite trade union which 

represents non-management employees. 

World Cafés 

In 2007 we launched World Cafés, an 

informal meeting for employees to gather 

and share ideas, opinions and experience 

on important subjects facing the company. 

We held World Café’s for over 200 

employees in London, Sweden, Ireland and 

Dubai. Discussions focused on how to get 

the best from people; how to develop 

customer relations; how to improve 

employee engagement and how to create 

a better working environment. The findings 

influence our strategy and often lead to 

follow-up actions. For example, a recent 

discussion on waste led to an office waste 

audit to reduce costs.

In 2007 we launched World Cafés, an 

informal meeting for employees to gather 

and share ideas, opinions and experience 

on important subjects facing the company. 

We organised a World Café especially for 

group leaders. They were asked to consider 

issues they wouldn’t normally address in their 

daily jobs, such as what makes them feel 

motivated or inspired. Leaders were then 

asked to discuss what they can do to inspire 

those feelings among their teams. 

We launched a World Café intranet site 

to allow employees to set up their own 

World Cafés and post stories and thoughts. 

In 2008 World Cafés will be held in Oman, 

Estonia, Scandinavia, the UK and throughout 

the Group. 

Diversity & human rights 

As a global business our customers come 

from a wide range of backgrounds and 

cultures. It is important that we reflect this 

diversity in our workforce so we can better 

meet customers’ needs. A diverse workforce 

brings extra benefits to the business by 

sharing new ways of working and ideas. 

As a signatory to the United Nations Global 

Compact we are committed to eliminating 

discrimination and protecting human rights 

internally and in our immediate sphere of 

influence. For more information on how 

we work with our business partners and 

suppliers to ensure this, see page 20. 

We offer a wide range of programmes to 

encourage and support women employees, 

including flexible working, equal pay reviews 

and childcare support. 




Employees

Percentage 


EMPLOYEES 

In 2007, we were placed in the Where 

Women Want to Work Top 50, a list 

produced by The Times newspaper highlighting 

UK companies that offer the best working 

environments for women employees. We are 

one of only three insurance companies who 

made it onto the list. Judges looked at our 

performance across several areas including the 

opportunities we provide female employees; 

our approach to diversity; how we use 

technology to facilitate work-life balance; and 

our commitment to being socially responsible. 

Ethics 

We adhere to all applicable laws, regulations 

and standards in the places that we do business. 

Our Business Principles are backed up by 

specific policies that set out the standards we 

expect our employees to meet in their jobs. 

They cover fraud, confidentiality, market 

abuse, competition and money laundering. 

They are translated into all local languages 

where we operate. 

80 

70 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

0 

79.6 20.4 

Mexico 

Johnson 

RSA Canada 

Management gender split 

as a percentage Male Female 

Italy 

Sweden 

Our whistle-blowing policy encourages 

employees to report breaches of our policy 

or illegal activity. We operate a 24 hour, 

anonymous and confidential hotline for 

employees to raise concerns about 

unlawful behaviour. 

Performance management survey 

The Performance management survey provides 

an opportunity for employees to express their 

views on management performance. The 2007 

results showed a number of improvements 

from 2006: 

• There was an 8% rise in the number of 

employees with measurable goals and 

objectives. 

• Managers using information from a variety 

of sources for employee appraisals was 

up 6%. 

• Employees receiving enough coaching 

was up 8%. 

50 50 52.3 47.7 73.1 26.9 65.5 34.5 73.3 26.7 62.1 37.9 76.5 23.5 

Denmark 

Lithuania 

UK 

20 80 

Ireland 

• Employees receiving enough feedback 

was up 5%. 

• The usefulness of training and 

development plans to help employees 

improve their performance was up 5%. 

Global Employee Survey 

In 2007 92% of our employees took 

part in the Global Employee Survey, an 

increase from 90% in 2006. Following 

the 2006 survey we identified internal 

communications, recognition and whether 

employees would recommend our products 

and services to friends and family as key 

areas for improvement. There was a 

20% improvement in responses to employee 

recognition, a 3% improvement in the extent 

to which employees are kept informed 

about matters that affect their job, and the 

overall standard of internal communications 

was up 5%. However we saw no change 

in the number of employees who would 

recommend our products and services. 

We have identified several areas for 

improvement in 2008. We didn’t perform as 

well as we would like on planning, and saw 

no improvement in responding to customer 

needs, quality of service and in some areas of 

leadership. We need to improve our efforts 

in providing a clear sense of direction, making 

changes to stay competitive and effectively 

implementing management decisions. The 

findings also show we need to work harder 

at making employees aware of how we act 

on the survey results, including the measures 

that are put in place to address specific points.

2007 Global employee survey results 

Topic % change from 2006 

Overall satisfaction and engagement 

Delivering business results 

Delivering for customers 

Leaders who motivate 

Driving performance through teamwork 

Clear communication 

Identifying and rewarding superior performance 

Employer of choice 

Survey process 

100% 

Did you receive feedback 

on the results 

0 

89% 91% 82% 

07 06 All 

companies 

benchmark 

100% 

Actions have been taken as 

a result of the last survey 

0 

55% 68% 49% 

07 06 All 

companies 

benchmark 

+2 

-1 

-2 

0 

-2 

+2 

+3 

+3 

-6 


The information from this survey 

will be acted upon by the 

Company’s management 

100% 

0 

66% 71% 52% 

07 06 All 

companies 

benchmark 

Employees


EMPLOYEES 

Training and development 

We are committed to training and developing 

our employees by sharing knowledge and 

experience throughout the company. Getting 

the best out of employees is vital if we are to 

compete successfully. Customers benefit from 

better technical knowledge and advice; our 

employees get to chance to improve their 

skills, qualifications and advance their careers. 

