Environmental insurance and ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems – analysis of the willingness to implement systemic solutions relevant to insurance

Abstract

The first purpose of the research was to assess the dependence between the organisational decision-makers willingness to implement systemic solutions relevant to insurance (RSSs) and the attributes (systemic, awareness-related and organisational) of an organisation managed in accordance with ISO 14001. Another purpose was to identify the motivators that drive entities to implement additional system elements.Earlier studies suggest that the structures of currently implemented ISO 14001 EMSs should be modified in order to increase their utility for the process of insurance provision. The research problem was solved based on data obtained through an online survey among organisations implementing and certified ISO 14001 EMSs in Poland. Depending on the type of variables, the independence chi-square test, U-Mann-Whitney test, and the test of Spearman’s rank correlation, among others, were used for analysis. The results of the study may help build integrated environmental risk management tools. They indicate the legitimacy of using non-insurance motivators (e.g. reduction of environmental fees) to achieve the desired EMS structure in the organisation from the insurers' point of view. At the same time, they emphasise the need to build environmental risk awareness (including, among other things, the risk of liability for environmental damage and its severity) to achieve the above.