Embedding sustainability in everything we do: reducing our travel-related emissions

Implementing clear guidelines for sustainable operations

Today, Allianz Trade is making solid progress toward our near-term target of reducing operational carbon emissions by 65% by 2030, compared to a 2019 baseline. A key portion of these emissions comes from business travel – which is why, in 2025, we strengthened our travel policy framework covering all travel by air, train and car. The updated policy was designed to ensure that our people travel only when it adds real value, and then choose the lowest-impact option that meets their needs. It is coupled with regular check-ins between our Global Sustainability Office (GSO), Group Operations and our regional teams, and open dialogue to ensure the policy is aligned with both our business and sustainability targets.

Air travel represents the bulk of these emissions. To curb them, we have implemented an annual carbon budget framework with specific amounts allocated to regions and functions considering their unique constraints.. Alongside this, we encourage employees to swap planes for trains where operationally feasible. In continental Europe, a dense passenger rail network makes this possible, but that’s not the case in every region where we operate.

We monitor air travel carbon budgets on a monthly basis, enabling regions and functions to plan their trips over the year while continuously checking that they’re aligned with their annual allocation. Allianz Trade also supports Allianz Group initiatives such as Sustainable Aviation Fuel purchases to help address residual air travel emissions.

For car travel, we’re building a green fleet of electric vehicles (EVs) across France, Germany, the UK, Italy, Poland, Romania and the US. These are our seven largest locations, which together represent 76% of all Allianz Trade employees. In 2024, 6% of company-owned cars in these locations were EVs. Today, it’s 12.8%. It’s a gradual transition as we wait for leases to expire and navigate infrastructure constraints. But by working closely with the local teams to develop action plans that work for them, we’re well on our way to reaching our target of a 100% green fleet by 2030 in these locations.

Turning policy into behavior

While our travel policy was defined at Group level, we empower our regional teams to take ownership of their carbon footprint – for example, by tracking and planning their travel through a proprietary tool called AirTrack. We also encourage employees to only book travel for people whose attendance in a meeting is critical, use remote-working technology like video calls whenever possible (while respecting all attendees’ time zones), and consolidate trips rather than returning to the same location several times within a short timeframe. Overall, our goal is to limit non-essential travel for internal meetings.

The GSO makes sure that our total carbon budget is aligned with the Group’s emissions reduction target. We monitor air travel emissions on a monthly basis through the AirTrack tool and hold quarterly meetings with regional management to discuss their progress and any challenges they may be facing so that we can find a solution together. Understanding local nuances is important: we know, for instance, that it’s much easier for our teams in the UK or France to swap planes for trains than for their US-based colleagues.

The same goes for our green-fleet transition. Asking individuals to use EVs is a good start, but if the charging infrastructure isn’t there or the type of car needed isn’t available in the country, we’re just adding roadblocks. Employees who spend a lot of time on the road need charging tools at home, but in some locations, we can’t provide them as an employer because of regulatory or taxation issues. So we carefully monitor the legislation of each country and talk to local management to understand what’s possible. In parallel, we encourage top management to switch to EVs – they may be driving fewer kilometers than their teams, but it’s important that they lead by example. The support and encouragement of senior leaders, and the example they set, make a positive impact on all employees embracing these initiatives.

Crucially, we ask local management to take an active part in driving change. Northern Europe is an example of a region where this approach has delivered tangible results. Our colleagues there have rolled out their own sustainable travel policy aligned with the Group policy. Air travel is tightly governed, with validation by managers or the regional CEO where relevant. They regularly track their own CO₂ emissions from air and rail travel and adjust behaviors as needed. To help empower everyone to make sustainable choices, a local ESG squad present in each country is responsible for driving initiatives and awareness around sustainability – such as organizing EV car testing. To date, this region has seen a 32% reduction in CO₂ emissions per employee from air and rail travel, with some sub regions achieving even higher year on year reductions. The region also has a clear roadmap is in place toward 100% electric vehicles by 2030, with a growing share of its fleet already electric or hybrid.

Celebrating emissions-reduction success

Acknowledging employees’ success is fundamental to driving change. We make sure to regularly update local heads of HR, Operations and Finance on how individual teams are progressing and ask them to congratulate those who are making the extra effort. Last year, we were thrilled to see several regions make impressive strides and surpass their targets. In France, a local environmental component has been introduced into the employee profit‑sharing scheme to incentivize carbon reduction. I’d say it helps – our team in France reached 200% of their emissions-reduction targets in 2025.

Today, we’re seeing a genuine willingness amongst our employees across the globe to prioritize sustainability. It’s been really interesting to help our people build action plans and watch them take these on board. We’re receiving more and more feedback from excited employees who have successfully adapted their ways of working, and I believe that together, we can reach our targets.