A more sustainable Topdanmark

26 February 2024 12:00 CEST.

In 2023, Topdanmark has achieved a number of good results within sustainability. We work with ESG in three main themes, which are Green transformation (E), Health and well-being in everyday life (S), and Responsible foundation (G).

Our approach to sustainability

For Topdanmark, social, environmental and financial sustainability is part of our core business. Every day we work to create financial and social security for all of our customers, our employees and society in general. We want sustainability to be a natural part of all the decisions and actions we take e.g. in relation to procurement, claims handling, product development, intake of new customers, and investments. Our work is based on a sustainability aspiration: We are here to help our customers and the society which we are part of.

Green transformation

In recent years, we have experienced more extreme weather as a result of higher temperatures and general climate change. 2023 in particular was a severe year in terms of weather. We experienced drought, cloudbursts and more storms than usual. The more extreme weather is a challenge for everyone, including us as an insurance company. There is a need for both solutions for how we adapt to the changing weather conditions and long-term solutions to reduce temperature increases.

Vindmøller stående i havet med landskab i baggrunden

At Topdanmark, we would like to contribute with solutions that benefit both our customers and society. As an insurance company, climate change poses a business risk, as it can mean more damage and thus increased expenses. This can be damage to people, buildings or crops, and this means greater expenses for the business for damage repairs.

It is therefore important for Topdanmark as a business to help support a better climate and environment, thereby avoiding damage to our customers. It is not only in our own business that we work to reduce CO2 emissions, but also a focus we have for our customers.




Results in 2023

  • 16,3 %
    CO2 reduction from baseline in 2019

  • 18,1 %
    Energy reduction from baseline in 2019

  • 29%
    Of Topdanmark’s company cars are electric vehicles

Circular economy

The pressure on the world's resources, for example through our purchase of consumer goods, is a challenge for the environment. There is a great need for us to reduce our footprint on nature - among other things through more recycling and less waste.

If we are to achieve our ambitious CO2 reduction targets, we also have to look at our own organisation. At Topdanmark, we have many initiatives in the workplace that we believe will make a difference to the green transition. We have a particular focus on reducing business trips, as this is where we have our biggest emissions. This applies to both our flights and driving in company cars. 

But also in our claims handling, we look into finding solutions that support the green transition and especially the CO2 reduction. For example, we focus on less use-and-throw-away culture. In practice, this means that we would rather repair than replace cash for, for example, damaged IT equipment.




Facts

63,3 % of damaged IT-equipment was repaired instead of replaced in 2023.

Bottom-up approach to the green transition

In our own offices, it is also important that we put more focus on the green transition. Here, it is important to focus on all measures – large and small – that can help support sustainable everyday life.

Therefore, in 2023 our internal community for a green workplace – WorkGreener – worked intensively to create awareness of and initiatives for the green workplace. Among other things, WorkGreener held Topdanmark’s first ever Green Week, in 2023. During this week, the focus was on the smaller efforts and life hacks for the green transition. Green Week offered, among other things, Sustainable Bingo, daily waste quizzes and the launch of Topdanmark’s car-pooling system.




Health and wellbeing in everyday life

Well-being in everyday life is what our core business is all about; namely to ensure that we contribute to the security, safety and health of our customers. It is simply manifested in our Top Promise: We are here to help our customers and the society we are a part of. This also applies to the people who are not covered by our insurances and to our employees, who are an indispensable part of Topdanmark. The more people who avoid being affected by illness, stress or mental challenges, the better it is for both the individual, their workplace, Topdanmark as an insurance company and society in general. Therefore, well-being, health and prevention are essential for Topdanmark.

Glad kvinde med blæsende hår

Our focus on health and well-being also applies to our customers. We know that healthy and safe people have a greater degree of well-being in everyday life, and therefore we work specifically with health and well-being for our customers – both private customers, business customers (and their employees) and agricultural customers.

The app Sundhedshjælp is an important supplement to public health services. This is because Sundhedshjælp offers the opportunity to have a consultation with a doctor every day of the week – even at the weekend. This means that if you need to see a doctor quickly, for example if you have an allergic reaction, your children get a high fever or if you are stung by an insect during the summer holidays, you can be seen by a doctor quickly and safely online, instead of driving to the nearest clinic for reassurance. 




