Year after year, Mapfre is among the leading sustainability companies in the world. A work of a large number of people led by Mónica Zulueta. Since 2021, this graduate in Psychology has been in charge of commanding the sustainability strategy of the Spanish insurer. A job that more and more eyes are focusing on. “It is a strategic opportunity that will boost the profitable growth of companies,” responds the board. After meeting all the objectives set out in her latest sustainability plan, Zulueta and her department are already working on their new strategic line for the coming years.
-Last year, in a meeting between managers, the vice president of Mapfre Spain, José Inchausti, said that sustainability is not only a matter of responsibility, but also a strategic opportunity. As?
-Indeed, sustainability is a fundamental pillar in the management of organizations, and it is undoubtedly a strategic opportunity that will boost the profitable growth of companies. The adoption of sustainable practices and the management of environmental and social risks allows us to discover new business opportunities and develop products and services that respond to these risks, as well as the new needs of clients and society in general. It is not possible to be a sustainable company if economic and social value is not created.
-The insurance sector is not the one that contributes the most to climate change, but its business is affected by weather phenomena. How do you make it? Is climate change already noticeable in your business?
-Climate change affects us all, and not only on the financial balance of insurers. The scarcity of resources, the degradation of ecosystems and their impact on biodiversity threaten not only the irrecoverable loss of natural wealth, but also our health and our social model of well-being. For the insurance sector, catastrophic events have a very high impact and these, in turn, occur more frequently and cause higher costs. We are deploying a sustainability strategy from the business that impacts both our footprint and that of society, because we also encourage other sectors to accelerate their own transition, to the extent that we are increasingly demanding in the assurance of certain activities.
The insurance sector will continue to play a fundamental role in compensating for damage caused by catastrophes and will work in the short and long term to adapt protection to climate change. In the short term, it will monitor the behavior of these events to apply the necessary adjustments to coverage and will continue to protect society under a sustainable scheme. In the longer term, and to understand how climate change will affect nature events, it will seek to identify new opportunities and estimate their impact on physical and transition risks.
-Sustainability is not just about the environment. There is the 'S' for social and the 'G' for Governance. Which of these three legs is the most complicated to manage?
-The three dimensions, ESG, are relevant, and rather than complicating one or the other, I consider that the key is to work on the three dimensions in an integrated way. It is essential to act in a balanced way in the short, medium and long term in environmental, social and corporate governance challenges in order to contribute to the creation of economic and social value, guaranteeing a healthy planet in which to live.
In this sense, I would like to highlight that, for us, as we are a company that takes care of people, the 'S' in Social is the one that concentrates the greatest weight, with programs to improve social inclusion, fair employment, knowledge and, with it, better access to insurance protection. There is no doubt that we are in a moment of historical progress in which we have taken great steps to move towards a diverse and inclusive society, but there are still important inequality gaps that directly impact people's well-being, and with this vision, We work to continue moving towards a better model of society that guarantees equal opportunities to all, without exclusion.
-It is early, we are only a few months into 2024, but will they eliminate the gender wage gap in 2024 as promised?
-We have closed the gender pay gap to below 1%. We publicly committed to doing it by the end of 2024 and we achieved it a year early.
-What measures have been implemented to close this gap?
-We have launched a remuneration analysis of those joining the company; an analysis with special focus on internal promotion situations; the permanent review of the position map in order to verify the correct positioning of people; the provision of a budget to make the corresponding remuneration adjustments; awareness-raising and information actions aimed at those responsible about the wage gap in general and, in particular, about cases detected in their respective areas that must be addressed; and creation of dashboards and pay gap calculators with advanced analytics and data visualization tools for faster and more efficient tracking.
-Is our society taking advantage of all the potential for economic growth that female talent can provide?
-We consider that many steps have been taken, but without a doubt, we believe that it is necessary to continue advancing to take advantage of half of the talent in the world, which is female, and also to accelerate the closing of the historical inequalities that have been dragging on. Corporate responsibility is not only based on contributing to economic progress, but also to the transformation of society, to reduce those inequality gaps that have an important impact on social and economic progress.
-This year your 2022-2024 sustainability plan ends, what are you most proud of?
-We are satisfied and we are on the right path. At the end of 2023, we have met practically 100% of the objectives that we had set in the Sustainability Plan. I would highlight our commitment to the social axis, which is the one that most transforms people's lives, and in which a company like ours has the most capacity to contribute. I am referring to our policies to promote equality, inclusion and diversity, to help our suppliers and collaborators improve their performance in sustainability, as well as promoting financial education and accessibility to insurance. In the latter, we continue to develop products and services that promote access to insurance in segments of the population with lower incomes, such as the “Mapfre na Favela” project carried out in Brazil, which we will launch soon to offer protection lines to its inhabitants. through microinsurance, with basic coverage and at an affordable cost. We have also continued to develop insurance and financial services and products that respond to risks and opportunities in social, environmental and corporate governance matters, and in this sense, last year, 96.6% of Mapfre's investment portfolio in Spain, the United States and Brazil were qualified with ESG criteria.
-What will be the general lines of the next plan? What do they want to focus on?
-In line with the new Strategic Plan, we have defined more ambitious sustainability objectives for the period 2024-2026. We will continue to reduce our footprint and help reduce that of others through more sustainable underwriting. Also, promoting socially responsible investment, inclusion, equality in everything we do, transparency and, among other actions, promoting the fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Goals from our activity in the six years that remain ahead of us. .
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