Thank you for providing me with the opportunity to give a few short insights on Storebrand’s views on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and our CSR activities. I also acknowledge the Foreign Department‘s initiative to highlight the social dimensions of globalisation by arranging this seminar.

Storebrand is a leading player in the Scandinavian life and health insurance, banking and investment management markets. Following the transfer of the group's non-life insurance activities to the Nordic company If, Storebrand’s activities are concentrated on the provision of investment savings, personal insurance products and related financial advice.

Storebrand is committed to meeting its responsibilities to its customers, as well as society as a whole. This objective is based on both ethical and commercial considerations.

Our commitment to CSR is also a very important factor in increasing the value of one of our most important assets - that is, our employees. One of Storebrand’s goals is to attract, retain, and develop the most motivated and competent employees. Not only is our CSR program a drawing card for attracting the best employees to join us at Storebrand, but it also helps to retain them.

We developed our first environmental plan in 1995. And, we were in fact one of the first insurers in the world to do so. The results of our emphasis on environmental issues have provided us with both new business opportunities and a positive corporate image not only in Norway, but internationally as well.

Over time, our environmental focus has developed to a broader commitment to the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility. This expansion has been the result of the increased public attention on corporate responsibility and business ethics, our customers’ higher awareness and expectations, and increases in our understanding of our corporate responsibilities.

We see the outline of a new international trend among leading companies in the sector in increased corporate social responsibility. However, while the underlying themes are not, in themselves, new topics, the challenge is that corporate social responsibility is now much more directly related to corporate commercial decision-making.

During the past thirty years, we have unfortunately witnessed accidents that have not only had serious environmental consequences, but have had damaging reputation affects on the corporations involved (for example, Exxon, Shell, and Union Carbide to name a few).

Therefore, while corporate strategy and decision-making should, obviously, encompass commercial considerations, a company's effect on society and the physical environment must also be taken into account. This, in turn, has implications on a corporation’s corporate identity- including a company's environmental, ethical and social profiles, as well as its commercial standing - or what is referred to as "license to operate." These combined factors will influence a company's future prospects in a global market. Companies which maintain their licenses to operate - that is, they are good corporate citizens will reap opportunities, whereas companies which abuse those licenses may be excluded from opportunities.

Why Corporate Social Responsibility?

Our commitment to corporate social responsibility is based upon a long-term commercial strategy. That is, we believe that conducting our activities in a proper and correct manner will also be profitable in the long term. As a working guideline, we have developed a 10-point action plan, based upon one or more of the following points:

In our ten-point action plan, we have identified areas in which we can reduce our environmental impacts or contribute to social improvement. We also have sought to establish targets, which are specific as possible, given the changes in Storebrand’s activities.

All of our CSR work embraces the Triple Bottom Line concept - that is, in addition to traditional financial bottom line, one also accounts for environmental and social bottom lines.

We enter into dialogue with our stakeholders (customers, non-governmental organizations, government agencies, etc.) about our CSR program.

We use our Compass Internal Management System, based on the Balanced Scorecard concept, to monitor our progress relative to targets. And, we will report results.

Finally, our goal is to achieve continual improvement. The progress is in itself important.

Action Plan

Storebrand's action plan for the 2000 to 2002 period comprises ten areas of activity that we believe are crucial to our corporate social responsibility commitment.

As a financial service provider, Storebrand's direct, day-to-day activities do not have major environmental impacts. However, we do have corporate responsibilities and a role in contributing to sustainable development through our products and services, or more specifically in the investments, which we make on behalf of our customers. As a consequence, we have chosen to focus our activities on this area.

The activities in our Action Plan 2000-2002 are split into three separate activities.

As you can see (on this slide), our plan is very comprehensive - it is comprehensive by design. Therefore, I’ll describe what I feel to be the two most important and relevant areas of the action plan. These are the first objective (Environmental & social criteria for investment management) and the last objective (International co-operation).

Objective 1 Environmental and social criteria for investment management

Environmental and social criteria for investment management may be our most important activity.

Storebrand has been a leading pioneer in that area through the Storebrand Principle Global Fund, which was first launched in 1996 as the Storebrand Environmental Value Fund. In 2000, we expanded our SRI family by introducing three new SRI funds. We also offer discretionary investment management services, which apply the same SRI criteria. Our SRI customer base is truly global - it range from Norway to New Zealand.

As shown on the slide, the Storebrand Principle Global Fund has given a yield the same as, (or over) the world’s index since 1996.

On the basis of our positive experience with the Storebrand Principal Fund, and the increased role in which environmental, social and ethical criteria play in the financial industry, we established SRI criteria for our investment management activities and the management of the life insurance company's investment portfolio.

However, SRI investing is not as straightforward as it may seem. It is an area that has many perplexities. One can find good grounds both for and against.

The reasons not to do this are:

• Criteria can controversial (this is especially problematic when making investment decisions on behalf of others)
• Insufficient and non comparable data exist
• Risk of lower returns
• We are not missionaries

But there are also important reasons for doing so. These include:

• It is better to try than it is to do nothing
• Natural extension of CSR
• Many clients say they want it
• Not necessary to sacrifice to investment performance
• Marketing possibilities

Our conclusion was and still is that the reasons for using SRI far outweigh the arguments against it.

Many of the major environmental and social challenges that we face today are global in nature and as a consequence, it is essential that they receive international attention and co-operation. Storebrand has been actively involved with international issues since 1995 through its involvement in UNEP and the WBCSD. These activities are included in Objective 10 (International Cooperation) in our action plan.

The United Nations Environment Program:

Storebrand was one of the companies involved in the establishment of United Nations Environment Program Insurance Initiative in 1995. And, I am happy to note that Carlos Joly, who heads our international operations, will assume the chairmanship of that initiative in 2001.

We have contributed to the formulation of the UN insurance industry's environmental declaration. More than 80 insurance companies have now signed that declaration. Furthermore, Storebrand has actively participated in UNEP projects, such as those addressing climate issues and the standardisation of environmental data. Storebrand also actively participates in the United Nations Environment Program Financial Services Initiative.

In addition to our UNEP participation, Storebrand is a member of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). (Norway is represented companies like Norsk Hydro, Statoil, Det Norske Veritas and Norske Skog, as well as by Storebrand.)

Our participation in WBCSD helps to create a worthwhile and important network of contacts among major international companies with a proactive interest in environmental and social issues. We try playing an active role in the WBCSD working group on Corporate Social Responsibility. Equally important, we wish to communicate our experiences to other Norwegian companies and organisations.

I hope that my presentation has provided you with an overview as to why we at Storebrand believe in CSR and how CSR is incorporated into Storebrand’s activities.

I genuinely believe that Storebrand is addressing its corporate social responsibilities and we are committed to continue to do so in the future.

They say that the proof of the pudding is in the eating. And, the "chef" might not be the most objective person to ask. Therefore, I am happy to report that several of our competitors, who are also foremost SRI rating agencies and asset managers, have given their stamps of approval on Storebrand’s CSR activities.

Thank you very much for your attention!

If you would like more information, please don’t hesitate to contact us!