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Sustainability is becoming more and more important to Germans. This also applies in part to financial and insurance products. That was the result of a Yougov survey commissioned by Ergo.
The Germans are attaching increasing importance to sustainability, also when it comes to financial and insurance products. However, they are currently still underestimating the industry’s contribution to sustainable development. But if you want to change insurance provider as a customer, you pay more attention to sustainability. These are the main results of an online survey carried out by Yougov on behalf of Ergo.
For the vast majority of respondents, sustainability is rather or very important (82 percent). In the various aspects of sustainability, environmental and climate protection come first (48 percent). And the importance of sustainability is increasing, because today it is more important for 58 percent of those surveyed than in 2017.
The answers to the question of responsibility for implementing sustainability are revealing. 53 percent of those questioned see it in business and 51 percent in politics. On the other hand, only 34 percent attribute major political events such as the World Climate Conference to be able to provide important impetus for sustainability.
62 percent also try to live sustainably themselves
However, a clear majority clearly see the responsibility for sustainability with each individual (73 percent). After all, 62 percent of those surveyed also try to live sustainably themselves. For them, the most important starting point is consumption (77 percent), for example by refraining from consuming, buying sustainable products or recycling. The living aspect comes in second place (60 percent) and includes, for example, saving heating costs, installing solar panels or energy-efficient renovation. In the general selection of products and providers, 55 percent therefore pay attention to sustainability as one of several criteria. And for nine percent of those surveyed, sustainability is even the most important criterion.
Of the people who try to live sustainably, only 13 percent say that they also aim for the same in finance and insurance.
Younger people place more value on sustainable behavior
A sustainable orientation of the insurer is one of several selection criteria when choosing an insurance. There are visible differences in the age of the respondents: It is more important to younger people (18 to 24 year olds) than older people (over 55 year olds).
The respondents most frequently name the price-performance ratio when they decide to take out insurance (78 percent). The household income of the respondents does not play a major role in this vote – but their belonging to an age group does: 56 percent of the 18- to 24-year-olds pay attention to the price-performance ratio, among those over 55-year-olds it is 86 percent significantly more.
Sustainability is becoming more important for the assessment of insurers
If the question focuses on sustainability and its importance for the selection of a new insurer, the agreement rises: 45 percent of Germans then consider it important that the company operates sustainably. When asked what exactly they mean by this, 45 percent said that good corporate governance is important, for example a code of conduct for employees or responsible handling of customer data. This is followed by sustainable products and services (31 percent), social commitment (27 percent), environmentally friendly business operations (26 percent) and sustainable capital investments (21 percent).