In 2008, we will be working towards the 

provision of Group wide data on average 

training per employee. 

Technical Academy 

Launched in October 2006, The Technical 

Academy provides a knowledge sharing and 

mentoring forum for underwriting, claims and 

actuarial experts right across the Group. 

The Academy is supported by a dedicated 

intranet site and a quarterly magazine 

designed to keep technical experts up to 

date with new initiatives and developments 

across the business. In 2008 the Academy 

will launch mentoring initiatives to improve 

technical skills and help employees develop 

their careers. 

“The Technical Academy plays a key role 

in the attraction, recruitment and capability 

development of our underwriting, claims and 

actuarial communities. World class technical 

capability allows RSA to deliver thorough 

risk assessment and management of risk, 

accurate pricing, speedier claims handling, 

thus minimising losses and maximising 

benefits to the Customer.” 

Hayley Robinson - Technical Capability 

Development Director 

Fast track 

Fast Track is a two year development 

programme for high potential early 

career candidates. Fourteen applicants 

were selected for the first intake in 2006. 

This increased to 46 in 2007. We plan to 

continue to the programme in 2008 with 

another 45 participants. 

Leadership Development 

Programme 

The Leadership Development Programme 

develops and trains future business leaders. 

Every year, senior managers nominate high 

potential employees to attend three weeklong 

training workshops and complete a 

strategic project. In 2007 the programme was 

run across Canada, Scandinavia, the Baltics, 

Asia and the Middle East, and Latin America. 

We aim to expand the programme to the 

rest of the Group in 2008. 

Executive Development 

Programme 

Now in its fourth year, The Executive 

Development Programme is a seven-month 

course for senior leaders that aims to develop 

their leadership, team working and project 

management skills. Participants take part in 

projects that look at key business challenges 

facing the company. Previous projects 

have led to the creation of the Global 

Renewables business. 

Rewards & recognition 

We foster an environment that encourages 

and rewards success to attract and retain the 

best people. Ninety percent of our employees 

have pay linked to their performance, up from 

15% in 2003. 

In addition, we offer non-financial incentives 

that recognise employees who have performed 

particularly well. In the UK, managers can use 

an online “recognition shop” where they 

can select a variety of rewards for successful 

employees and teams. Rewards include gift 

vouchers, away days and wellbeing trips. Our 

annual Platinum Awards recognise individual 

employees at all levels who have performed 

exceptionally well from across the Group. 

Health & safety 

We are committed to creating a safe and 

secure working environment that protects 

the health and well-being of our employees. 

Health and safety is managed as part of our 

Operational Risk Management framework. 

Under this framework, primary responsibility 

for defining and implementing policy, and 

managing workplace safety, lies with Human 

Resources, with input from Regional and 

Group Operational Risk teams. 

Responsibility for day-to-day health and safety 

management varies according to individual 

sites. Each site has at least one on-site health 

and safety coordinator. We continually assess 

and review our policies to make sure we stay 

abreast of evolving health and safety risks and 

expert advice. 

Our intranet site contains advice on health, 

safety and wellbeing issues. Employees can 

access information on company healthcare 

schemes and health screening services. 

Employees can use the site to book first aid 

training courses and access tips on how to 

deal with stress. We also offer advice on 

health, safety and ergonomics for employees 

who work from home. 

In 2007 there were no serious injuries or 

fatalities. Most reportable and non-reportable 

injuries were minor non-reportable e.g. cuts 

falls and strains. We record all injuries as part 

of our commitment to building a strong 

health and safety culture.

UK 2007 2006 2005 2004 

Days lost per employee* 

3.5 12.1 10.9 12.2 

Reportable injuries 

75 70 103 63 

Minor non-reportable injuries 

312 329 433 399 

Accidents per 1,000 employees 

46.6 45.3 50.5 45.1 

Denmark 2007 2006 2005 2004 


8.9 7.8 7.8 7.9 


3 5 9 1 


7 3 5 10 


7.1 8 9.4 6.2 

Sweden 2007 2006 2005 2004 


9 10.5 9.6 10.3 


1 6 2 0 


13 4 3 3 


8.1 10 2.7 1.6 

RSA Canada 2007 2006 2005 2004 


8.4 11.7 12.4 9.6 


0 0 0 0 


0 2 0 1 


0 4.2 0 0.5 

Ireland 2007 2006 2005 2004 


8.4 10.4 11.3 10.5 


0 0 0 0 


3 2 4 3 


5.9 4 6.8 4.8 

Lithuania 2007 


11.1 


5 


0 


3.6 

Johnson 2007 


4 


0 


2 


1.93 

Colombia 2007 


2.2 


0 


12 


7.1 

Italy 2007 


13.7 


0 


3 


8.9 

*includes employees on long term sick leave 


Employees


COMMUNITY 

Our commitment to our communities 

We believe in positive engagement with the communities in which we operate. 

We are committed to carrying out positive community-related activities that are 

consistent with our business objectives and in encouraging community engagement 

among our staff. 

