Improve your environmental performance

Reduce environmental risk insurance costs

Guide

Being able to show that your business has sound environmental policies and procedures is essential if you want to get competitive insurance premiums.

What are environmental risks?

Some businesses have associated environmental risks - such as gradual environmental pollution, clean-up costs or product liability. These costs can be huge, eg if land has to be decontaminated.

From a business point of view, you may need insurance against such risks. See our guides on liability insurance and how to choose an insurance adviser and present your risk.

Insurers will want to assess the measures you have put in place to minimise the risks of an incident occurring. This may involve an audit of your premises to assess your approach to health, safety and the environment. A poor audit will result in increased premiums or may even prevent you from getting insurance cover.

On the other hand, if you can show that you take risk management seriously, you may be able to reduce your insurance premiums. One way to do this is to use a systematic approach to managing your environmental impacts. See our guide on environmental management systems (EMS) - the basics.