CSAA IG 2024 Impact Report_0725_Rev4 - Flipbook - Page 13
Planet
Our Impact
2024
From our CEO
People
Practice
Partnerships
CSAA is an active member of the
Business Council on Climate Change
(BC3), a multi-sector partnership
dedicated to incubating, scaling and
sharing world-leading solutions to
address climate change.
Additionally, as a sponsor of the
Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research
Center (WIRC) at San Jose State
University, CSAA supports high-impact
wildfire research. The WIRC does
modeling and predictive work that
helps forecast smoke impact, where
a fire is going to go and its behavior,
and the effects of weather and climate
change on these fires. It aims to build
higher-resolution prediction and risk
models that will be crucial for insurance
due to the growing frequency of large
wildfires and the volume of fire-and
smoke-damage claims.
CSAA is a proud member of the
Insurance Institute for Business &
Home Safety (IBHS), which conducts
objective, scientific research to
identify and promote effective
actions that strengthen homes,
BACK TO TOP
Planet
businesses and communities against
natural disasters and other causes
of loss. The IBHS Wildfire Prepared
Home™ is a wildfire mitigation
certification that allows homeowners
to achieve a designation showing
they have taken the science-based
actions required to meaningfully
reduce their home’s wildfire risk.
CSAA offers discounts for California
homeowners and communities that
meet certain criteria to encourage
them to decrease their fire risk, and
will not non-renew homeowners who
have achieved and maintain a Wildfire
Prepared Home designation.
In February 2023, CSAA led the effort
with Blue Forest Asset Management
to create the California Wildfire Innovation Fund, in which CSAA committed to invest $25M. In September
2024, this investment was matched
by the State of California’s Infrastructure Bank, bringing the fund total to
$50M. Similar to Blue Forest’s focus
with the Forest Resilience Bond — in
which CSAA had invested $5M since
2018 — the intention is to attract and
apply these investment dollars for
forest restoration, woody biomass
utilization and wildfire mitigation. This
is expected to help accelerate the
pace and scale of ecological restoration in Northern California. Part of
our investment has been committed
to impactful projects like Heartwood
Biomass and Tahoe Forest Products,
which are helping reduce wildfire risk,
and thereby carbon emissions, while
creating job opportunities in rural
communities. The fund is an important
step toward addressing ongoing
forest management in the state and
will help protect our customers
and communities from wildfire while
supporting local economies.
In 2024, we also continued to grow
our Green Repair Network (launched
in 2021) of auto repair facilities that
are committed to reducing their
impact on the environment. This
elite group of independent auto
repair facilities are dedicated to
reducing their overall impact on the
environment to help improve the
health and safety of their customers,
communities and employees. Program
requirements include strict standards
around emissions, pollutants, water
and electricity usage, and the disposal
of hazardous waste.
Last, we work to identify sponsorship
opportunities, such as GreenBiz,
the largest national corporate
sustainability conference.
Recycling and repurposing
Our eWaste program manages the
harmful effects of electronics no
longer needed by the company.
For proper eWaste disposal, we engage
a vendor, resulting in very little going
to landfill.
Additionally, to help offset emissions
produced in laptop manufacturing,
we have extended the in-use cycle
of our laptops from 36 months to
48 months (on average). We continue
to repurpose and donate furniture
systems and equipment as we reduce
our footprint and relocate facilities.