We aim to engage with and make 

a positive contribution to the 

communities we operate in. 

As well as providing community 

benefits, investing time and money 

in the communities from which 

our customers, employees and 

shareholders are from helps build 

our reputation and can improve 

employee recruitment and retention. 

Feedback from our employees shows that 

they want to be able to help their communities. 

We support them by offering up to two 

days paid leave to volunteer on approved 

projects. The organisations they help, benefit 

from their skills and energy. 

Helping out in RSA Volunteer Week 

Homeless mission in London 

A roof for Chile 

We want employees to participate in projects 

that develop their skills, such as team working, 

project management and leadership. We 

include community engagement projects in 

the Executive Development Programme and 

graduate Fast Track programme. Working in 

new and challenging environments provides 

employees with experience people wouldn’t 

normally get in their day to day jobs, stimulating 

creative thinking and problem solving.

“ There are loads of opportunities for 

every employee to take part, and I'd 

encourage each of us to find the 

project or activity that feels right.” 

We believe community engagement works 

best when it reflects the wishes of employees. 

In the UK and Scandinavia regional charity 

committees meet annually with the corporate 

responsibility function to agree on focus areas 

that fit within our three themes: safety, social 

inclusion and the environment. At site level 

employee charitable committees meet 

more regularly to select projects within this 

framework. The committees are responsible 

for canvassing feedback to make sure we 

meet employees’ expectations. 

Contributions 

In 2007 we contributed £2.3 million to 

community projects, equivalent to 0.035% 

of pre tax profits. 10% of our employees 

participated in voluntary activities, spending 

on average 4 hours volunteering each. 

"An active community programme is an 

important element of being a responsible 

business and allows each of us to make a 

very real contribution. It makes good 

business sense, particularly if communityrelated 

activities like our support for Trees 

for Cities are aligned with our business 

objectives, and is great for our reputation in 

the local communities that we support 

around the world. 

With the scale of support we can offer 

across the Group, we can make a real 

difference. There are loads of opportunities 

for every employee to take part, and I'd 

encourage each of us to find the project or 

activity that feels right. It's fun to participate, 

immensely rewarding, and helps us develop 

new skills and new relationships outside the 

office. It is one of the things that makes 

RSA a great place to work." 

Mark Chambers 

General Counsel 

& Group Company Secretary 


RSA volunteers in Chile 

Fast Track Program 2007 

Community


COMMUNITY - GLOBAL INITIATIVES 

Globally, our community activities 

can be grouped into three themes: 

safety, social inclusion and the 

environment. We focus on these 

areas because they align with our 

core business activities and are the 

areas where we believe we can 

achieve the most. 

Road safety 

Motor insurance is a core part of our 

business. In many of the countries where 

we operate, traffic congestion, accidents 

and other road transport issues are growing 

concerns. We are committed to improving 

road safety awareness to cut accidents and 

claims. Here is just a small selection of our 

road safety activities from around the Group. 

Chile 

Our road safety education programme, 

Atentos y Seguros con RSA (Be Aware and 

be Safe with RSA), aims to tackle the high 

number of traffic accidents involving children. 

Primary school teachers, with the support 

of RSA employees, teach children about 

how to use the road safely. The programme 

uses games, competitions and an online club 

to reinforce its message. The programme 

reached 27,000 children in 2007. 

Lithuania 

In Lithuania we won an award from the 

Lithuanian Public Relations Specialists Union 

for our annual ‘Save Me’ campaign. Every 

September at the beginning of the school 

year we raise children’s awareness of road 

safety issues. Statistics show that the number 

of accidents significantly increases at this time 

of year because more cars are on the road and 

children return from their summer holidays. 

Road crossings located near schools are marked 

with campaign signs, and schoolchildren crossing 

them during the day are automatically insured 

against accidents. 

Road Safety in Bahrain 

United Arab Emirates (UAE) 

We support a road alertness programme 

in conjunction with the International 

Association for Human Values (IAHV), a 

humanitarian and educational NGO. The 

programme runs workshops designed to 

improve road safety such as road alertness 

and stress management. We provided 

US$40,000 to sponsor workshops for 4,300 

drivers. We agreed to make a donation to 

a special ’Road Accident Victim’s Fund’ for 

every insurance policy sold until the end of 

2007. New policyholders receive a free 

workshop attendance pass and a leaflet 

about stress-free diving. We are the first 

insurer in the UAE to promote this kind 

of road alertness campaign. 

Singapore 

In Singapore we co-sponsored a three month 

road courtesy campaign in conjunction with 

The National Safety Council of Singapore, 

and the Singapore Traffic Police. 

Reflective vests programme in Sweden 

Sweden 

In Sweden, limited daylight during winter 

means children are at risk from road 

accidents. We supply free reflector vests 

to children at day care centres to help 

reduce this risk. In 2007 we donated 180,000 

vests, bringing the total to 430,000 since the 

programme started in 2006. 

Social inclusion 

As a leading home insurance company we 

have an interest in promoting financial and 

social inclusion. We do this by creating more 

inclusive products (please see the Marketplace 

section of this report) and tackling social 

inclusion issues. We operate globally and 

face different social issues in different regions. 

The breadth of our activities reflects this.

