Get peace-of-mind knowing you’re insured by an ethical provider

We all have a choice as to who we bank with, get or insurance cover from or where we invest our money. However, these choices are not always informed by green or ethical considerations, as many financial products such as insurance policies tend not to be viewed in the same light as other consumer products.

But the very same principles that might make you buy organic food or recycle your household waste - principles based on caring about other people and the environment - can be just as relevant when it comes to where you get your insurance from.

If you’re looking for insurance for your home, holiday, car, bike, pet or even for your business, a quick search online reveals that there are a bewildering array of different product available from a large number of different insurance companies.

These companies supply insurance services to a wide variety of customers, from everyday consumers to large corporations. But do they have guidelines or policies as to who they will and won't insure? Do green and ethical considerations feature in insurance companies' risk assessments? Might they, for example, offer coverage to munitions factories or companies with significant operations in countries with oppressive regimes? Or might they insure others with poor labour or environmental records?

http://www.yourethicalmoney.org/ provides answers to these and other questions relating to green and ethical finance. You can use the website to search for your existing, or intended, insurance provider to see how it measures up against a set of specially-developed green and ethical criteria. If you aren’t happy with what you find, you can also search for an alternative which more closely matches your green and ethical concerns.

The good news is that for home, motor, travel, life and health insurance, there is a small but growing number of green and ethical products available such as insurance products which offset carbon emissions associated with holiday travel, or discounted insurance for greener cars.

So next time you’re looking for insurance, take a moment to consider the questions you should be asking of your current or prospective insurance provider. It’s not difficult to give your insurance policies a green and ethical makeover and you don't have to tackle everything at once.

In the same way that you might drink Fair Trade coffee some of the time, by choosing even one green insurance product, you are proving that doing something is better than doing nothing.

Mark Robertson