Munich Re Group

Overview

Munich Re is one of the world’s leading reinsurance companies. Founded in 1880, it provides financial services to over 5000 clients in over 150 countries. It covers losses arising from natural catastrophes, major construction projects, third-party liability cases, personal injuries and more. 

The Munich Re group also includes ERGO Group, Germany’s second largest primary insurer, and a third company, MEAG, that provides asset management services to Munich Re, ERGO and external clients. As of January 2012, MEAG had over $200 billion worth of assets under its management.

Reinsurance companies sell insurance to primary insurance companies in order to distribute risk and minimize the exposure of any one company. Careful consideration of current and future risks is therefore critical to Munich Re’s success.

Building on a combination of academic collaborations and in-house experts, with people working in over 80 specialist fields and 50 countries, the company identifies and analyzes risks and develops solutions for its clients. It also publishes research to help its stakeholders understand these risks in detail, including those related to demographic trends, new diseases and, of course, climate change. 

Munich Re has been analyzing and addressing natural hazards and climate change risks since 1974, but in 2008 it formed the Corporate Climate Centre to deal with climate change impacts throughout Munich Re as a whole. Its expertise on climate issues is based on cutting-edge scientific and economic research and is a fundamental part of the company’s risk management. As a result, it is able to exploit new fields of business such as renewable energy investment products and risk transfer solutions.

Munich Re assumes social responsibility in its work, remaining conscious of its economic, ecological and social obligations while creating value for its clients and investors. It has formed a strategy to reduce its environmental impact and has a comprehensive system of environmental progress markers.

Current activities

Munich Re has long advocated the promotion and development of renewable energies as a way of reducing emissions. In 2009 this gave rise to an ambitious industrial initiative, Dii GmbH, established in conjunction with the DESERTEC Foundation. The target is to supply around 15% of Europe’s needs by 2050 from solar and wind energy, generated in the surrounding regions. The scheme will create jobs in the producer countries, provide greater energy security, and give the countries involved the benefits of carbon-free energy.

Carbon neutral goal

Munich Re is committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2012. The first part of its strategy towards this involves improving its energy efficiency, starting with IT and facility management. The company will then, as far as possible, purchase its power from renewable energy sources – as the Munich and Milan offices already do. Following this, Munich Re will invest in renewable energy projects to compensate for unavoidable emissions, and, finally, it will offset remaining unavoidable emissions by purchasing offsets. So far the company is on target to meet its aims.

Sustainable finance

The company believes that a sound investment strategy that is aligned with environmental and social governance also has a beneficial effect on risk and return. For this reason, it became, in 2006, the first German signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). It now regularly reports on how it is meeting the aims of the principles. Munich Re is also a member of the Finance Initiative of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP FI). 

Munich Re launched Project RENT in 2010, in which it intends to make investments on the order of $1 billion in Renewable Energy and New Technology (RENT). The RENT initiative focuses mainly on solar and wind farm investments, but does include projects in geothermal energy, biogas and others. It also has investments in efficiency and energy-saving, and smart grid technology such as networks and energy storage.

Links

• Munich Re Sustainability
• Munich Re climate change risk
• Publications