Chile 

Employees built three houses for disadvantaged 

families in conjunction with Un Techo Para 

Chile (A Roof for Chile), an NGO that works 

with disabled children and their families. The 

project was chosen by employees who took 

part in the Global Employee Survey, which 

provides an opportunity to vote for one of 

several options. It is one of a number of 

initiatives sponsored by RSA in Chile. 

Others include ‘scarf for our grandfathers’, a 

winter clothes collection for elderly homeless 

people. Employees have also been collecting 

magazines for people in hospital as well as 

making and giving paper kites to underprivileged 

children. 

Canada 

RSA employees continue to support United 

Way, a community impact organization that 

works to improve the lives of people from 

disadvantaged communities such as abused 

women's shelters, elderly outreach programs, 

and newcomer support resources. 

The national campaign was run over twoweeks 

in November. Employees donated 

and volunteered at local food banks as well 

as a wide range of fundraising events. A total 

of 524 employees got involved and their 

efforts, combined with a corporate donation, 

raised a total of $227,417. 

UK 

In the UK social inclusion is a key focus of 

our activities during National Volunteering 

Week and our UK CEO is a member of the 

UK government’s financial inclusion taskforce. 

We support the Career Academy Foundation, 

a network of employers, schools and colleges 

working to encourage underprivileged 16-19 

year olds to consider a career in business. 

Trees for Cities volunteer 

Helping Headway, a UK brain injury charity 

RSA employees mentor students for an 18 

month period, offering career advice and 

coursework help. Our employees benefit 

by developing their own skills in areas such 

as leadership, presenting, mentoring and 

coaching, as well as making a real 

difference to young people’s lives. 

Environment 

In addition to managing our own 

environmental impact and encouraging 

customers to manage theirs, we support 

a number of community environmental 

initiatives. We select organisations that 

complement our own initiatives, and help 

tackle the major environmental issues 

facing the business. 

UK 


In 2007, RSA employees took part in the 

Trees for Cities charity run - the Tree-Athlon 

- to promote urban tree planting. Every year 

we are associated with the removal of around 

2,000 trees in the UK because they increase 

the risk of subsidence. Sponsoring Trees for 

Cities promotes responsible tree planting. 

We published a guide called 'Right Tree, 

Right Place' and are reviewing our overall 

approach to tree risk management to ensure 

we continue to act responsibly on this issue. 

As a leading provider of insurance for social 

housing schemes, we have a strong interest 

in providing a better quality of life for the 

people who live on estates. Creating a 

cared-for environment can be a deterrent 

to crimes such as burglaries. RSA volunteers 

regularly work in conjunction with Trees for 

Cities. The improvements are designed to 

make estates more environmentally friendly 

and improve its appearance. 

Community


COMMUNITY - LOCAL INITIATIVES 

Countries and communities face 

different challenges which don’t 

always fall within the focus of our 

global initiatives. Through local 

charitable committees employees 

can address some of the issues 

affecting their communities. 

Country cases 

Hong Kong & China 

For the second year running we partnered 

with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty 

against Animals (SPCA) to promote animal 

welfare. We sponsored the SPCA’s adoption 

programme and funded a road show to 

educate people about responsible pet 

ownership. Employees donated blood and 

helped with fundraising as part of our annual 

sponsorship of the Red Cross Hong Kong. 

In recognition of our efforts we received 

the Caring Company Award from the Hong 

Kong Council of Social Services for the sixth 

year running. 

Shanghai 8k running series 

In China, RSA are title sponsors for the 8k 

running series. In 2007, we supported two 

races in Shanghai. The charity partner of 

both events was the Special Olympics, with 

10% of all funds raised going to this charity. 

Sweden & Denmark 

In 2007 we changed the focus for our 

community activities children’s health and 

safety. We launched a new children’s 

accident prevention foundation together 

with Astrid Lindgren children’s hospital in 

Stockholm, named after a famous Swedish 

children’s author. Together with employees 

RSA donated over £24,000 to support 

research and education, and help families 

who have been affected by a child’s accident. 

Bikes for Africa 

In 2007 we donated to 70 harbours in 

Denmark and over 6,000 life preservers 

in Sweden. We have been donating life 

vests to councils, boat clubs and harbours 

since 1954. On average the vests save 

between 10 and 12 lives per year. 

Sponsoring clowns for children 

To align with our new focus on children’s 

health and safety we supported one of the 

largest children’s hospitals in Denmark. 

Other support included research into 

children’s accidents and teaching children 

how to use the internet safely. 

We continued to sponsor Danish Heart 

Association heart vans. The vans travel to 

local communities and companies offering 

free health checks to help prevent heart 

disease. In 2007 we arranged for the vans 

to visit one of our largest commercial 

customers. We continue to work with the 

Dane Age association, sponsoring initiatives 

and funding its work into people suffering 

from Alzheimer’s. 

We have been working with the Danish 

company Baisikeli to send bicycles to Africa. 

Baisikeli collects recovered bicycles that have 

been reported stolen and the insurance money 

has been paid to the owners. The bicycles are 

donated to projects such as bicycle repair 

workshops in Tanzania and in Sierra Leone. 

The profit from the sales of the bicycles will

RSA supported the UK's first National 

Volunteering Week with 800 employees 

giving 4,500 hours to community 

activities raising over £15,000. 

be spent on education and establishing new 

bicycle repair workshops, providing jobs and 

a source of income. The first shipment of 

bicycles was sent in November 2007. 