Results in 2023

  • 139,219
    Registered users of Sundhedshjælp

  • 17.719
    Consultations through the app Sundhedshjælp

  • 94 %
    Are ’satisfied’ or ’very satisfied’ with Sundhedshjælp

Well-being

At Topdanmark, we have a very special focus on the health and well-being of our employees. We have this because we know that it helps to raise employee satisfaction, which in turn helps to ensure less sick leave and that our employees stay longer with us.

At Topdanmark, we want to support general well-being for our employees. To ensure ongoing dialogue between employees and managers on well-being and job satisfaction, we conduct an engagement survey every six months and follow up with team talks in all respective teams. The team talk is a tool that provides the manager and team with an opportunity to look at the results of the group engagement survey in depth. Based on the replies, we plan which actions are needed in the immediate future. Moreover, when an engagement score places a team in the lowest third of the total group, they are obliged to conduct team talks with their respective HR business partner ensuring a focused effort on well-being in the specific team. Our engagement survey shows a continued high score of 81 points, which tells us that our employees thrive at the workplace both socially and professionally. In 2023, we saw a one percent decrease in the response rate, however, we still see a high level of responses at 95%, which shows us that our employees value and prioritise the engagement survey. Notably in 2023, we saw that the teams with the lowest score in the previous engagement survey have raised their scores by between 7 and 14 points. This shows us that the mandatory team talks with an HR business partner have a positive effect on the well-being in the teams.




Facts

81 out of 100 points in the engagement survey in 2023.

Responsible foundation

When we talk about Responsible foundation, we talk about Topdanmark as a business taking responsibility – both towards the employees and customers, but in particular also towards the society we are part of. 

Having a responsible foundation to build our business on is essential for Topdanmark. This also means that we make high demands on our suppliers and business partners. But it also means that we expect our customers to also act responsibly. A responsible foundation consists of several different elements. We must of course ensure a financially responsible business, but we must also ensure basic rights for both our employees, the customers and the people who work in our value chain.

Bil kørende på en landevej i solnedgang

At Topdanmark, our brand promise is we are here to help. When a customer needs help with an injury, we do it through a strong network of suppliers. Our relationship with our suppliers is therefore important, and our strong collaborations are based on dialogue and joint development of efforts as well as high requirements for ESG compliance. 




Results in 2023

  • 100 %
    Of suppliers in our ESG focus group was screened for ESG risks and compliance.

  • 39/61 w/m
    Across all management levels at Topdanmark.

  • 76 %
    Of new suppliers har implemented the Code of Conduct.

Higher demands for customers

For a long time, we have had an exclusion list of certain industries that we do not want to insure. The same principle applies to our investments. These industries include the production of coal, tar sands, tobacco and controversial weapons.

However, the majority of our customers are in the SME segment, and after our screening efforts, we found only minor incidents that broke with our principles for sustainability with our customers. However, none of these incidents could be characterised as adverse breaches of the UN Global Compact Principles, which include labor and human rights, as well as climate and environmental aspects.




Good governance

When we choose to screen both suppliers and customers for ESG risks, it is a deliberate choice to make demands to our business relations and the society we are part of in relation to sustainability. In addition to our screening processes in the value chain, we also have a special focus on ensuring that our own employees live up to our Code of Conduct. We ensure this by requiring all employees to complete and pass an online e-learning course in the same Code of Conduct every second year.




Facts

96 % of Topdanmark’s employees passed the mandatory e-learning in Code of Conduct, in 2023.

DEI&B

Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging is a field that is rapidly developing at Topdanmark. In 2023, we started the work in our internal community for diversity and inclusion, where 15 employees from the entire organisation work to set the strategic framework for Topdanmark's work with DEI&B – a framework that aligns with both the business and our employee culture.

Based on specifically the employee culture, the concept of belonging was therefore added to the otherwise traditional understanding of DE&I. The employee group act as the eyes and ears of all employees and compiles initiatives and ideas, qualifies them and present them for approval to the group executive management.




A more sustainable Topdanmark

Topdanmark wants to make a difference to customers, employees and society by actively partaking in the solution to societal problems - especially within climate, the environment, health and job satisfaction.

Read more about our sustainability efforts

Marie-Louise Krogh Bisgaard
Head of Sustainability
mobile 30 65 53 76
Marie Uldall Thomsen
Sustainability Consultant