ESG and constant evaluation guiding AIA on the road to sustainability

The aim, according to Johann Dutoit, AIA Thailand’s Chief Investment Officer, is to realise its mission of helping people live healthier, longer, and better lives. 

The commitment comes at a time when sustainability is a global trend and a must-do practice for all companies in every industry. 

In an exclusive interview with The Nation, Dutoit said that AIA has always prioritised sustainability issues in terms of people, society, and the environment. 

However, the Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) practices and evaluation process have only recently been clearly narrated to the public before finally becoming the company's major focus this year as it marks its 85th anniversary. 

"It's really important for us to recognise that better and healthier lives are inextricably linked to a healthier planet and a fairer and just society. That is what AIA ESG focuses on," he noted.

 

From the inside out
As an industry leader, AIA has gradually implemented ESG practices starting from the inside: the company, its employees and its operation.

That means AIA must think a little bit deeper about every action it takes, whether big or small, such as reducing paper usage, promoting the availability of wellness services, implementing automation processes, and reducing energy consumption with the latest green technology for its offices and buildings. 

Meanwhile, Dutoit said that AIA is always carefully considering its investment portfolios, focusing on green bonds and green loans. This allows the company to see how it can invest in organisations that support ESG while also encouraging AIA ESG practice across its entire supply chain. 

On the employees and operation front, he said AIA has conducted extensive research into its human resource policies to determine how it compares to diversity and inclusiveness.

"We have made some very big changes. For instance, we have aligned the marital benefits for same sex partners with those for traditional families. We've also looked at the maternity benefits that fathers can get when their children are born and we've started to increase that so that it's more aligned with maternity benefits," he said, adding that AIA also looked at the proportion of females to males in the company.

According to AIA Thailand, 62% of its workforce is female and even at the senior level, the number is around 40%.

In addition, on the societal front, AIA holds annual activities with employees, customers, and their families, as well as the local community, to create a positive inspirational drive for a better future, such as planting trees and building libraries for remote schools.

Furthermore, the company takes the lead in supporting other social activities through sponsorship or by providing life and health insurance to participants. 

 

Five pillars towards ESG 
According to Dutoit, the AIA ESG strategy is built on five pillars that support the organisation's overall goal.

"Our company's mission is to help people live healthier, longer, better lives. But, to make it more concrete for our employees, we have the five pillars that tell us what steps we need to take to achieve that goal," he explained.

He pointed out that the five pillars begin with Health and Wellness, which aligns with the company’s core business as a life and health insurance company.

Then there are Green Operations, which are critical for having a sustainable office. 

The third pillar revolves around Sustainable Investment.

"We have one of the largest investment portfolios in Thailand, so it's critical that we incorporate ESG into that," he noted. 

The fourth pillar is concerned with People and Culture. He emphasised the importance of AIA investing in its employees to train them in the future and recently introduced a new ESG course, ESG1O1, which will give people the opportunity to understand how they can contribute to ESG at AIA.

The final pillar is to ensure that AIA can withstand all risks and has a very strong Effective Governance framework given that it is the largest life insurance company in the world.

 

Healthier, Longer, Better Lives
Although AIA has taken many steps to integrate ESG, Dutoit acknowledges that the company still has a long way to go before it can achieve the sustainability that allows people to live healthier, longer, better lives. 

He noted that many of its initiatives, such as the AIA Healthiest Schools with the objective of providing resources to teachers for helping their children to understand about healthy eating, more active, mental wellbeing and sustainability.

In addition to the annual corporate event that is the AIA Sharing A Life, it's not just an event for our staff. It's for their families, for our partners, our business partners, local communities and so on," he said. 

Another highlight for particularly runners is the AIA One Billion Trial in Chiang Mai, will continue, while new creative and inclusive activities will be introduced. 

Additionally, as AIA strives to achieve its net zero target by 2050, the company has laid out concrete operational steps to get there, as well as reliable measurements to prove those steps work.

"The commitment to be net zero by 2050 is clearly a high-level ideal, but it is necessary...so we have decided as a company to join the science-based target initiative. This is an organisation that examines the goals that we set for ourselves, both short and long term," he said. 

The requirement is that once AIA has made the commitment to be net zero by 2050, the company must calculate the intermediate steps required to get there and then present that plan to the UN Sustainable Development Goal, which must audit and ensure that this is achievable, he explained. 

"We have made a lot of progress on this journey. We hope to have this completed by the end of this year," he noted.

He also stressed that AIA will have to make a lot of operational changes, which they will not be able to do alone. As a result, AIA always prioritises the need for specialist consultants to come in and assist with the challenges that arise.

AIA is working through all of the actions that must be taken with its employees, partners, and customers to ensure that all of its steps lead to the achievement of its net zero target by 2050, he concluded.