Responsible Corporate Conduct | Trust is a key component of long-term success in the world of life insurance and pensions. The trust Swiss Life inspires is based primarily on the quality of its products and services, but is also greatly influenced by the company’s activities beyond its actual field of operations. Swiss Life has a long tradition of commitment on behalf of society and the environment.
Responsible corporate conduct is part and parcel of the Swiss Life culture. It is based on the corporate values of expertise, proximity, openness, clarity and commitment, which provide the guidelines for interaction with customers, partners and employees. In addition, the Code of Compliance sets out specific rules of conduct. Adherence to these rules is a prerequisite for legally and ethically correct business conduct and for economic profitability. The principles in the Code of Compliance apply to the entire Swiss Life Group. Outside Switzerland and Liechtenstein, they are supplemented or modified in accordance with the local legal requirements.
Social commitment | In 2007, Swiss Life celebrated its 150th anniversary. The company used the occasion not least to enhance its longstanding social commitment. Under the motto of “Perspectives for people”, Swiss Life initiated a number of projects and events in Switzerland. In cooperation with the University of Applied Sciences in Rapperswil, for instance, it launched a nationwide competition entitled “Young people design living space”, which encouraged over 1000 youngsters aged between 12 and 20 to take a close look at their residential environment. The youths analysed their surroundings and developed their own visions of urban and regional planning. Visions were then transformed into specific ideas and suggestions for a desirable and future-oriented design of their living space. Over 14 000 boys and girls between six and ten years of age took part in the Kids Festival events. Kids Festival stands for a series of forty football-related events that Swiss Life organised in cooperation with the Swiss Football Association throughout Switzerland between April 2007 and May 2008. The newly established “Perspectives” foundation promoting non-profit initiatives in the fields of health, science, education, culture and sports represents a special anniversary gift from Swiss Life. The foundation has decided to focus on integration and education. In connection with the anniversary year, it allocated approximately CHF 3 million to a number of special projects. Among the beneficiaries was the “Zurich Jobs” foundation, which helps to integrate youths and the long-term unemployed into the world of work. The “Bridge to Work” project run by the Pestalozzi Children’s Village in Trogen has similar goals. Youngsters with problems at school or in their private life are given the opportunity to do an intercultural “pre-apprenticeship”, which facilitates entry into the working world. In its anniversary year, Swiss Life also made significant contributions to Pro Juventute Switzerland to support its free emergency telephone service for children and youths, and a foundation called “Cerebral” for the procurement of special mobility aids for cerebrally impaired children.
Already back in 1957, when marking its 100th anniversary, Swiss Life had set up the Swiss Life Anniversary Foundation for Public Health and Medical Research. The foundation has remained active to this day, providing annual contributions to various research projects.
Swiss Life’s commitment to social responsibility is not limited to Switzerland. In Germany, Swiss Life has for instance been supporting the Nicolaidis Foundation since October 2007, a non-profit organisation that helps widowed mothers and fathers and their children cope with bereavement. It organises self-help groups and special projects for children and youths. Various advisory services are available to provide help in personal crisis situations. In France, one of the institutions Swiss Life supports is the “Institut Curie”, a hospital and research facility with the mission to fight cancer.
Environmental management | Evaluation of the Swiss Internal Services’ environmental data for 2006, which reflect the consumption of electricity, paper and water, reveals a positive overall picture compared to the internationally recognised benchmark of the environmental management association “Verein für Umweltmanagement“ (VfU). The VfU focuses on environmental management concerns in connection with financial services providers. There are a number of reasons for the positive evaluation results: Swiss Life regularly takes energy aspects into consideration when refurbishing its office buildings, its power supply in Zurich is entirely sourced from hydro-electric plants, and it has a well- established waste disposal system whereby two thirds of all re-usable waste is recycled. The company plans to raise its energy efficiency ratio at its Zurich location by at least another 1.5% a year. Measures to enhance the efficient use of resources will be further expanded in the coming years and are set to be introduced at Swiss Life’s units abroad too.
Political commitment | Swiss Life representatives from all areas of the Group play an active role in committees and associations to raise public awareness of pension issues and trigger political debates. In Germany, Swiss Life set up the “Salon Palais Leopold” series of events, where decision-makers from the worlds of business, politics and media hold regular discussions on key social and political subjects. Also in Munich, the first German Swiss Life Pension Day in November met with broad public appeal. Politicians and business representatives discussed the issue of retirement pensions in a European comparison and the direction that retirement provision is to take in future.
Sustainable products | Swiss Life Asset Management, a Swiss Life subsidiary, together with the independent asset management company for sustainable investments SAM, have been providing direct Sustainability Balanced mandates since 2005. They were in fact the first to do so. The investments – a combination of equities and bonds – are selected according to the criteria of economic, ecological and social added value. The investment volume now amounts to around CHF 125 million. In view of their long-term investment horizon, pension funds in particular show an interest in sustainable products. The track records of the Sustainable Balanced mandates demonstrate that the sustainability approach has a positive impact on the performance. From February 2005 to 31 December 2007, the return before costs exceeded the benchmark index by 0.6%.
