“On Aon” is a new podcast featuring conversations between colleagues about current happenings and key topics at Aon. Our first episode features host Maria Harshbarger and Aon’s Global Head of Public Policy Bridget Gainer as they delve into Aon’s ambitious 2030 climate commitment. As a leader in the risk industry, Aon is committed to addressing climate risks now. Maria and Bridget examine the increasing importance of focusing on climate change in today’s environment and what it will take for Aon to reach the ambitious goal of being Net-Zero by 2030.
“On Aon” is a new podcast featuring conversations between colleagues about current happenings and key topics at Aon. Our first episode features host Maria Harshbarger and Aon’s Global Head of Public Policy Bridget Gainer as they delve into Aon’s ambitious 2030 climate commitment. As a leader in the risk industry, Aon is committed to addressing climate risks now. Maria and Bridget examine the increasing importance of focusing on climate change in today’s environment and what it will take for Aon to reach the ambitious goal of being Net-Zero by 2030.
Additional Resources:
More on Aon’s Work, Travel, Convene coalitions
Global Special Report: Helping Organizations Chart a Course to The New Better
More on Aon’s Apprenticeship Program
Tweetables:
“We’re incorporating more ideas and more perspectives in a way that builds our relationships with each other and potentially helps us solve big problems.” — Bridget Gainer
“This is an opportunity for clients to tap into Aon’s innovation across the board.” — Bridget Gainer
“We are able to lead by example across the country to show what is possible when you are willing to open your mind and change your habits.” — Bridget Gainer
Transcription:
Voiceover:
Welcome to On Aon, a podcast featuring conversations between colleagues on well, Aon. This week we hear from Bridget Gainer talking about Aon's ambitious climate commitment. And now this week's host, Maria Harshbarger.
Maria Harshbarger:
Hello everyone, my name is Maria Harshbarger and I'm excited to be your host for today's podcast. I'm here with Bridget Gainer, our global head of public policy, and we are going to have a conversation about Aon's 2030 climate commitment. Welcome, Bridget.
Bridget Gainer:
Thank you, Maria. So great to be here with you.
Maria Harshbarger:
So Bridget, it's great to have you, and of course, climate and weather are different, but if you'll forgive a force pun, tell us Bridget, what's your personal weather forecast for today?
Bridget Gainer:
Well, it's a little bit cloudy here, but I just got great news. My son down at college has got vaccinated. So for me, it's all sunny and 70. So, feeling great about that regardless of what's outside.
Maria Harshbarger:
So, I've been at Aon for 18 years and we've known each other for quite some time, and I've seen us tackle many risks. Climate change is happening and has been here for a while. So why are we focusing on it now?
Bridget Gainer:
I think that climate is one of those things that not only has been brought to the front of our attention by the pandemic, meaning, hey, bad things really can happen. Serious risks can really have import and impact on the way that we live our lives, even if we think the chances of them are remote. So I think it's made people take the climate risk a little bit more seriously. And I also think as a global community, you see so much advocacy coming from younger generations really pushing on climate. I think they're bringing it to the fore. So, the pandemic has made us take it seriously.
Bridget Gainer:
Young people are really creating a leadership opportunity to push this, but you can only look at the extreme weather events of the last couple of years to know that we're in a very different world than we might've been 20 years ago. And so I think the opportunity for Aon is we're not afraid to take on big risks and big issues, and this is the business we're in to help our clients also take on those risks and issues. So, as we look at the future, this is really about adaptation and resiliency and how do we help our clients get there.
Maria Harshbarger:
That is so true and so topical, especially in talking to the younger generation who are our future leaders and looking at the past and the way the extremes have happened. We are in a new world, so I think your points are really well-taken. I looked in the impact report that we recently launched, and we shared a commitment regarding our own carbon footprint as an organization. Can you tell me about what that commitment is and what it'll mean to the environment?
Bridget Gainer:
Well, I think that everyone at Aon should feel really great about the commitment that we just made as a firm, because let me break down the pieces of it because we hear a lot about this term net-zero, and then there's always a date next to it. So net-zero just means that the fossil fuels and the carbon that you are producing, it nets out to the fact that you're not putting carbon out into the universe. You've reduced your energy footprint. You've reduced, say office or travel, such that you're not using more energy than you've been able to reduce. And so we are becoming someone that's not adding to the problem of fossil fuel usage and carbon, we're actually part of the solution. But the second part of net-zero by 2030, which was Aon's commitment that we should feel really great about is, governments are demanding net-zero by 2050.
Bridget Gainer:
You've seen a lot of insurance companies or others make that commitment, but we really challenged ourselves to do it faster and sooner. And it means that in the next 10 years, we're going to solve the issue of not being a contributor to the problem of carbon, that we're going to be part of the solution. And so we took that challenge on, there was tremendous support throughout the firm from Greg Case all the way down. And it means that we're really taking this issue seriously and we are, among our peers and in our industry, we're really one of the leaders. And I feel fantastic about that.
