Esurance: Online Auto Insurance Promotes Green

Esurance (auto insurance) sent us the notice below:
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These are some of the Esurance's recent green initiatives (all of which will continue through 2010!):

URBAN REFORESTATION

Since 2005, Esurance has planted 85,429 trees - that's about 53 trees per day. Just in 2009, the company funded the planting of 9,162 trees with partners, American Forests, EarthCorps, Friends of the Urban Forest, Greening of Detroit, Park People, T.R.E.E., Inc., and the Texas Trees Foundation. We also planted 5,520 trees with claims partner HSG as part of the Save a Windshield, Plant a Tree program.

CARBON FOOTPRINT

Esurance works with NativeEnergy to offset 100% of electricity use in each of our office locations nationwide. The offsets are used to purchase renewable energy credits through the Langdon Wind Energy Project, and in 2009, totaled 4.4 million kWh of electricity. We also offset the carbon emissions from our fleet of hybrid claims vehicles through reforestation projects in Louisiana. Last year, we estimated that the CO 2 emissions we offset were equal to 631.6 tons.

GREEN MUSIC PROGRAMS

In 2007, we sponsored Live Earth, a concert series that took place on all seven continents and focused on raising awareness about climate change. The concerts resulted in the creation of guidelines to help events and facilities reduce their carbon footprints. Esurance adopted those guidelines, which include actions like recycling, using energy efficient lighting, and alternative fuels, and mandated that all our sponsorship partners implement at least three items from the list. In the summer of 2009, as the green sponsor for two popular music festivals, Sasquatch! Music Festival and Monolith Festival, we put the guidelines to the test. At the Sasquatch! Music Festival in George, Washington, we focused the majority of our efforts on recycling and were able to keep 4.5 tons (9,000 lbs) of waste out of landfills. That’s enough to cover 20 football fields. Additionally, the festival was wind-powered to offset the CO 2 emissions created by artists, attendees, and staff traveling to and from the event. And, to counter the energy used by the festival itself, we purchased 1,406 tons of CO 2 offsets from dairy farms around the Pacific Northwest.

EARTH DAY GRANT

In April 2009, we asked customers to nominate their favorite green organizations to receive a $5,000 Earth Day Grant from Esurance, and were impressed by the number of folks who responded. After much deliberation, our team of internal eco advocates selected American Forests as the grant winner. See why policyholders Adam and Marcie thought them most deserving of the grant: “My suggestion would be American Forests. They would take the $5000 and plant 5000 trees. Perfect for Earth Day!”

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AAEA has not been compensated by Esurance and is not endorsing the service. But AAEA does believe that money is speech.