Zeynep Özek, Assistant General Manager of Chubb Turkey, shared important details about environmental pollution liability insurance.

Stating that environmental pollution is one of today’s fastest growing risks both for health-related and environmental aspects, Zeynep Özek said: “Increasing awareness about legislation, health and environmental impact puts a serious pressure on every company to act responsibly in ethical, social and environmental terms. Therefore, today, medium and large scale companies from many different sectors require Environmental Pollution Liability Insurance.”

Emphasizing that there is a widely accepted but incorrect impression that environmental risks are only related to oil spills, Zeynep Özek said that property owners, managers, buyers/sellers; companies operating in buildings/lands that belong to third parties; those using, storing, transporting or producing potentially hazardous substances that might cause contamination; and those producing solid, liquid or gas waste are all prone to environmental risks. Moreover, reconstruction of an abandoned industrial or commercial site, and operating in a nature protection zone or close to a habitat under protection, in an environment with biological diversity, in a housing zone or an urban area also brings environmental risks to companies.

Özek also reminded that Chubb’s Environmental Pollution Liability Insurance was designed according to the requirements of real-estate owners or parties operating in that field, and various companies operating in manufacturing sector (metal, paper, pharmaceutical, food, chemicals), construction sector and waste management industry: “In many cases, a big part of the cost created by the environmental pollution damage goes to the cleaning of the polluted area. Fire and other liability insurance policies offer limited coverages in handling the potential impacts of an environmental incident. Therefore, we offer companies that suffer from limited or deficient protection three extensive coverages: liabilities on the policyholder, biodiversity losses, and legal liabilities for third parties.”

Özek added that Chubb’s Environmental Pollution Liability Insurance for Facilities offered extensive coverage for environmental liabilities against third parties that might occur as a result of both gradual and unexpected environmental pollution damages.

Zeynep Özek said: “Chubb provides coverage against cleaning costs for land, water and natural resources in the policyholder’s and other parties’ facilities, on condition that the cleaning is stipulated by related authorities; physical damages to third parties; damages to property and related cleaning costs; contamination claims by third parties occurring as a result of the transportation of products or wastes; business interruption due to pollution, and liabilities and improvement costs that might occur due to damages to biodiversity.”
Özek listed the features that differentiate Chubb from its competitors in terms of Environmental Pollution Liability Insurance as follows: “We make a difference with our global experience and know-how, our competent and expert technical and claims management staff, and our crisis management support and risk engineering team who are all experts in their fields. Chubb also stands out with its excellent claims management, and its rapid and fair payment processes.

We offer customized insurance products for companies of every size and package policies addressing the requirements of our customers. We stand by our customers with a robust capital structure that ensure the coverage for big and significant risks, and we have the capacity to provide high coverage limits.

We have a global network of 54 offices worldwide. We can also issue policies for overseas businesses. This means that we offer local solutions and claims management services for risks outside Turkey. Our customers do not have to deal with laws, regulations and bureaucracies of foreign countries, and they enjoy the comfort of receiving exclusive and centralized services from a single source.”