UK 

We supported the UK’s first National 

Volunteering Week in 2007. Over 800 

employees volunteered over 4,500 hours to 

community activities, and raised over £15,000 

for local charities. It proved so popular we 

had to stretch Volunteering Week over two 

months to accommodate everyone who 

wanted to take part. Projects included: 

• Helping vulnerable residents to improve 

the exteriors of their homes to reduce fire 

risk and burglaries. 

• Renovating play areas and helping with 

general maintenance at eight schools. 

• Accompanying disadvantaged children on 

days out 

• Spending time with and helping the elderly, 

terminally ill children and victims of brain 

injuries. 

We will expand Volunteering Week to our 

international business in 2008. 

Helping local schools 


RSA volunteer week 

Community


TARGETS AND OBJECTIVES 

Strategy & Governance 

Marketplace 

Workplace 

2007 targets & objectives 

Continue to embed Business Principles 

across the Group 

Sign-up to UN Global Compact 

Review UNEP-FI initiative 

Review Group CR Strategy 

Maintain high levels of service in relation to 

claims and handling 

Continue to engage in the wider debate on 

the future of flood risk in the UK 

Look to identify further opportunities for 

innovative products that provide added 

CR benefits 

Review of responsible procurement 

practices 

Maintain 90% of personal performance 

linked to reward 

Employee Survey: Improve recognition 

when doing a good job 

Employee Survey: Recommending products 

and services to friends and families 

Employee Survey: Standard of internal 

communications 

Progress 2008 targets & objectives 

Supplied to Lithuania for translation 

and distribution 

Achieved 

Ongoing 

Achieved 

Performance Survey: More coaching See Workplace 

Performance Survey: Broadening 360 

feedback and appraisals 

• Introduction of personal customer managers 

in UK 

• Development of Technical Academy 

• Winning with the Customer workshops 

Responded to EFRA select committee, Pitt 

Review and lobbied for increased flood 

defence spending 

• Establishment of Global Renewables business 

• Launch of UK energy audit 

• Pilot of 'Green Telematics' 

• Launch of UAE road safety product 

• Established responsible procurement 

principles 

• Worked with FSPF on development of 

shared financial sector approach 

Communicate brand guidelines and strategy 

Produce first communication on progress 

Sign up to UNEP-FI 

First meetings of Group Exec Committee 

on CR 

Incorporate CR into regional CEO goals 

and targets 

Ongoing 

Ongoing 

Ongoing 

Achieved Ongoing 

• Pilot of questionniare in UK and 

Scandinavia 

• Work with FSPF on developing 

online system 

Up 20% Survey to focus on employee engagement 

No change Survey to focus on employee engagement 

Up 5% Survey to focus on employee engagement 

Rollout of Fast Track, EDP and LDP See Workplace Ongoing 

Performance Survey: Improve quality 

and volume of goals 

Performance Survey: Making time for 

consistent one to one's 

See Workplace Continue to embed strong performance 

management across Group 

See Workplace 

See Workplace

Community 

Environment 


2007 targets & objectives Progress 2008 targets & objectives 

Rollout of national volunteer week in UK Achieved Expand RSA volunteer week to other 

Group countries 

Formalise community strategy in 2007 Reviewed and approved by board Review national community strategies 

across International 

Report Group wide volunteer data in 2007 Achieved Formalise Group Community 

Policy/Commitments 

Continue to expand scope and quality of 

environmental reporting 

Italy, Colombia and rest of Johnson in 

Canada included 

Ongoing 

Reduce UK energy use by 5% Achieved Reduce UK energy use by 10% 

Reduce Denmark energy use by 10% Achieved • Reduce Denmark air travel by 1% 

• Reduce Denmark car travel by 2% 

Reduce Sweden energy use by 6% Not achieved • Reduce Sweden air travel by 1% 

• Reduce Sweden car travel by 5% 

Reduce Ireland energy use by 5% Achieved Reduce Ireland energy use by 10% 

Reduce Lithuania energy use by 5% Achieved 

Reduce Denmark steam use by 10% Achieved 

Reduce Sweden steam use by 5% Not achieved 

Reduce RSA Canada CO 2 emissions by 5% Achieved • Reduce RSA Canada energy use by 5% 

• Reduce RSA Canada air travel by 5% 

Reduce Ireland CO 2 emissions from travel 

by 10% 

Reduce UK CO 2 emissions from travel 

by 10% 

Reduce UK water use by 10% Achieved 

Reduce Lithuania water use by 10% Achieved 

Not achieved • Reduce Ireland CO 2 emissions from 

travel by 5% 

• Reduce Ireland air travel by 10% 

Achieved • Reduce UK CO 2 emissions by 5% 

• Reduce UK air travel by 5% 

Reduce UK waste by 10% Achieved Reduce UK waste by 10% 

Reduce Denmark waste by 10% Not achieved Reduce Denmark paper waste by 10% 

Increase Canada recycling by 10% Not achieved Increase Canada recycling by 3% 

Increase Hong Kong recycling by 20% Achieved 

Continue to expand scope and quality of 

environmental reporting 

Italy, Colombia and rest of Johnson in Canada 

included 

Reduce Sweden paper consumption by 5% 

Reduce Ireland paper waste by 10% 

Reduce Group CO 2 emissions by 2.5% 

Implement environmental reporting tool 

Ongoing


ENVIRONMENTAL DATA TABLES 

Data covers our operations in the UK, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, Canada, Ireland, Italy, 

Colombia, Mexico and Brazil, accounting for around 90% of the group. 

