7 Insurers Named to 2011 Global 100 List

As global awareness of sustainability efforts continues to grow, a handful of insurers were recently recognized as being among the world's most sustainable corporations.

Storebrand ASA, T&D Holdings Inc., RSA Insurance Group Plc, Insurance Australia Group, Sun Life Financial Inc., Swiss Reinsurance Co. Ltd. and Prudential Plc were all named to the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World list http://www.global100.org/. Since 2005, the list is an annual project initiated by Canadian clean capitalism magazine Corporate Knights  in conjunction with Inflection Point Capital Management, Global Currents Investment Management, and Phoenix Global Advisors LLC.

The 2011 Global 100 was announced last Saturday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The list, which highlights corporations that have been most proactive in managing environmental, social and governance issues, includes businesses from 22 countries encompassing all sectors of the economy, with collective annual sales in excess of $3 trillion and five million employees.

Sun Life, which ranked No. 56, is the only North American insurer named to the list, making it the fifth time in seven years that Sun Life has been recognized.

"The nature of our business—helping individuals and families achieve lifetime financial security—is inherently responsible," Sun Life CEO Donald Stewart said in a statement. "In serving our customers, we also seek to understand the broader environmental, social and governance dimensions of our international footprint, and we work hard to meet or exceed the expectations of our stakeholders."

Norwegian insurer Storebrand ASA was the top-rated carrier on this year's list, charting at No. 9. Storebrand also qualified for the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index http://www.storebrand.no/site/stb.nsf/Pages/nyhet_djsi_20100909.html. T&D Holdings Inc., Japan, was the next highest insurer on the list at No. 24, while Insurance Australia Group (No. 42) was the only other insurer from the Asia/Pacific region.

A pair of UK-based insurers, RSA Insurance Group (No. 40) and Prudential Plc (No. 87) also made the Global 100, while Swiss Re was the only other European insurer (No. 76).

According to Corporate Knights, the 2011 Global 100 tapped intelligence from the world's largest sustainability research alliance to isolate the top 10% of companies from among 3,000 global stocks, which were then transparently ranked based on 10 indicators using environmental, social, governance and financial data.

To view the complete 2011 Global 100, click here.