Maria Harshbarger:
Yeah. I think, looking at our careers here, we have taken many leadership positions and this just goes with, I think, part of our culture and our mantra of how we lead and we lead by example. So I agree, it's really an exciting time for our firm and what we're undertaking.
Maria Harshbarger:
So can you talk a little bit about how we're going to achieve this commitment and what are some of the ways that we're going to do it and how our colleagues can actually help in that.
Bridget Gainer:
So that's actually the best part. And I referenced the pandemic earlier in our podcast and in some ways the pandemic, as difficult as it has been, has given us a roadmap for some of the very difficult decisions we're going to have to make in order to reduce our carbon footprint. So when we think about how are we going to get to net-zero by 2030, what are we going to change? It's almost like looking at your health and the health of your body and saying, "You know what? I need to develop some better habits. Maybe I can't have dessert every night. Maybe I need to exercise more. I need to build into my life a new way of doing things so I'm actually healthier for the longterm." And it's the same way with net-zero. We don't probably have to travel as much as we were traveling in the past.
Bridget Gainer:
And reducing travel is a tremendous part of hitting that net-zero goal. And it's the same thing with the amount of real estate we have around the world. When you look at office space, it uses a lot of energy. It has a big carbon footprint, the same thing with traveling on planes. Those are things we had gotten in the habit of doing, but now that we've had this year to step back and think, "Of course, I'm still going to go on a plane and see clients. And of course, I'm still going to travel to meetings and engage with my colleagues and my peers and other people in the industry." And of course, and I cannot wait personally to get back to the office, engage with colleagues, brainstorm, innovate, all of those things we love to do, the question is, are we going to be able to do it a little bit differently than we had say, did it for the prior 20 years?
Bridget Gainer:
And I think what we've learned over this last year is, yeah, we can do it differently and it might even be better. So, we have talked about this concept within the Work, Travel & Convene Coalition, which is something where we pulled together employers and clients around the world to really work with them during the pandemic to hear what was on their mind and to come up with best practices and guide that transition. But one of the things that we've talked about is don't settle for the new normal, challenge yourself to the new better. And I actually think that when we look at how we will travel in the future, how we'll work, how we will convene, we're going to be able to achieve our goals to be less of a contributor to the carbon footprint, but it's also going to be a new better for us as colleagues and as a firm.
Maria Harshbarger:
This is what my takeaway that you just said is, this is a mindset shift. We have to shift our mindset with new behaviors that we're creating, that we're looking to not be a contributor, but to help contribute in a different way to be part of that solution versus a user. And so I think it's going to be an interesting journey for our colleagues. What do you think that greatest opportunity for our colleagues is to shift them?
Bridget Gainer:
Look, I love that you brought up mindset because I'm a big believer in the growth mindset versus the fixed mindset. I don't know if you are as well, but the growth mindset versus the fixed mindset ... the fixed mindset, it's a zero sum game. If I can do less travel, then I will have less interaction with clients. Whereas a growth mindset lets us think, "Well, if I'm going to do less travel, how will I engage with clients? And maybe the idea that I'm going to do some of it remotely or on video will mean that I'm going to be able to include more members of my global team or maybe I'm going to be able to accommodate the flexibility that one of my team members needs because they're doing caregiving at home."
Bridget Gainer:
And so sometimes those early meetings were always difficult, especially when you're raising young children or the late meeting say, it allows more people to be involved when you have those late meetings with Asia or other parts around the world. And I think it can allow us to actually be more inclusive, include more colleagues, allow people to join in. And that to me is the epitome of growth mindset because we're incorporating more ideas, more perspectives in a way that builds our relationships with each other and also potentially helps us solve big problems.
Maria Harshbarger:
Yeah, agree. It actually forces you to think differently and it's a refreshing change. That's the way I view it. So when you look at the impact that it has to the firm and you went through with travel, with office space, with how we collaborate differently, when you look at it from a client lens, what opportunity does this present for our clients?
Bridget Gainer:
So, I think what it presents for our clients is similar to what we found for ourselves, which is, are we going to be able to open up more of the world to them because we can bring in more of our teams to participate in solutions? But I think the opportunity for clients also is to tap into Aon's innovation across the board. So is it that we're able to bring new and different capital to bear to really address issues with climate? Is it that we are going to bring new products to bear? We have innovations happening, say in the transaction liability group in London where they're developing products to help ensure the value of some of these new technologies into the pilot phase, so we actually get to see some of these innovations come to market.
Bridget Gainer:
For us, I think that there is not an industry or a firm that is better poised to handle this moment of this massive risk, because it's a combination of risks, which we do for a living and is our day job, but also coupled with innovation. And so, when you wrap that around all the data that we have spent the last decade honing these pools of data to give us better information, better modeling, better predictive and analytics, the combination of capital, innovation and then data, I think is going to be a game changer when it comes to finding these big solutions, not just for climate, but really global solutions across the board.
