We are the Good Hands
The Sustainability Report builds on the content in our 10-K and Proxy Statement to tell the full story of Allstate’s long-term value creation. This report incorporates the Guiding Principles and Content Components of the Integrated Reporting (IR) framework as produced by the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC). We also include disclosures to the relevant SASB sector standards, the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) guidelines, our EEO-1 report, and our ESG Summary Report. Finally, the report references the GRI Standards and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).
For more information on how we determined the content of this report, please read our Materiality and stakeholder engagement section. All information represents our 2021 fiscal year, unless otherwise noted.
Our integrated approach
Allstate provides affordable, simple and connected protection solutions. While we are primarily engaged in the property and casualty insurance business in the United States and Canada, we also offer accident and health insurance, identity protection, and protection plans for consumer electronics, mobile phones and appliances. Founded in 1931, Allstate became a publicly traded company in 1993 and fully independent in 1995, when it was spun off from Sears Holdings Corp. Today, we are one of the largest publicly held personal lines property and casualty insurers in America. We are listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the trading symbol ALL and are widely known through our slogan: “You’re in good hands with Allstate.®”
This slogan reflects our commitment to customers, employees, agents, suppliers, stockholders and the communities where we operate and beyond. It shapes the guiding principles of Allstate, known as Our Shared Purpose, which are to empower customers with protection to help them achieve their hopes and dreams. We put words into action not only through our products and services, but through the way we create value for stakeholders throughout our business.
Allstate believes that the interrelations among economic, environmental and social factors are increasingly material to long-term enterprise value creation. This view informs our strategy development and how we manage risks and opportunities throughout the value chain.
To determine Allstate’s risks and opportunities as well as our social and environmental impact more comprehensively, we periodically conduct a sustainability materiality assessment to learn what ESG issues are significant to our stakeholders. We zero in on our material environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors along with traditional financial information to strengthen our strategy development and risk management. Read more in the Materiality and stakeholder engagement section of the report.
What does value creation
look like at Allstate?
We’ve adopted the International Integrated Reporting Council (IR) framework for reporting, which integrates our financial information and sustainability data to showcase the corporation’s commitment and progress toward creating long-term value for those we serve.
We aim to follow the spirit of the IR guidelines to:
- Improve the quality of information to providers of financial capital and enable efficient and productive allocation of capital.
- Promote a cohesive approach to corporate reporting and communicate about factors that materially affect our ability to create value over time.
- Enhance accountability and stewardship for the six capitals (financial, manufactured, intellectual, human, social and relationship, and natural).
- Support integrated thinking and decision-making that create value over the short, medium and long term.
We see value creation as a form of return. This takes on many forms, including more resilient business operations, stronger competitive positioning, improved social, economic and environmental outcomes, well-managed risk, and enhanced societal well-being. The value creation is governed and generated by Allstaters across the enterprise.
Materiality
Allstate issued its first corporate report addressing ESG topics in 2003. We conducted our first sustainability materiality assessment in 2015 and used those priorities to guide our strategy until we refreshed the assessment in 2020.
In 2020, we completed our second robust materiality assessment. We incorporated components of integrated reporting and the six capitals — financial, intellectual, human, social, natural and manufactured. We followed the best practice methodology of identifying, prioritizing and validating material topics.
We interviewed internal and external stakeholders and analyzed written sources. Each year, we evaluate our material topics to ensure they reflect the priorities of Allstate and our stakeholders. In this report, we communicate our management of the following material topics:
- Climate Strategy
- Advancing Consumer Disaster Resiliency
- Customer-Centric & Responsible Products
- Technology & Digitalization
- Privacy & Information Security
- Employee Well-Being & Safety
- Employment Relations
- Inclusive Diversity
- Organizational Culture
- Public Policy
- Responsible Investment
- Community
- Talent Recruitment
- Training & Education
In 2021, we supplemented our 2020 ESG materiality assessment with extensive stockholder outreach to foster dialogue on societal issues of importance. A societal engagement framework was developed to focus on the prioritization of three ESG issues in particular: Climate, Inclusive Diversity and Equity and Data Privacy. Allstate's engagement in these important areas is a core component of developing a holistic ESG strategy. Read more about our societal engagement framework in our 2022 Proxy Statement.
Governance of sustainability
Allstate has strong corporate governance guided by three primary principles: dialogue, transparency and responsiveness. The Board has enhanced governance policies over time to align with best practices and serve the interests of stockholders. For in-depth information about governance practices, please see our 2022 Proxy Statement.
