Insurance Australia Group (IAG)  - When Mike Hawker joined IAG in 2001, he recognised insurance as the perfect "community product". The business challenge was: "How can the focus on the community be leveraged as a commercial driver for IAG?"

IAG engaged Ecos in 2002 to explore its sustainability potential, ensure that sustainability is incorporated into the business operations and becomes an integral part of the business strategy. A core challenge was to expand the company's focus on reducing insurable risks like fire, accidents and crime in the community, rather than simply paying claims after the event.

Dubbed the 'flying squad', an Ecos team worked with IAG's senior executives to understand how sustainability could add value to its business strategy. This led to the executive committee adopting a Framework for Action on Sustainability, highlighting a focus on safety and the environment. Ecos's team has worked closely with IAG's key divisions, covering motor and home insurance, worker's compensation, group risk, R&D, human resources and corporate affairs, as well as working with IAG in New Zealand.

IAG is now widely recognised as one of Australasia's sustainability leadership companies, with a particular focus on climate change as a driver for risk in the community. It is now a signatory to the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) and in 2003, IAG was awarded Sustainable Company of the Year by Ethical Investor Magazine.

Ecos continues to work with IAG, providing strategic support for senior executives and the sustainability team.

You can find IAG at www.iag.com.au

ANZ   - Having pursued a very successful internal cultural change program called Breakout, in 2002 CEO John McFarlane recognised that ANZ's next challenge was to re-establish its relationship with the community. For Australia's big four banks, the past decade had marked an era of rapid financial growth. But with this business success came a loss of community support over branch closures and other issues.

ANZ was keen to explore the bank's role in society, and saw potential for sustainability to provide a robust framework to achieve a greater community focus. It also was a vehicle for the bank to better engage with its employees, suppliers and customers. Consistent with this, ANZ also recognised the need to adopt a more rigorous approach to assessing environmental and social risks in its lending portfolio.

Ecos worked with ANZ's management board and working groups through a process to address the following:

• Societal purpose - working with ANZ staff to define the organisation's societal purpose charter

• Lending risk - assisting to review the company's lending processes in institutional and corporate banking and develop a new framework for assessing environmental and social risks.

• Health and Safety - developing the corporate architecture to improve
  health and safety performance.

• Products and services - helping identify new environmental and social product opportunities.

• Stakeholder engagement - assisting with engagement of key environmental stakeholders.

• Sustainability strategy - helping to draft ANZ's sustainability strategy and obtaining Board approval.

You can find ANZ at www.anz.com

AGL - A leading Australian energy utility, AGL has always had a good environmental and safety track record. With recent developments in national and international policy and regulation, particularly in relation to climate change, AGL recognised the need to assess its approach to reviewing environmental risks. Greg Martin, AGL's CEO brought Ecos in to assist in developing the company's approach to sustainability in June 2003.

Ecos has been working with AGL's Leadership Team to:

• Assess the company's approach to environmental and social factors and compare this with international trends to identify the key risks and growth opportunities for AGL.

• Develop the strategy and architecture to improve performance in key areas.

• Engage environmental stakeholders to identify common ground and develop opportunities to work together, to mutual benefit.

You can find AGL at www.agl.com.au