Sustainable damage repair must become the norm

Sustainable repair must become the norm when dealing with claims, rather than replacing them. To this end, Schoonmakend Nederland, the Netherlands Institute of Register Experts Foundation (NIVRE) and the Dutch Association of Insurers have drawn up a manifesto with principles for future damage repair. And want sustainable damage repair to be commonplace in the non-life market by the end of 2024. The Sustainable Damage Repair Manifesto was signed during the Association's Damage Afternoon 2023.

The new normal

The floods in the Netherlands (2021) have once again made the urgency to make sustainable damage repair the norm visible. The reuse of irreparable items, possibly for other purposes, also falls under sustainable damage repair. For example, repairing equipment instead of a standard fee for a new one. Or find a body shop closer to home instead of outside the region. And there are many more examples.
Sustainability is a responsibility for the entire chain and must become the new normal, according to the manifesto signed by three parties.

Reactions of participating parties

Rob Rommelse, Managing Director of Schoonmakend Nederland: "Sustainable recovery must become the default and collaboration is crucial in this regard. Alone you go faster, together you go further. We therefore expect that this is just the beginning and that many more parties will join the manifesto. "
Klaas Brand, chairman of NIVRE: "When compensating compensation, the expert will no longer only have to look at the financial impact of damage, but much more emphatically at the sustainability impact of the repair. This is something that society is asking more and more of us. Just look at the rise of the green policy. And we believe that society should also demand this from us with a view to the future and that we desperately need all chain partners to do so. Incidentally, this means that experts may no longer express the amount of damage in euros, but in terms of CO2 emissions or other factors relating to 'socially responsible' action, such as the deployment of people with a distance to the labour market in the recovery process."

Chain responsibility

Lidwien Suur, chair of the General Sector Board of the Dutch Association of Insurers, also signed the manifesto: 'We believe sustainability is a responsibility for the entire chain. In addition to compensating for damage, damage repair is also about ecological and social values. Cooperation agreements on the method of sustainable damage repair are therefore crucial. With this manifesto, we are giving a clear impetus from the insurance sector.' In the manifesto, NIVRE, Schoonmakend Nederland and the Association also call on other parties in the damage chain to join. And in doing so, to continue working together on a sustainable future.