In its efforts of taking care of sustainability and reducing negative climate change, BTA Baltic Insurance Company AAS (hereinafter – BTA) will create BTA Sustainability Forest in 2022, with 15,000 tree seedlings to be planted in an area of 7.5 hectares. Along this activity, in order to reduce the amount of plastic waste, BTA will also gradually phase out the use of plastic health insurance cards and will offer customers electronic health insurance cards free of charge further on.

BTA Sustainability Forest, which is being developed hand in hand with Latvijas valsts meži AS (Latvia’s State Forests), will help to mitigate negative climate change, as trees are one of the most important sources of CO₂ sequestration. In the spring of this year already, BTA is to plant about 15,000 trees in an area of 7.5 hectares, thus increasing the overall area of Latvia's forests and helping to capture more CO₂.

Emphasizes BTA Management Board Member Evija Matveja: “Sustainability is what you encounter at BTA in each step! We have been a paperless company for more than five years and all documents are signed only electronically. Moreover, at the end of last year, we were the first insurance company to receive the Green Office certificate from the World Wildlife Fund. That is why it is but natural that we have taken yet another step in an even “greener” direction and will create our BTA Sustainability Forest, which is a significant investment in the future of the company and the entire population of Latvia. We will definitely not stop at these activities and we will continue to organize our work hand in hand with the best practices of sustainability.”

Latvijas valsts meži AS (LVM) have grown the necessary 15,000 spruce seedlings for this project. Tomass Kotovičs, Head of LVM Communications, emphasizes the importance of such a project: “The forest acts as a carbon sink, as through the process of photosynthesis, trees sequester CO₂ from the atmosphere, accumulating carbon and releasing oxygen. The forests managed by LVM grow 12 million cubic meters of wood each year, while more than 31 million new trees were planted in 2021. In a forest that is managed sustainably, carbon sequestration never stops as young trees replace felled ones. Therefore, BTA's Sustainability Forest initiative is a welcome step in creating a greener future!"

Also, to further mitigate the negative climate change related to non-recyclable waste, BTA will also phase out the use of plastic health insurance cards. Only electronic health insurance cards will be available to customers free of charge, and as such, these cards will not end up in the waste after their expiry date.

BTA is a responsible company that cares about the environment and sustainable solutions, so the company not only follows the sustainability issues, but develops also its own sustainability activities that help mitigate negative climate change and step closer to the goal of the UN Paris Agreement.

About BTA

BTA Baltic Insurance Company is one of the leading insurance companies in the Baltics, offering the broadest range of non-life insurance services in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. BTA employs more than 1,000 employees in the Baltics. The shareholder of BTA is Vienna Insurance Group AG with close to 200 years of experience in the insurance business. With about 50 companies in 30 countries and more than 25,000 employees, Vienna Insurance Group is a clear market leader in its Central and Eastern European markets, and takes care of more than 22 million customers. Vienna Insurance Group is the best-rated company of ATX, the leading index of Vienna Stock Exchange (since 1994) with a rating of A+ with stable outlook from Standard & Poor’s. Vienna Insurance Group works in close partnership with Erste Group – the largest retail bank in CEE.


Additional information:
Elīna Zvejniece
Marketing and Public Relations Department Director
BTA Baltic Insurance Company AAS
e-mail elina.zvejniece@bta.lv