Group carbon dioxide equivalent emissions 5 (tonnes) 

CO2 Emissions Country 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 

Total Tonnes UK 

33,603 34,465 41,359 40,534 47,301 

Denmark 

2,682 3,189 3,486 2,782 2,694 

Latvia 

918 861 605 - - 

Lithuania 

1,360 1,304 1,533 - - 

Sweden 

2,729 2,665 2,389 2,227 - 

Canada 

6,996 4,606 4,561 4,822 2,066 

Ireland 

1,503 1,787 1,617 2,037 - 

Italy 

1,267 - - - - 

Colombia 

72 - - - - 

Mexico 

712 647 - - - 

Brazil 

383 366 - - - 

TOTAL 

Group carbon dioxide equivalent emissions (kg/employee) 

52,226 49,889 55,550 52,402 52,061 

CO2 Emissions 

Per Capita Country 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 

Kg/Emp 3,905 3,833 4,051 3,646 3,381 

1,985 2,347 2,341 1,557 1,348 

1,704 1,353 469 - - 

994 864 1,015 - - 

1,467 1,434 1,289 1,205 - 

4,741 4,161 2,798 2,0076 UK 

Denmark 

Latvia 

Lithuania 

Sweden 

Canada 

2,066 

Ireland 

3,262 3,544 2,727 3,280 - 

Italy 

3,734 - - - - 

Colombia 

259 - - - - 

Mexico 

1,955 2,014 - - - 

Brazil 

1,205 1,270 - - - 

5 Carbon dioxide equivalents have been calculated for 2006 using the World Resources Institute and World Business Council 

for Sustainable Development’s Greenhouse Gas Protocol for Service Sector Organisations and Office Based Companies 

6 Flight data for Canada corrected in 2005

Carbon dioxide emissions by source (tonnes) 


CO2 Total 

Impact Breakdown Country 

2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 

Electricity UK 

20,434 21,737 26,619 26,802 32,336 

Denmark 

993 1,094 1,261 604 421 

Latvia 

175 146 89 - - 

Lithuania 

506 465 772 - - 

Sweden 

708 708 838 701 - 

Canada 

2,134 2,260 2,107 1,945 1,730 

Ireland 

895 1,252 1,098 1,352 - 

Italy 

292 - - - - 

Colombia 

0.3 - - - - 

Mexico 

631 618 - - - 

Brazil 

62 - - - - 

Gas 7 UK 

5,457 5,059 5,365 5,731 6,480 

Latvia 

139 78 9 - - 

Lithuania 

6 49 5 - - 

Sweden 

2 2 2 2 - 

Canada 

1,100 308 208 322 336 

Ireland 

87 95 104 156 - 

Italy 

541 - - - - 

Mexico 

0 0 - - - 

Road travel UK 

4,405 5,206 5,801 5,303 6,288 

Denmark 

772 1,375 1,574 1,779 1,995 

Latvia 

510 590 471 - - 

Lithuania 

796 766 737 - - 

Sweden 

760 898 869 874 - 

Canada 

2,172 1,019 1,129 1,187 - 

Ireland 

375 375 363 381 - 

Italy 

334 - - - - 

Colombia 

4 - - - - 

Mexico 

81 29 - - - 

Brazil 

152 145 - - - 

Air Short Haul8 UK 

843 700 2,053 1,065 901 

Denmark 

755 100 33 30 16 

Latvia 

- - - - - 

Lithuania 

3 - - - - 

Sweden 

1140 433 423 335 - 

Canada 

503 24 143 113 - 

Ireland 

63 57 33 133 - 

Italy 

39 - - - - 

Colombia 

49 - - - - 

Air Long Haul 5 UK 

1,899 1,197 1,005 883 796 

Denmark 

135 600 603 353 248 

Latvia 

94 47 36 - - 

Lithuania 

49 24 19 - - 

Sweden 

13 532 205 250 - 

Canada 

1079 993 973 1,254 - 

Ireland 

82 7 18 14 - 

Italy 

51 - - - - 

Colombia 

19 - - - - 

Brazil 

169 169 - - - 

Rail UK 

565 566 516 750 500 

Denmark 

27 21 15 16 14 

Sweden 

107 92 52 65 - 

Canada 

- 3 1 1 - 

Ireland 

1 1 1 1 - 

Italy 

9 - - - - 

5 Carbon dioxide equivalents have been calculated for 2006 using the World Resources Institute and World Business Council for Sustainable 

Development’s Greenhouse Gas Protocol for Service Sector Organisations and Office Based Companies 

7 Gas figures were restated for Latvia and Lithuania in 2006 based on improved measurement techniques


ENVIRONMENTAL DATA TABLES 

Environmental data trends 2003-2007 9 

Performance 

indicator 

Electricity 

absolute (MWh) 10 

& normalised 

(KWh/employee) 11 

Gas 

absolute (MWh) 

& normalised 

(kWh/employee) 

Water 

absolute (m3) 

& normalised 

(ltr/employee) 

Total Waste 

absolute (tonnes) 

& normalised 

(kg/employee) 

Paper 

absolute (tonnes) 

& normalised 

(kg/employee) 