Our Board of Directors and CEO are responsible for the overall performance of Allstate, including sustainability. Sustainability is managed across the business by the following groups: Enterprise Risk and Return Council, Responsible Investing Committee, The ESG Steering Committee (formerly the Sustainability Council), the Inclusive Diversity and Equity team, and the Sustainability team.
The Enterprise Risk and Return Council (ERRC) is Allstate’s senior risk management committee that establishes risk and return targets, determines economic capital levels and directs integrated strategies and actions from an enterprise perspective. In 2021, the ERRC was made up of Allstate’s CEO, vice chair, chief investment officer, general counsel, treasurer, area of responsibility (AOR) presidents, and enterprise and AOR risk and financial officers. The ERRC reviews enterprise principles, guidelines and limits for Allstate’s significant risks, and monitors the strategies and actions management has taken to control these risks. The Board of Directors and the Risk and Return and Audit committees oversee Enterprise Risk and Return Management. For further information on our risk factors, please see pages 80-82 of the 2021 10-K.
The Responsible Investing Committee monitors ESG investing trends, evaluates ESG investing best practices, supports the work of the ESG Steering Committee and periodically reports about its activities to other senior leaders within Allstate. In conjunction with Allstate’s Investments Risk Committee, the Responsible Investing Committee also monitors our investment portfolio for potential short- and long-term exposures to climate change. Read more in the Responsible investing section of the report.
Allstate has maintained an ESG Steering Committee (formerly the Sustainability Council) since 2007. The cross-functional committee includes individuals from strategy, finance, financial products, technology, marketing, innovation and corporate brand, enterprise risk and return management, human resources, legal, investments, Property-Liability, and protection products and services. Allstate’s senior vice president of corporate strategy and senior vice president of corporate law co-chair the committee, which meets monthly, and updates senior executives. With 12 members including 2 Committee Chairs, representing more than 10 business functions, the committee supports Allstate’s commitment to the environment, health and safety, corporate social responsibility, human capital management, corporate governance, sustainability and other public policy matters.
The Sustainability team develops the annual Sustainability Report, responds to ratings and rankings questionnaires, drives employee awareness and engagement with corporate sustainability initiatives and reports monthly to the ESG Steering Committee. The Sustainability team also provides regular ESG updates to the Board of Directors.
What's in this report?
- GRI Index – We follow the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI): Core option as a reporting structure. In the GRI index, we also identify how our initiatives align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).
- EEO-1 Report – Demographic breakdown of our workforce by race/ethnicity and gender.
- SASB Index – A five-page report that communicates financially material sustainability information to investors.
- TCFD Index – Connecting dots to public disclosures on our climate-related risks and opportunities.
- CDP – Environmental data and information, including our approach to climate change and risk.
- Public Policy Report – Our involvement in the democratic process at the state and federal levels.
- ESG Data – Year-over-year comparisons of raw environmental, social and governance data.
- ESG Summary – A short report that communicates environmental, social and governance initiatives and priorities of significance to Allstate.
- Archive – Find older items in our Sustainability Report archives.
Stakeholder engagement
Stakeholder inclusiveness is a core principle of Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) sustainability reports, and we do our best to identify all of Allstate’s stakeholders and respond to their expectations and interests.
We identify key stakeholder groups through the ESG Steering Committee (formerly the Sustainability Council), feedback from senior leaders and employees, and by mapping the full scope of our impacts, from suppliers to consumers. We select stakeholders according to their knowledge and understanding of our company as a whole, their orientation relative to or within the financial services industry and the extent to which they can impact, or be impacted by, Allstate.
We regularly engage with stockholders, as well as customers and consumers, employees, Allstate agents, nongovernmental organizations, opinion leaders, policymakers and suppliers. We also interviewed stakeholders and analyzed stakeholder perspectives available from public documentation for our 2020 materiality assessment, and held discussions with stockholders in 2021 to discuss Allstate’s Transformative Growth progress, societal engagement framework, IDE strategy, climate change risk, and data privacy.
Allstate partners with The RepTrak Co. (formerly, the Reputation Institute) to study how stakeholders perceive Allstate. We survey customers, consumers, agents and employees every quarter, as well as investors and opinion leaders each year, and policymakers every two years. Feedback is collected across these stakeholder groups, key topics are identified, and strategies are developed to address gaps. There are also stakeholder-specific avenues for engagement. More detail can be found throughout this report.