As Belgium’s largest insurer and a major institutional investor, AG Insurance plays a crucial role in driving sustainability at multiple levels. From responsible investment strategies to green IT policies, sustainable procurement, and data-driven ESG reporting, AG is embedding sustainability across its entire ecosystem. “Of course, sustainability plays an important role in our investment decisions and in our insurance products, but there’s more to it: sustainability extends to every aspect of our operations, including IT”, says Jolien Sabbe, Head of Sustainability Office. Or as Jolien’s colleague Nicolas Ronchain, Head of I&O (Infrastructure & Operations) Programs and Relationship Management, states: “We have a responsibility to ensure that our digital infrastructure aligns with our ESG commitments.”

AG Insurance is serious when it comes to sustainability. By 2030 the insurer aims to reduce its CO2 emissions related to its own operations by 40%. As part of its green approach to IT, AG extended the life cycle of laptops, recycles those that do need to be replaced, and regularly cleans up its data centers, servers and other storage systems. Computer equipment that has reached the end of its life cycle is donated to charitable organisations such as Digital for Youth, a non-profit that provides computers to young people to reduce digital inequality.

AG’s collaboration with LCL contributes to this transformation. AG currently houses 50m² of IT infrastructure and 270 active devices in LCL's facilities, leveraging their high-efficiency cooling systems and 100% green energy use to further reduce its IT-related energy footprint. “The importance of this collaboration cannot be overestimated, because IT is a silent polluter”, says Nicolas Ronchain. “Every cloud-based system, every AI operation, and every stored file consumes energy.”

AG plays multiple roles in Belgium’s sustainability transition: as an insurer, investor, employer, and IT user. How do these responsibilities connect?

Jolien Sabbe: “Sustainability is embedded in our day-to-day activities. As an investor, we are shifting capital toward green bonds, renewable energy projects, sustainable infrastructure and social investments like schools, hospitals and social housing. €12.9 billion of our portfolio is now classified as investments supporting the transition towards a more sustainable world, with a target of reaching more than €15 billion by 2027.”

“As an insurer, we actively promote sustainability through products that encourage eco-conscious behaviour by offering for example an ecosystem for electric vehicles. Additionally, with Go4Impact, AG offers an online tool that allows its insurance brokers to calculate the ecological footprint of their activities and reduce it through impactful actions tailored to their office. AG is the first insurer in Belgium to develop such a tool.”

“As a responsible company, we conduct business with integrity and respect for the environment and society. Since 2019, AG has been calculating, reducing and offsetting its CO2 emissions from its own activities. Reductions came amongst others through our new AG Campus which was built to the highest responsible-architecture and circular-economy standards. The electricity we consume comes from renewable sources, including 883 solar panels installed on our office buildings and as part of the transition towards electric vehicles, we installed 128 new charging stations at our offices in 2024, in addition to the 34 that had already been installed previously.

Nicolas Ronchain: “IT is the backbone of our business, but it’s also an often-overlooked sustainability issue. Data usage is exploding: every new system, every AI-powered tool, every extra terabyte stored in our datacenters or in the cloud has a measurable environmental cost. That’s why AG has integrated data retention policies, extended hardware lifespans, and ensured that our core IT operations run on renewable energy-powered data centers like LCL.”

AG has been working with LCL for years. What makes them the right partner?

Nicolas Ronchain: “Let’s call a spade a spade: as a financial player, our top priorities are security, performance, and resilience at a reasonable cost. Only when our strict conditions in this area are met do we consider sustainability – and yes, today more than ever, that can be a dealbreaker. LCL aligns with our ESG roadmap by operating entirely on renewable energy today, while committing to self-produce 40% of that energy from renewable sources by 2030. The transparency of their carbon reporting is also crucial for us, particularly for our Scope 3 emissions disclosures.”

Jolien Sabbe: “Under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), businesses are now required to disclose detailed Scope 3 emissions data. Partnering with LCL allows us to receive precise, verifiable data on our IT footprint, allowing compliancy while making meaningful progress on our sustainability goals.”

How can LCL support AG Insurance going forward?

Nicolas Ronchain: “As IT demand grows and sustainability regulations become stricter, we expect LCL to continue innovating in energy-efficient cooling technologies, battery storage solutions, and new green energy integrations such as solar and wind power. We also expect LCL to proactively share best practices on how to further optimize ESG practices in our data centers’ hardware and operations. The more proactive they are, the more aligned we can remain in our ESG commitments.”