The AXA Group has announced its integration into the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes, which select the top 10% most advanced companies in terms of sustainable development in the world.
“The AXA Group is proud to join the Dow Jones Sustainability STOXX and World
Indexes”, declared Henri de Castries, Chairman of the AXA Group’s Management Board. “This is in recognition of our commitment to sustainable development. For
AXA, the challenges linked to sustainable development are part and parcel of the practice of our Financial Protection business. This belief contributes to the definition of our corporate responsibility and to our desire to innovate to better serve our clients.â€
AXA was included in these indexes thanks to the quality of its risk management processes, the growth of sustainability-oriented insurance products, its customer relations management efforts, its brand strategy, the corporate philanthropy’s risk prevention and employee volunteering initiatives, the access to financial products and services for low-income populations (micro-finance and micro-insurance), its sustainable development procurement programme, and the roll-out of the Environmental Management System.
The Group’s final aggregate score (67/100) and its sub-component scores (economic, environmental, social) have increased sharply, while 90% of the various items scored reveal that AXA ranks above the sector’s average.
Investors and insurers play a key role in the search for responses to the most complex societal and environmental challenges, such as the climate risk or financial exclusion.
AXA joined the DJSI World, which features 318 sustainability leaders in 2007 out of a reference investment universe of 2.500 companies worldwide (Dow Jones Global Index); and the DJSI STOXX, featuring 156 companies out of the 600 companies-strong Dow Jones STOXX European reference universe. To date, 14 insurance Groups have been selected in the DJSI World in 2007, out of a total of 112 worldwide.
The analysis, which is adapted to the insurance sector’s industry specificities, focuses on sustainable development’s three main domains: economic, environmental and social dimensions.
AXA generally ranks above sectoral average and is also included in two other main ethical indexes, the FTSE4GOOD index and the ASPI Eurozone index.
AXA’s operations are diverse geographically, with major operations in Europe,