Country 

UK 

Denmark 

Latvia 

Lithuania 

Sweden 

Canada 

Ireland 

Italy 

Colombia 

Mexico 

Brazil 

UK 

Latvia 

Lithuania 

Sweden 

Canada 

Ireland 

Italy 

Mexico 

UK 

Denmark 

Latvia 

Lithuania 

Sweden 

Canada 

Ireland 

Italy 

Colombia 

Mexico 

UK 

Denmark 

Latvia 

Lithuania 

Sweden 

Canada 

Ireland 

Italy 

Colombia 

Mexico 

Brazil 

UK 

Denmark 

Latvia 

Lithuania 

Sweden 

Canada 

Ireland 

Mexico 

Brazil 

2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 

Absolute Norm Abs Norm Abs Norm Abs Norm Abs Norm 

43,757 5,085 46,547 5,177 56,285 5,879 58,977 5,305 68,560 4,901 

3,225 2,687 3,550 2,959 3,540 3,441 1,817 2,423 1,262 1,778 

1,047 3,490 873 2,909 740 - - - - - 

4,560 3,333 4,187 2,771 4,269 2,827 - - - - 

13,888 9,018 13,888 9,018 14,278 10,498 16,500 8,929 - - 

10,209 6,483 10,816 9,652 9,426 8,454 9,225 6,589 7,769 7,769 

1,563 3,567 2,185 4,393 1,853 3,125 2,098 3,497 - - 

642 1,906 - - - - - - - - 

2,395 9 - - - - - - - - 

1,208 3,319 - - - - - - - - 

730 2,302 - - - - - - - - 

28,271 3,337 26,626 2,961 28,238 2,766 31,222 2,809 34,105 2,438 

749 2,497 422 15,543 46 - - - - - 

33 24 263 1,927 27 18 - - - - 

9 12 9 12 8 11 9 11 - - 

6,072 9,863 1,698 3,535 1,030 924 1,595 1,139 1,664 1,664 

416 949 468 941 513 865 773 1,288 - - 

100 296 - - - - - - - - 

0.01 0 0.01 0.03 - - - - - - 

120,708 14,027 143,039 15,908 136,373 13,358 132,096 11,883 139,700 9,990 

9,157 7,631 7,963 6,636 8,180 7,950 7,126 9,501 6,681 9,410 

2,997 9,990 2,069 6,897 883 - - - - - 

7,175 5,245 10,094 6,680 12,146 8,044 - - - - 

16,000 20,000 16,000 20,000 16,000 21,025 25,281 31,211 - - 

29,439 18,694 143,453 38,776 40,359 36,196 40,749 29,106 61,125 61,125 

34,000 77,608 34,000 68,365 34,000 57,336 34,000 56,667 - - 

12020 35,667 - - - - - - - - 

1,389 4,980 - - - - - - - - 

20,274 55,698 5,266 16,405 - - - - - - 

3,178 369 3,719 414 3,667 359 5,436 489 5,513 394 

260 216 259 216 186 180 141 188 107 151 

37 124 36 120 36 - - - - - 

129 94 148 98 315 209 - - - - 

140 175 203 253 139 182 259 320 - - 

310 84 231 206 210 188 216 154 167 167 

163 373 219 440 145 245 182 303 - - 

- - - - - - - - - - 

8 27 - - - - - - - - 

190 522 180 561 - - - - - - 

25 79 20 70 - - - - - - 

1,123 130 1,267 37 409 40 561 50 471 34 

127 90 62 42 74 50 85 48 86 43 

41 138 32 31 30 23 - - - - 

41 30 27 18 27 18 - - - - 

222 128 173 86 237 128 67 36 - - 

282 120 160 118 192 118 308 128 - - 

31 61 24 48 26 43 28 46 - - 

30 82 19 60 - - - - - - 

53 167 7 23 - - - - - - 

9 Figures 0.5 and greater are rounded up to the nearest whole unit 

10 Electricity in the UK is supplied from Green Tariffs but not taken into accunt reporting CO 2 emissions 

11 All conversion factors found at www.onlineconversion.com

GRI INDEX 


This table covers the Global Reporting Initiative indicators found in this report. The report meets application level C+ of the GRI G3 guidelines. 

The table also shows how we meet the UN Global Compact Principles covering human rights, labour standards, the environment and anti-corruption, 

and the Association of British Insurers Climate Wise Principles. 

