According to Michael Kravitz, president of Insurance Innovators, Inc., “Almost any company that writes property coverage will entertain green building risks.” Insurance Innovators arranges coverage for green contractors, manufacturers and distributors of green products, and owners of green buildings.
Neal Schmidt, vice president of underwriting at Philadelphia Insurance Companies, says, “We will write property coverage for green exposures on our full portfolio of products, which is driven by nonprofit and human services organizations along with some 60 other product lines.”
“It costs green to go green, and in this economy not many businesses have the green,” according to Edward Martindale, senior account executive at S. H. Smith & Co. He continues, “I think green building will eventually become a standard that companies use to choose vendors, contractors and others with which they do business. That being said, thus far we have seen very little in the way of green risks.”
Dusty Rowland, president and CEO of Mainstay Insurance Group, places green building risks with Chartis, Commonwealth, Lexington, Liberty International Underwriters and Zurich. Mainstay Insurance Group is the sponsored agent for the Association of Green Property Owners and Managers (AGPOM).
According to our experts, coverage is available in both the admitted and nonadmitted markets. Mr. Kravitz says, “Some of our companies are both admitted and nonadmitted and we may need to use nonadmitted paper to manuscript coverage that can't be done on admitted forms. The reason for us going nonadmitted would predominantly be if we could not meet the needs of the client within the ISO policy forms.”
Mr. Rowland’s program targets existing buildings in three industry groups: habitational, general real estate, and hospitality. He explains, “What is interesting about our program is that we grant credits for our target risks because we see them as having less exposure than traditional buildings. We have consistently seen management of green buildings as more experienced, sophisticated, and vested in their assets than their ‘brown’ peers, and that ultimately drives better loss experience.”
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