Lunchtime Seminar Series No. 3: Sustainability-Linked Insurance
On 10 March 2026, the Competence Center of Sustainability: Finance, Law, Sciences, and the Humanities (CCS) hosted its third seminar in its new Lunchtime Sustainability Seminar Series. Our expert speaker was Robert Eigenheer, Head of Corporate Finance, Swiss Federal Railways SBB and Chairman of the Board of Directors at SBB Insurance AG, who spoke on the topic of "Sustainability-Linked Insurance", which aims to integrate sustainability objectives directly into insurance contracts by linking insurance terms to the achievement of predefined sustainability performance targets. By doing so, Sustainability-Linked Insurance seeks to incentivize measurable and verifiable sustainability improvements, while maintaining the core function of insurance as a risk-transfer mechanism. Unlike traditional insurance approaches, Sustainability-Linked Insurance explicitly connects risk management, underwriting considerations, and sustainability performance, thereby encouraging insured organizations to actively improve their environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance in areas that are material to their risk profile. In this seminar, this concept will be discussed with the aim of promoting sustainability in the insurance sector – a sector which is highly affected by the climate change. The discussion is based on the Swiss Federal Railways’ initiative with three major insurance companies to launch this innovative insurance solution. This seminar and the panel discussion Q&A was hosted by Prof. Dr. Kern Alexander, Professor of International Banking and Financial Law and Chair of the UZH CCS.
