BC companies offer home insurance policy to reduce carbon footprint
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Two Canadian businesses, Offsetters and Optimum West Insurance Company, have teamed up to bring a new home insurance policy into the British Columbia marketplace: The policy, called the Optimum Green-Home Extension is designed to offset a household’s annual greenhouse gas emissions and help policy holders achieve a carbon neutral home. Jeremy Green, the Regional VP for Optimum West Insurance tells ILSTV why they chose to partner with Offsetters.
Jeremy Green: We chose Offsetters because they are pretty much the premiere name in Canada for managing carbon emission offsets. They did carbon offsets for the winter Olympics. They also manage it for the Aeroplan program and locally for Harbour Air. Their reputation and their ability to manage offsets is unsurpassed in Canada so we picked them.
Narrator: The policy will be available through insurance brokers who offer Optimum West Insurance, who recently earned the title of Climate Friendly Company by Offsetters by completing a greenhouse gas emissions footprint and offsetting key emissions activities. Jeremy explains more about the policy.
Jeremy Green: We wanted to be able to offer our insurance brokers the same ability to provide to their clients the option of becoming carbon neutral in their homes. As far as we know there is no other insurance product in Canada that allows you to turn your home carbon neutral. So we partnered with Offsetters and we now offer the Green-Home Endorsement. The Green Home Endorsement is basically a bundled package: Number one, it’s designed to reduce the carbon footprint of the policy holder. And number two we have the extra extension of coverage up to $10,000 that will allow the insured to replace items in their home with a higher environmental standard should there be a claim and should that property need to be replaced.
That bundled package was just launched on March 1. I’ve personally added the endorsement onto my own policy, which I thought was important, and we’ll see how this goes. It’s very early on.
Narrator: And when it comes to price, that depends on several factors.
Jeremy Green: Basically it depends on your dwelling type and the kind of heating system in your home. But in general terms if you live in an apartment or a condo you might wind up paying roughly sixty to seventy dollars per year for both the carbon offset and for the $10,000 extension. If you live in a townhouse, maybe 1000 square feet, you could be paying around seventy-five to eighty dollars. But if you live in a house, let’s say 1500 square feet, you could be paying maybe $140.00 to $150.00. Again, those are averages and if yo u do have a high efficiency furnace over ninety-five percent, or solar heating, or a heat pump, or a number of different environmental upgrades in your home, that will reduce the cost. So there is incentive for insureds who purchase this to further improve their house because it will reduce the cost of the carbon offset.
Learn more about Offsetters by clicking here.
This story originally ran in May 2011.
