By Lena Babaeva Coradini

Good headline for sustainability: "Insurance Companies Find There Is Money to Be Made in Green Technology."

Increasingly, insurers are stepping in to bridge the gap between green intentions and actual capital outlays on green technology.

They are backstopping warranties on solar panels, helping start-up companies with short track records offer multidecade guarantees on their products and win over skeptical customers and project financiers. They are studying weather patterns to offer protection in the event of, say, unusually weak winds that fail to spin turbines, or a volcanic ash cloud from Iceland that diminishes the output of a solar energy facility in Spain.

They are advising companies on how best to incorporate renewable energy systems into their factory operations and offering property insurance that will pay not just to rebuild a structure in the event of a loss like fire but reconstruct it in a more environmentally friendly and energy-efficient way.

They are even offering coverage to carbon traders. So, if you are a European utility engaged in an emissions offset program in China and a devastating earthquake damages your partner power plant in Sichuan, you have some peace of mind. 

What I found curious in the article is the line: “Cynics might say that insurers are just the latest industry to see green — i.e., money — in the green movement.”  I find it peculiar because the line sounds as if insurance companies’ seeing money in the renewable energy field is a negative thing.  I think the fact that insurance companies are seeing the financial benefit in advising clients with respect to renewable energy is very positive news for the sustainability movement in general!  The financial viability of the movement is perhaps the most important driver that will allow sustainability initiatives and movements to gain a foothold in today’s world.