Maria Harshbarger:
I think if anything that we will see is just that whole power of what we bring and how we innovate differently, how capital takes on a whole different way that we can go about this innovation and then data, we talk about data regularly and how important it is, and this is even a more driving force that's going to benefit our clients.
Bridget Gainer:
I agree. And I think you can only look to say, the public sector partnership as a perfect example of that. So this is a scenario where, of course we'd been serving governments in the past and of course people had been exposed to extreme weather, but we got ahead of this two years ago, put a group together who had expertise from government, from risk transfer, from serving other large clients and have focused on solving problems for a specific client base in relation largely to climate, not exclusively that really has impact around the world. Because if you think about the ability to stabilize a state or a city or a county who provides all these other really important services, education, healthcare, public safety, and we found a way to transfer some of their risk away from their ability to run those services every day, that's where Aon I think is stepping up to the plate and taking, not just our opportunity to serve, but really our obligation to solve the world's problems and really taking it to the next level.
Maria Harshbarger:
I think this goes back to really understanding what's important for our clients and then charting out that plan of what it's going to look like, what it could look like, that is the opportunity that we have and how exciting that is to not be complacent, but to actually be moving forward that's going to make a material difference. Really exciting.
Maria Harshbarger:
So, I look at all of the things that we've done as a firm and it makes me so proud of the commitment that Aon has made to our climate, to our planet. I think the insights that you've provided today actually have provided a more robust conversation that I'm going to have with my daughter. I know you and I spoke about that personally and how passionate our daughters are about the environment. And I think this is just a proof point of how we are going about working differently in our future and how we will be part of the solution and making and improving the climate that we all enjoy.
Bridget Gainer:
Absolutely.
Maria Harshbarger:
So, as we close this podcast, and Bridget, we've known each other for quite some time, I have the esteemed privilege to ask you a few questions that I think will be intriguing to everyone. So why don't you tell us about a project that really inspired you?
Bridget Gainer:
So, as we mentioned, I have been at Aon 20 years, which was 20 years in February and I've had great opportunities. I've had several different jobs here and professionally it's been a great place to be, but it's also been somewhere where I've had the opportunity to work on things that have been personally inspiring for me. And spending time in London just through work, I got exposed to the apprentice program that our colleagues there had developed over a generation. And in having conversations back at Aon, we realized, we do internships, we did some outreach to the community there, but how do we really make a difference? How do we give people the opportunity to build a career at Aon? One that's been so impactful for me and you, and so we borrowed that idea of the apprentice program from our colleagues in the UK.
Bridget Gainer:
We started it in Chicago in 2017 with 25 positions. And really what that was, was similar to what we just talked about with climate, which is we had been in the habit of doing things one way, recruiting one way, only from college. But we looked at some of the positions that we had and we thought, "Does it really require college or had we just gotten in a habit? And if we developed a new habit, could we get some better results?" And so we did, and we looked at some positions that, when we looked at the function, it didn't really require college. What it required was someone who was motivated, who was smart and who wanted to learn on the job, but maybe they couldn't have completed college in advance of working. And so we opened up our mind and we opened up that aperture of opportunity.
Bridget Gainer:
And four years later, not only have we continued the program at Aon, we recruited 50 other employers in Chicago. And so now there are over 1,000 apprentices in Chicago, the majority of whom are Black or Latino and come from areas of the city that we may not have hired from before, and now they are bringing a whole new perspective into Aon and we are diversifying our pipeline. And I think it's been a rewarding experience for the apprentices, but also for us. And now we're expanding that nationally. And the one thing I will say about it is, we're making impact in the lives of these young people, but they're also changing our firm. And we are able to lead by example across the country to show what's possible when you are willing to open your mind a little bit and change your habits. And so that part for me has been deeply rewarding.
Maria Harshbarger:
I feel the passion in what you just said. And I think it was about charting a new course, right?
Bridget Gainer:
Yes.
Maria Harshbarger:
A new course to open new possibilities to others that actually improves our firm. How exciting. So one more question, what's a hidden skill of yours that's not on your resume?
Bridget Gainer:
So my tap dancing or my ... no, that was a joke. I have been involved for a long time in how Aon works with government, whether the public sector apprenticeship or running government affairs, and part of being able to be successful on a job like that is to really see where the puck is moving to potentially see pending disaster coming and prepare yourself accordingly. I'm one of five sisters and we used to joke all the time when we were growing up that no matter what the incident, my dad could always see the worst case scenario of what was about to happen. And we thought to ourselves that that was, what a drag. Really, little did I know that it was a masterclass preparing me for my future career. So, looking ahead to potential disaster and then walking yourself back to say, what do I want to be doing now in order to be best prepared for the future is something that I think is a skill I've yet to figure out how to put that on the resume. But it's definitely something that's helped me in my career.
Voiceover:
This has been a conversation on Aon and our commitment to net-zero by 2030. Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed this week's episode, tune in in two weeks for a conversation about resiliency. To learn more about Aon, its employees, solutions and news, check out our show notes and visit our website at aon.com.
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