Member Article

Tree Law launches Subsidence Climate Change Calculator

Specialist law firm, Tree Law, has launched an innovative Subsidence Climate Change Calculator; a cutting-edge tool designed exclusively for insurance firms.

It provides an accurate calculation of the carbon footprint associated with insurance claims involving trees, offering a comprehensive assessment that takes into account Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions.

Tree Law’s Subsidence Climate Change Calculator is tailored to the unique claims processes of each insurance company, recognising the distinct handling approaches across the industry. This groundbreaking solution empowers insurers by delivering a score relating to the environmental impact of every claim.

Key Features of the Subsidence Climate Change Calculator includes:

• Tailored to Insurer Processes: Recognising that every insurer handles claims in different ways, the calculator can be customised to seamlessly integrate with the claims processes of individual insurers.
• Scope 1, 2, and 3 Emissions Assessment: Offering a comprehensive analysis, the calculator considers scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, providing insurers with a holistic view of the environmental impact of every claim.
• Pay-Per-Calculation Model: Tree Law’s pricing model ensures that insurers only pay for each calculation processed, eliminating the need for monthly license fees or costly software purchases (and subsequent cost of ownership). Price bundles are available, for larger volumes.
• Audit Trail and Transparency: The calculator equips insurers with an audit trail and transparent insights into the decision-making process, allowing them to justify their actions based on a thorough environmental assessment.
• Adaptable for Various Perils: While initially focused on subsidence claims, Tree Law’s Climate Change Calculator can be easily adapted for other perils.

Founding Director and Lawyer, Sarah Dodd, said: “The new Subsidence Climate Change Calculator marks a significant leap forward in further integrating environmental considerations into the insurance claims process. By offering insurers a tailored, accurate, and transparent assessment of carbon footprints, I believe this tool will reshape to the industry’s approach to climate change mitigation.”

How The Calculator Works: The Tree Law calculator works by inputting the carbon footprint of the process on a claim and the alternative ways used by each insurer to stop ongoing subsidence movement to a property. This allows insurers to reflect on the evidence gathered and calculate the footprint of those alternatives, including:

• Tree reduction and maintenance
• Tree removal
• Installation of a tree root barrier
• Installation of grout injection
• Underpinning

Other remedial options can be added into the calculator as they become part of the insurer’s process. The calculator has been designed with the flexibility to enable new or alternative remedial solutions to be added, as required by insurers.

The outputs provide a carbon footprint figure for each remedial option in Tonnes, providing a comparison between the different methods to repair a property. It provides an unbiased calculation, to support decision making on the most appropriate, or environmentally-friendly approach. It can also factor in the cost of an off-set, if required.

Concludes Sarah Dodd: “Early client feedback has been very positive, with many suggesting they will use the calculator early in their claims process to allow the action on the claim to have an environmental consideration from the outset. I am also working on the creation of a report that will summarise the calculator’s workings and offer advice on how to offset the carbon footprint. It will also include details on whether there are any issues relating to that claim that need to be considered, for example, if it is a high-risk location, or there have been previous issues in the area.”

Tree Law invites heads of compliance for household teams to explore the benefits of the calculator, emphasising its potential to strengthen their decision-making processes and provide a solid foundation for compliance efforts.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tree Law .