Sustainability Risk Management

• Author: Dan R. Anderson,Kenneth E. Anderson
• Published date: 01 March 2009
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6296.2009.01152.x
• Date: 01 March 2009

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Risk Management and Insurance Review, 2009, Vol.12, No. 1, 25-38

SUSTAINABILITY RISK MANAGEMENT

Dan R. Anderson

Kenneth E. Anderson

This article features a panel discussion on sustainability risk management organized

by Dan R. Anderson for the American Risk and Insurance Association 2007 annual

meeting. The moderator, Mr. Dan Anderson, is the Leslie P. Schulz Professor of Risk

Management and Insurance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business

and author of Corporate Survival: The Critical Importance of Sustainability Risk Management.

Anderson is a past president of the American Risk and Insurance Association (ARIA) and

the 2007 winner of the Geneva Association/International Insurance Society Research

Award, including a $10,000 stipend, for his paper, “Sustainability Risk Management

as a Critical Component of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM): Global Warming—

Climate Change Risks.” He also was recently presented with the Risk Innovator Award

by Risk and Insurance magazine for his work in sustainability risk management. The

next panelist is Kenneth E. Anderson, Director of Aon’s Environmental Services Group.

Mr. Kenn Anderson is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin’s Risk and Insurance

Management program and has spent the last 20 years advising organizations about

their exposure to environmental risk and designing, negotiating and implementing

appropriate environmental insurance programs to meet specific client needs. He will

emphasize business opportunities associated with sustainability risk management and

the availability of insurance coverage for sustainability risks.

Dan R. Anderson: Sustainability risk is a newly emerging risk area and, I believe, one

of the critical risk areas of the 21st century. During this discussion I will introduce

the general area of sustainability risk management and talk about the identification/

assessment function.

I have been thinking about sustainability risks probably for my entire career, but es-

pecially during the last 10 years. Sustainability risk management is concerned with

environmental and social responsibility risks. That is, corporations are being pressured

to address their environmental and social responsibility performance, in addition to the

traditional bottom line. I have long tried to make a business argument for companies

to become more sustainable by using risk management principles. There are several

Dan R. Anderson is the Leslie P.Schulz Professor of Risk Management and Insurance, School of

Business, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 975 University Avenue, Madison, WI 53706; phone:

608-263-5717; fax: 608-265-4195; e-mail: danderson@bus.wisc.edu. Kenneth E. Anderson, Director

of Aon’s Environmental Services Group;phone: 312-381-4226; e-mail: Kenn.Anderson@Aon.com.

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