Zurich’s Linda Freiner promoted to Chief Sustainability Officer

Linda Freiner, who was previously Group Head of Sustainability, has been named as Zurich's Chief Sustainability Officer.

Freiner has been working at Zurich Insurance for 11 years, and in charge of group sustainability since 2016. She just announced on Linkedin that her role “has been elevated to Chief Sustainability Officer”, and that she is now reporting to Group CEO Mario Greco (instead of EMEA CEO Alison Martin in her previous role).

Zurich also has a UK CSO (John Keppel), but Freiner appears to be the first to take on this role at group level (though this was not immediately confirmed by Zurich).

Companies are on a Chief Sustainability Officer hiring spree, with most new CSOs reporting to the CEO – a sign that their mandate is evolving to become more strategy-oriented. In fact, Zurich itself moved sustainability reporting from Freiner’s team to the finance function in 2019, freeing up her time and energy to focus on sustainability integration instead.

Zurich Chief Sustainability Officer appointment: ‘A great confirmation’ of its commitment

Speaking to CSO Futures earlier this month, Freiner explained that her role has “always been about identifying, setting and managing the sustainability performance priorities, setting the KPIs, identifying the initiatives, and making sure that they get integrated into the business”, as well as providing support to every other team on how to implement the sustainability strategy.

Zurich has set a 2050 target to achieve net-zero emissions across its underwriting and investment portfolio and a 2030 target for net zero across its own operations. 

Although she sees her appointment as CSO as “a great confirmation of Zurich Insurance's commitment to integrating sustainability into everything we do”, Freiner also shares the view that “sustainability doesn't have to be in the title” for people to make a difference within their company.