Investing in Local Communities

Zurich Insurance Group is a company serving its customers in more than 215 countries and territories not only by providing insurance services but also working with local communities to tackle local problems and contribute to local initiatives. Here in Krakow, the Zurich BSC supports tree planting initiatives in an effort to make the city greener and take care of vulnerable citizens by funding the development of the Women's Rights Centre.

The Z Zurich Foundation, established by various members of the Zurich Insurance Group, aims to support a fairer, more open, and sustainable society by empowering vulnerable people within its communities to better protect themselves from risk, and to adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing world. It focuses its efforts on three relevant topics of today's societal challenges: adapting to climate change, improving mental well-being, and enabling social equity, by funding grant programs in collaboration with Zurich's business units and charities worldwide and by developing Zurich employee engagement initiatives. As of today, it supports about 30 local grant programs worldwide. The Z Zurich Foundation also funds the ‘Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance,’ a multi-sector cooperation, which focuses on finding practical ways to help communities strengthen their resilience to flood risk.

Volunteers from the Zurich Kraków office, established in 2016, support various local initiatives and social communities with the support of the Z Zurich Foundation.

One of our main community initiatives is the local grant program running in collaboration with the Z Zurich Foundation and Fundacja Centrum Prow Kobiet. With this five-year grant, we are taking a stand for women in need and are supporting the establishment of a new local Women’s Rights Center in Krakow. This center aims to empower women (and their children) who are victims of domestic violence by providing counseling, mental health services, and legal, life, and career advice. One aspect of the cooperation will be on establishing the basis of a sustainable funding model for the center into the future. We are sure you will hear about this initiative in the future and that it will change the lives of many women in Poland.

In addition, we work together with Siódmy Zmysl Foundation, which helps people with impaired vision to enjoy life, and we support events like ‘Kocham Kraków z wzajemnoscia’ dedicated to disabled people, where our employees participate in running competitions and tandem bicycles races.

But that’s not all! Have you ever thought about what sustainability means? For us, it’s workforce in transition, confidence in digital society, and changing climate. Protecting the environment not only at home but also at work is one of our priorities. As we spend a third of our day at work, we think it is key to focus on how the used resources affect our environment.

Zurich Insurance Group has set the goals to eliminate single-use plastic items and reduce internal paper use by 80 percent in all its offices around the world. By the end of 2022, we aim to use 100 percent renewable power in all Zurich offices.

In Krakow, our Go Green team unites employees who actively support environmental initiatives. In the last three years, we planted nearly 100 trees and shrubs around our office in Kraków. This helps us contribute to transforming Kraków into a greener place, and that’s just the beginning.

The Zurich sports club from the Kraków office is also involved in protecting the environment and encouraging employees to be active to improve their mental well-being. Each year, with support from the Z Zurich Foundation, we organize the Summer Cycling Challenge – a competition that spans over the four summer months and aims at promoting cycling to work. This is part of our annual initiative ‘Rowerem do Pracy,’ and last year, instead of using private or public transport, our employees cycled over 33,000 km in total! This, in turn, helped us save 7.5 tons of CO2 emissions.

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