Climate change, inequality, and health and wellbeing are intimately connected to our performance as organisations. The insurance sector – and cooperatives and mutuals in particular – generally see societal risks as opportunities to meet our raison d’être as purpose-driven organisations and as future business opportunities. The SDGs act as a guide to pursue these, which the Business & Sustainable Development Commission has quantified that sustainable business models could open economic opportunities worth up to USD 12 trillion.
Co-operators’ sustainability journey began in 2005 at the ICMIF Biennial Conference in Singapore, when then the CEO at the time heard the founder of The Natural Step, Dr Karl-Henrik Robert, give a talk. The science-based framework resonated with Co-operators’ purpose of financial security for Canadians and their communities.
The formal part of its sustainability journey has four phases, tying in with its strategic plan periods. It started in 2008 with the establishment of a Board Committee, sustainable policy vision and dedicated staff. At first the focus was internal, putting the appropriate structures and literacy in place. In 2011-2014, Co-operators then began to look externally focusing on catalysing others into action.
In 2015 to take the next step, Co-operators stopped taking a siloed approach to sustainability and created a corporate strategy with sustainability integrated and co-operative principles embedded throughout. The sustainability team shifted from “doers” to “enablers”, supporting others in the organisation.
In 2018, the Board established a set of “2030 goals” aligned to the SDGs which will be pursued until 2030. The first step to doing this was to ask members of the Board and Management Sustainability Committees which of the 169 SDG targets created risks or opportunities for Co-operators and its stakeholders. This created a valuable dialogue between Board, executive leadership, strategic planning and sustainability teams, leading to opportunities for learning, thinking longer-term and bringing different people together.
The longer-term horizon and geographic scale of the SDGs are broader than Co-operators (and organisations in general) are used to. The systemic nature and implications as business issues introduced a lot of complexity and created opportunities for reoccurring dialogue, ultimately helping Co-operators to embed them in the organisation. The company officially endorsed all 17 SDGs in 2018, but focused its resources on nine SDGs which it had the expertise to make the most meaningful impact.
Making the SDGs relevant to organisations is not a straightforward process. In order to do this, Co-operators created a set of enterprise goals to help it achieve those global and national goals, while being meaningful to stakeholders and advancing their organisation. The way it is approaching achieving the 2030 goals is through its four-year strategic plans, embedding them into existing (familiar) processes and structures within in the organisation.
