Environmental Impairment Insurance

Environmental Liability Insurance

With the growing amount of legislation, both local and European, there is an ever-increasing responsibility on a business to ensure that its activities do not result in any impact in any way on the environment.

Under recent EU Directives in respect of Environmental Impairment Liability, you could find your business responsible for you and your neighbours clean up costs following a pollution incident. But you could also be held liable for the costs involved in reinstating the environment as it was before the incident.

Many people think – Hey I’m not in the petrochemical or pharmaceutical or heavy manufacturing business so I’m ok. But this is not the case – think about a logistics company with large storage tanks for their fuel or a warehouse that stores plastics which could cause massive pollution in the event of a fire. Even businesses like these have exposures under this directive. Any company at the end of the day could be a potential polluter and the law doesn’t discriminate. It works on the basis that the ‘polluter pays’ and so not only would you be compensating your immediate neighbours following a pollution incident – but you are expected to remedy the whole of the affected environment/area to its pre-pollution state. Think of the costs associated with this!

Environmental Impairment Liability (EIL) Insurance coverage is now available in respect of the above exposures.

In essence, the policy provides cover for gradual along with sudden and accidental pollution as well as remediation costs associate with the likes of the scenarios painted above.

Key Features of Environmental Impairment Covers

Coverage for sudden, accidental and gradual pollution including both historical and ongoing operational exposures. Some examples are listed below:

  • Damage to third-party property including diminishment in value
  • Ability to enhance risk management programmes through access to the top engineering consultants
  • Proactive claims support provided by partner insurers to minimise losses and their impact on the business.
  • Automatic coverage for biodiversity (natural resource) damage.

In summary the policy covers you will be looking for are:

  • Clean-up costs incurred by you following your discovery of pollution on and/or off-site.
  • Costs incurred by you where a clean-up is imposed by regulators or required by third parties.
  • Liability for third-party bodily injury, property damage and clean-up costs.
  • Third party claims for pollution caused by the transportation of the your products or waste.

To find out more about Environmental Impairment Insurance and other covers

Please call us at 091 563518 for more details or email us with your inquiry to info@burkeins.ie and a member of our team will be glad to assist you.

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