Ageas Carbon Offsetting programme makes an impact on the environment
2020 saw the launch of a first carbon offsetting campaign in the UK, and the results were impressive. Some 1,882 tonnes of CO2 were offset in barely 4 months. Difficult to imagine? Just think of the weight of 300 elephants!
The Ageas Free Carbon Offsetting campaign, exclusively aimed at Ageas UK customers, ran during autumn 2020. For every customer that bought new Motor policies under this offer, via insurance aggregator Confused.com, Ageas paid to Carbon Offset 7,500 miles of car travel emissions for free.
At the same time as helping customers to become little more aware of how actions can lead to a positive impact on the planet, the campaign has taught us a lot along the way that we can build into future initiatives. Perhaps one of the most important conclusions was that customers clearly want to do the right thing for the planet.
The emissions were offset through our partner ClimateCare and the sustainable development projects they work with, such as BURN stoves in Kenya:
The BURN stoves projects
80% of Kenya’s primary household energy comes from solid fuel. The majority of this is burnt on smoky open fires and inefficient cookstoves, leading to indoor air pollution, causing respiratory disease, and contributing to global climate change. Sadly, more than 4,900 children in Kenya are dying every year because of acute lower respiratory infections caused by the smoke from the use of solid fuels. The Burn Jikokoa™ Stove dramatically reduces toxic smoke exposure in the home, saving lives, reducing household expenses, and cutting CO2 emissions.
Not only has this offer had a positive environmental impact in supporting projects like BURN stoves, it also highlighted the fact that a Carbon Offsetting offer appeals to consumers. Here is what some of them had to say:
“It is a quick and easy way to protect the environment for my grandchildren and future generations.”
“My wife and I are very concerned about the damage to our planet that we all are responsible for, therefore we both think that carbon offsetting is a great idea and support your efforts 100%. Keep it up.”
As these types of environmental projects are important to our customers and important to Ageas, several initiatives have been taken within the Group to measure and reduce our CO2 emission (click here for more info). Call it collective responsibility.
It is the reason Ageas UK also launched its award-winning Green parts initiative in 2019, using perfectly safe, but less costly, recycled car parts to repair cars instead of condemning them to the scrap heap. We expanded this programme further in 2020 proving that repair vs replace as an option is appealing to customers while being environmentally friendly.