GRI G3 guideline UNGC Principles Climate Wise Principles Page Number 

Strategy & analysis 

Profile 

Report parameters 

Report scope & boundary 

1.1 Core 4-5 

1.2 Core 8 

2.1 Front page 

2.2 3 

2.3 3 

2.4 Back cover 

2.5 3, 6-7 

2.6 6-7 

2.7 6-7 

2.8 6-7 

2.10 8 

3.1 3 

3.4 Back cover 

3.5 3 

3.6 3 

3.7 3 

3.8 3 

3.9 23 

3.10 42-44 

GRI content index 3.12 45 

Assurance 3.13 46 

Governance 

Commitments to 

external initiatives 

Stakeholder engagement 

4.1 8 

4.4 10-11, 28 

4.8 8 

4.9 6 

8 

4.11 7 and 9 1 

8, 12 

4.12 10-11 

4.13 2 

10 

4.14 10-11 

4.15 8, 10-11 

4.16 10-11 

4.17 8, 10-11


GRI INDEX 

GRI G3 guideline UNGC Principles Climate Wise Principles Page Number 

Economic performance 

Environmental 

performance 

Labour practices and 

decent work 

Human rights 

Society 

EC1 Core 6, 34-39 

EC2 Core 12, 22 

EC8 Core 12, 36 

EC9 

Additional 

EN1 Core 24-25 

EN4 Core 24-25, 42-44 

EC5 

Additional 

EC6 

Additional 

EC7 

Additional 

LA1 Core 28-33 

LA3 

Additional 

LA4 Core 28 

LA7 Core 33 

LA8 Core 33 

LA10 Core 32 

LA11 

Additional 

HR1 Core 2 6 

HR2 Core 2 20 

SO3 Core 10 30 

SO4 Core 10 30 

SO5 Core 10 

SO6 

Additional 

PR5 

Additional 

Product responsibility PR6 Core 15 

PR7 

Additional 

9 1 and 3 

12 

3 32 

LA13 Core 1, 4, 5 and 6 29 

4 

5 

6 

24-25, 26, 27, 42-44 

8 5 

24-25, 26, 27, 42-44 

EN8 Core 24-25 

EN16 Core 24-25, 42-44 

EN18 

Additional 

8 3 and 5 

22, 24-27, 42-44 

EN22 Core 24-25, 42-44 

EN26 Core 9 3 and 5 

12 

EN29 

Additional 

8 24-25, 42-44 

32 

10 

15, 16 

15


EXTERNAL ASSURANCE STATEMENT 

AND COMMENTARY 

Corporate Citizenship was commissioned 

by Royal & SunAlliance (RSA) to undertake 

an independent review of its Corporate 

Responsibility (CR) Report 2007, covering 

January to December 2007. This statement 

is a reflection of the work undertaken and 

is addressed to the management of RSA. 

Corporate Citizenship is a management 

consultancy specialising in corporate social 

responsibility. Formerly The SMART 

Company, it was renamed after it came 

together with another leading consultancy - 

The Corporate Citizenship Company - 

in January 2008. The SMART Company 

conducted the assurance of RSA’s 2006 CR 

report and consistent approaches have been 

applied to the work completed this year. 

The scope of the verification was confined 

to the environmental, health and safety and 

community data within the report. The 

purpose of the process was to assess whether 

RSA’s Corporate Responsibility Report 2007 

gives a fair representation of performance for 

the year in these areas. In a development 

from the previous year’s assurance, RSA asked 

Corporate Citizenship to complete a number 

of interviews with key personnel across the 

group, thus further strengthening the 

assurance process. 

The assurance was informed by the principles 

of the Assurance Standard AA1000: materiality, 

completeness and responsiveness. The 

following tasks were performed: 

• Review of base and aggregated data 

• Review of data trends and investigation 

into any significant irregularities 

• Review of carbon emission calculations 

• Review assumptions made and conversion 

factors used 

• Review of report’s text to ensure it is 

consistent with the data 

• Interviews with key personnel responsible 

for CR within the three largest regions: 

United Kingdom, Canada, and Scandinavia. 

Commentary 

and recommendations 

Reliability of data 

We are pleased to see improvements in the 

level of data reliability, especially from emerging 

markets such as Brazil. Some significant 

movements in year-on-year trends have 

occurred as a result of increasingly robust data 

collection processes. Whilst some differences 

do exist across the group regarding the scope 

of data collected, we are encouraged to see 

increasing numbers of regions collecting more 

complete data, such as Sweden which has 

included marketing material in its paper 

usage measurements for the first time. 

Some minor queries with the data occurred 

throughout the assurance process. These 

queries were corrected where necessary 

and we are satisfied that revisions have 

been incorporated in the published report. 

Increasingly robust procedures have resulted in 

fair and representative data being reported for 

a greater number of regions this year. Such 

robust systems need to be rolled out across 

the entire group, especially in emerging 

markets, to ensure trend monitoring and target 

setting add value to the reporting process. 

Materiality 

• Future reports would benefit from greater 

coverage of the material risks and 

management challenges facing RSA. 

• Following recommendations made last year, 

we are pleased to observe that RSA is now 

beginning to set time specific, quantitative 

targets. This, we believe, will help push the 

CR agenda throughout the company. 

Completeness 

• We have commended RSA for increasing 

the scope of reporting countries as noted 

above. We encourage RSA to continue 

such work. 

• During the interview process, RSA 

highlighted the possible development of 

a set of CR toolkits. We believe that such 

a development rolled out across the group 

should help increase consistency of data 

and completeness of reporting. 

Responsiveness 

• The report demonstrates engagement 

with a range of stakeholders. In our opinion, 

more could be done to fully report on the 

outcomes of engagement undertaken by 

RSA during the year. 

Conclusion 

We believe the environment, health and 

safety and community data within RSA’s 

2007 CR report represents a fair reflection of 

the company’s impacts and the work in these 

areas in relation to CR. We look forward to 

seeing further progress in the coming year 

in line with the recommendations identified 

in this statement. 

Corporate Citizenship 

London, 31st March 2008 

(Information on our competencies, 

independence and impartiality is available 

on our website: 

http://www.corporate-citizenship.com/whatwe-do/assurance/)

This document is printed on Revive Special Silk recycled paper, made from 50% de-inked post consumer waste, 25% pre-consumer waste and 25% virgin wood fibre.

2007 Corporate Responsibility Report - RSA Group

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?