It is hard to believe that throughout 2023 the Environmental Division was celebrating our 15-year anniversary. It feels like just a short time ago I was researching what Great American was and trying to decide if I had enough energy and fortitude to help create another new environmental market after having earlier successes with “start-ups” and carriers. Fortunately, it turned out to be the best decision of my career. Despite the many triumphs and challenges faced throughout the past 15 years, I have not regretted the decision I made back in late 2007 to join Great American.  

At Great American Environmental, we have always prided ourselves on overcoming the many challenges and obstacles that we have faced throughout our 15 years, just as Great American Insurance Company has done throughout its 150+ year history. In honor of our 15-year anniversary and the many we hope will follow, we remain committed to providing a high level of service to our many customers and brokers, ensuring you have the products and services you need to thrive.

Reflecting on another successful year

This past year has certainly been another challenging year for most of us, especially given all the events and conflicts our country and the world is facing which may directly or indirectly impact our lives and business dealings. That aside, I want to focus on the positives and recognize the great work that was done by our team in 2023. Let’s look at just a handful of highlights that we were able to accomplish over the past year: 

• Expanded our products and services to meet the ever-changing insurance needs of our customer base.
• Continued Discover What We Cover, Great American Environmental’s podcast series – which covers numerous topics ranging from industry trends to environmental insurance FAQs. Listen to these episodes on all major streaming platforms.
• Expanded our TankAssure® Pollution Program, an extremely user-friendly online quoting and binding program for your clients’ storage tank coverage needs offered on admitted paper in all 50 states. 
• Expanded our collection of various webinars and virtual resources, such as our Riskopolis Series page and Claims Scenario Library, to better assist you in informing your clients of environmental dangers. Our new PRE Enhancement Guide is a great accompaniment to our ever-popular Environmental Product Guide.
• Recognized as one of forty recipients across the United States as a Break Out Insurance Leader by Business Insurance. Our very own Kevin Rega, production underwriting supervisor, was named as a Business Insurance’s Break Out Award recipient, which recognizes the next generation’s leaders in the risk management and property and casualty insurance fields.
• Participated in a variety of charitable events as well as industry conferences and team bonding activities.
• Continued the expansion of several existing programs, implemented with our key specialty brokers. We are delighted to continue these mutually beneficial relationships and look forward to the success and expansion of these programs in 2024.
• Developed new relationships with many brokers across the country and continued the success of our GREAT AMERICAN REWARDS program which launched in 2018 and has now transitioned to a fully digital program. Sign up today!
• Launched the newest addition to our suite of environmental products – AXLE. Through program administrator, Starfish, AXLE is a transportation pollution liability (TPL) policy that fills in gaps in the standard pollution coverages offered in auto liability forms and wraps around the CA 99 48 ‘Pollution Liability – Broadened Coverage’ endorsement, all while providing the benefits of a traditional pollution liability policy. 
• Augmented our educational platform – the Broker Toolkit – which was developed as a one-stop shop to access all the educational tools and resources needed to assist in successfully marketing environmental insurance to current and prospective clients. This includes the launch of our (The) Hard Hat Hub: Great American Environmental's Contracting Services Resources.
• Our whitepaper collection, created by our Risk Engineering team’s in-house subject matter experts, included subjects such as Navigating Cleanup in New York City and Brownfield Redevelopment.
• Expanded our product video suite with the addition of the Products Pollution video, which illustrates how pollution conditions can have the potential to impede business operations and may result in the required shutdown of manufacturing processes if an insured is not properly protected.
• Strengthened our division by hiring many talented and experienced individuals in our underwriting, claims, legal and risk engineering teams, and expanded our internal training department to assist in keeping everyone in the division updated and informed.
• Maintained our current flexibility with work schedules while making certain that all our employees continue to communicate and work together as a cohesive team.
• Maintained and strengthened our relationships with key brokers and clients. Our team took every measure to provide seamless continuity in our service to our brokers and agents. Our webinar series helped to continue our educational offerings in a virtual setting – with an in-person component also available.
• Improved our Claims Unit by hiring additional claims adjusters with years of legal experience to handle claims in a professional and timely manner
• Continued to increase our media presence in an effort to communicate the importance of environmental insurance for commercial customers while also being formally recognized as a top service provider.

Looking forward

As part of our business planning for 2023, we established very aggressive goals to enable us to continue to be a recognized leader in the environmental insurance marketplace. I am pleased to report that all our units did a great job in accomplishing or, in some cases, exceeding these goals. While there were numerous times over the year when it appeared we had asked for the impossible, with the staff becoming concerned or disheartened at times, we were able to come together as a cohesive team and focus our energy and resources to reach achieve our goals of continuing our path to success. Just a few examples include:  

Our Underwriting Unit achieved historic production and profitability results while continuing to provide superior customer service and creative, flexible product offerings to meet the needs of our brokers and insureds. The team’s adherence to a very collaborative environment — which ensures that our coverage offerings meet our clients’ needs whenever possible — remains the cornerstone of our success. The unit’s dedication to the development and fostering of strong customer relationships while remaining committed to our underwriting discipline served us well and continues to pay dividends. 

