After years working in municipal finance and risk, I have seen how integral the impact of sustainability efforts is to business and our communities. Applying this strategy and insights is my key responsibility as Protective’s Vice President of Sustainability.
What I’ve learned throughout my career is that sustainability isn’t just a feel-good initiative — it’s fundamental for any organization.
Through Protective’s work with our cross-functional Sustainability Task Force, we strategically integrate sustainability programs throughout our organization, pushing us to aspire for better with our business, our people and in the way we engage with our communities.
As a financial services and life insurance company, policyholder protection is our top priority, and we believe considering environmental and social issues is an important part of prudent risk management. At the end of the day, making sustainable choices is smart for business, and it’s the right thing to do.
Protective’s sustainability journey
Protective has been around for over 116 years – we are inherently a sustainable organization. We’ve been through depressions, recessions, world wars and pandemics, and have continued living out our mission since 1907.
As the world has changed, we have adapted as a company, and we continue to look for innovative ways to show up for our customers and in our communities.
Protective’s purpose is people-focused at its core: helping people attain protection in their lives. Because of this, our approach to sustainability is naturally people-centric. We consider the social element in much of what we do, through our work designed to improve customer experience, to enhancing employee engagement and looking for new and meaningful ways to support our communities.
Additionally, as a company, we have prioritized choices that benefit the environment by not only decreasing power consumption in our facilities but by improving local green spaces. We understand the critical role outdoor recreation and green spaces plays in supporting the mental and physical health of our communities and in attracting a skilled workforce to our core sites, and the Protective Life Foundation is dedicated to finding new ways to make an impact.
We are watching the business community mature its approach to sustainability and will continue to refine the way we talk about sustainability as we formalize our efforts.
Our Sustainability Task Force meets regularly to evaluate our progress in different initiatives throughout the organization, with focus areas including:
- Supporting our team through DE&I initiatives
- Building better customer interactions
- Exploring sustainable investing opportunities
- Finding ways to make our facilities more energy-efficient
- Prioritizing supplier diversity
- Leveraging our innovation team to discover what’s next
As we lay the groundwork for developing and tracking more robust metrics, we are excited about better understanding our footprint and considering ways to operate more sustainably.
Making your mark
We each have the responsibility to be good stewards of the places where we live, work and enjoy for future generations. No matter what your role is, aspire to leave your surroundings better than you found them. Small changes like reducing waste or recycling, leveraging available technology tools to better serve your customers, prioritizing DE&I efforts with your team members and giving back to your community are easy to do and make a big impact.
Together, we can make sustainable choices to benefit our communities and the environment, and to do our part to ensure Protective is serving its customers for another century. For more information about our sustainability efforts, please check out our 2022 Sustainability Report.
Coby Kutcher is Vice President, Sustainability at Protective. Learn more about Protective’s sustainability journey in the 2022 Sustainability Report.
