Example Environmental liability insurance

Every kind of activity involves interaction with the environment - interaction often leading to long-term obligations. Munich Ecoconsult, a subsidiary of Munich Re, offers a wide range of consulting services which is designed to help any company operating production plants or storage facilities which could have an impact on the environment.

Munich Ecoconsult provides a comprehensive assessment of a company's environmental risks. As a rule, this leads to proposals for loss prevention measures. However, in the event of a loss we also provide our clients with technical and scientific support in the adjustment of environmental losses.

Munich Ecoconsult experts identify and assess the risk potential of environmentally hazardous substances, the general technical condition of installations, the exposure caused by the site's location (due, among other things, to the local climate and the site's proximity to residential areas or bodies of water), as well as a wide variety of other factors.

Our experts ensure companies apply optimal environmental management practices. In the event of a loss, they offer support in determining the causes and extent of the loss, distinguishing new pollution from old and properly disposing of contaminated soil and structural components.

Our experts in environmental liability insurance focused on the following areas last year:

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  Examination of the environmental situation and the liability regulations in the countries of eastern central Europe acceding to the EU and the preparation of insurance solutions for the problem of contaminated sites;
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  Development of practical underwriting aids for environmental liability risks involving mobile communication systems and sewage treatment plants;
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  Examination of environmental aspects connected with product liability;
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  Analysis of the liability for "purely ecological" loss or damage (a rather grey area of environmental impairment losses which, depending on the legal system that is applicable, may not affect individual rights at all and for which there may be no express state responsibility for the assertion of claims, e.g. biodiversity damage).