Our Risk Engineering team continued to provide quality and efficient service to our underwriting group throughout the year. Their partnership with our underwriters to lend their expertise to our collaboration process is vital and provides not only quality technical knowledge on individual risks, but also serves as an excellent learning opportunity for all our underwriters. Keeping up-to-date on changing regulations and emerging issues is a constant struggle, and our Risk Engineering team does a first-rate job keeping us ahead of the curve and contributing to our broker resources with relevant and timely whitepapers, as mentioned above.

Our Legal team, which we expanded to currently include three very talented and experienced attorneys, provided guidance and counsel to not only the underwriters, but also to our brokers and insureds where needed. Their review of numerous contracts and development of thousands of manuscript coverage wordings and endorsements enabled us to tailor coverage to meet our clients needs.  

Our Claims Unit had a very good year handling all environmental claims with professionalism, responsiveness and overall service at the forefront. With this commitment to excellence, the team successfully exceeded all the goals established internally, as well as those set by our corporate claims group. We were also able to expand our team with the hiring of two quality and talented attorneys to ensure that we continue to handle claims in a timely and efficient manner. 

Our Communications Unit’s continued dedication and hard work has helped to further advance our profile in the marketplace. Even more important, the expansion of current materials and the development of new and tailored marketing resources has strengthened our broker relationships. They continue to find and cultivate opportunities for us to speak to new and diverse broker audiences and author articles that raise awareness of the need for environmental coverage. This unit also houses many of the Division’s support functions, including training and internal communications. Successful education resources are developed not only for underwriters, but also tailored for our brokers based on your requests on a variety of industry topics. Our internal communications efforts have ensured continuity in messaging between our various office locations and remote employees.

As we look ahead to 2024, I’m sure there will be many unexpected challenges and hurdles we all will need to face, whether it be on the worldwide stage, the national level or within the environmental insurance industry itself.  We anticipate that in order to meet these challenges and overcome the hurdles, we will need to remain diligent, flexible and be able to quickly adapt when needed.  

You can be confident that our team is committed to taking whatever reasonable measures may be needed to continue to provide seamless continuity in our service to you. We are excited to feature upcoming business expansion opportunities within both our traditional offerings and new programs, including: 

• Our upcoming online program curated for small business contractors, tradesmen, and artisans across various industries, such as general contractors, HVAC contractors, drywall contractors, painters, and more. Contractors ProProtect will include professional liability coverage while conveniently meeting the requirements of project owners, remaining at a competitive price point and providing a quick turnaround process.
• Our team of experts will continue to host the popular environmental insurance-focused podcast with new episodes throughout the year.
• With the addition of a second experienced training coordinator to our division, we are committed to enhanced training for our existing staff and the hiring and onboarding of key personnel as appropriate to enable us to continue to meet our commitments to our clients.
• Our Broker Satisfaction Survey will be conducted again in 2024 to ensure we continue to provide the best service and coverage to our brokers and their clients.
• We will continue to focus on our keys to success. Focusing on strategic growth in which we ensure our culture remains at the forefront of any business decisions, these “keys” will help to guide us in best serving our customer needs for the next decade and beyond:
  • Professionalism: To work with all people in an ethical and respectful manner
  • Quality: To ensure that our work product is complete, accurate and meets the needs of our customers
  • Service-Oriented: To constantly exceed the needs of our customers as best as possible
  • Ownership: To take responsibility for our actions and commitment to a strong work ethic
  • Change: To adapt to change which remains a constant within our industry
  • Collaboration: To work as a team because we’re stronger together than we are individually

Only by excelling in these core principles will we be able to maintain our position as one of the industry’s premier environmental insurance carriers. 

Overall, I am proud of the remarkable accomplishments the Environmental Division has achieved over the past 15 years and look forward to many more successful years to come. I am very proud to be associated with the great group of people in our division as well as being a part of a larger “Great” company to work for, and I look forward to even better times for all. 

I would also like to thank you – our various advocates and collaborators – for your business and continued support. We look forward to a happy, healthy, safe and prosperous 2024. 

Sincerely,

Mark Vuono

Mark Vuono is Divisional President after holding the position of chief underwriting officer since the start of Great American’s Environmental Division. Along with his extensive experience in the insurance field including business planning, product development, underwriting and training, his background also includes experience as an environmental specialist as well as a health & safety officer. He is based out of our Exton, PA office.

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