Aviva - The UK’s leading Insurance, Wealth & Retirement business stands out not only for its innovative approach to risk management but also for its commitment to ethical business practices – shown by their proactive engagement with the Good Business Charter.
We spoke to Simone Wyatt, Sustainable Business and Social Impact Manager at Aviva PLC to learn about their Good Business Charter story.
Aviva was approached three years ago to join the scheme whilst it was still emerging and became one of their early adopters. For Aviva the Good Business Charter’s ten key components aligned with what they were already doing.
Simone highlighted that Aviva’s four strategic priorities – customer, growth, efficiency and sustainability –, “are all about being sustainable as a business and that is a clear strategic alignment with the Charter’s responsible business obligations.”
That’s why Simone recalls the accreditation journey not being “a difficult undertaking”, and, having a third party assess their measures independently has proven valuable to the company.
The Good Business Charter acts as great validation of the work that we are doing – Aviva strives to lead the UK Financial Services sector on sustainability, and whilst we’ve got various internal measures of how well we’re doing, it’s really important for us to have an independent external party assess that.”
From a commercial perspective, Simone mentions that the accreditation has proven valuable when Aviva’s clients ask about our credentials and has even delivered new business opportunities. Having the Good Business Charter seal of approval has become “a powerful and differentiating selling point”.
Simone also highlighted the importance of the annual recertification for Aviva as the process requires businesses to show that they are still meeting the components and providing evidence – she said, “because it makes us reflect on the things that we've done across the year and find relevant examples which is helpful even just for our own understanding of how we are maintaining responsible business practice.”
Nevertheless, there was one element on which Aviva has had to work on: awareness. The growing engagement between the Good Business Charter and Aviva meant that the company began spreading the word about the accreditation on their online platforms. Events such as The Good Business Week provide valuable context for Aviva to “promote initiatives that have been in place long before we became accredited but that are seamlessly aligned with the Charter’s principles”.