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Sustainability and Sustainable Development Goals

Overview

The United Nations in 2015 adopted its 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Included are 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which can be found here THE 17 GOALS | Sustainable Development (un.org), along with 169 targets. The goals relate to a wide range of issues, including quality of life, education, environmental and economic, among others. Included are goals related to climate action.

The SOA Research Institute Catastrophe & Climate Strategic Research Program would like to better understand how concepts of sustainable development and sustainability can drive changes to actuarial practice or be addressed by actuarial practice areas.

This call for essays is to identify and develop a set of objectives, as well as how to get there. The Catastrophe & Climate Research Steering Committee may, as a follow-up to this Call for Essays, seek in-depth research on this topic at a later date in 2023.

Content

The following questions and issues are examples of ideas or issues for respondents to consider in crafting essays with a focus on practical applications. Authors may address these issues or issues they consider more relevant for a particular group or more generally among different groups. The list below is neither exhaustive nor intended to be restrictive of other related areas:

  • What does sustainability mean in the context of actuarial practice or actuarial practice areas?
  • What does sustainability mean in the context of specific lines of business such as Life & Health insurance, P&C insurance, Retirement programs or pensions?
  • What does it mean to identify a financial institution as being sustainable?
  • How can risk management processes incorporate sustainability objectives and can they be measured and monitored?
  • Discuss quantitative methods and metrics that can be used to assess sustainability.
  • Which SDG(s) are the most significant for the actuarial and risk management professions to focus on, and what role should actuaries and risk managers have?
  • Whether and how should SDGs play a role in ORSAs or Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) disclosures?
  • What are sustainable assets (financial instruments) of an insurer or pension program?
  • For a selected number of SDGs, how can/should the actuarial profession and individual actuaries play a role in moving them forward.

Timeline

The deadline for submissions is June 23, 2023. Essays will be published in a formal collection later in the year.

Length and Instructions for Submission

Essays must be submitted in English with a desired length of between 500 to 3,000 words. There is no requirement for formal or extensive footnoting. Essays are not intended to be rigorous research, but rather can reflect personal opinions and/or experience.

Author information must be submitted with the essay and include name; credentials or designations (if appropriate); title; organization/company; e-mail address; and phone number. Please provide all author information at the beginning of the essay.

Essays that contain any overt political statements, commercial content, and other inappropriate material will not be accepted. Articles must comply with the SOA's antitrust guidelines.

Please submit your essay via e–mail to:

Erika Schulty, Research Administrator
Society of Actuaries Research Institute
e–mail: ESchulty@soa.org

Awards

$5,000 in award money has been allocated for this call for essays. The review committee will select the leading essays and determine how to allocate the award money among them. Consideration will be given to creativity, originality and the extent to which an idea may be of practical significance. In exchange for award money, selected authors will be required to assign all copyrights in their essays to the Society of Actuaries Research Institute.

Authors are ineligible for awards if an essay is based on an SOA Research Institute-sponsored and funded research study conducted by the author. However, authors are welcome to submit such essays for publication consideration.

Publication and Presentation

Depending on how many essays are received and the range of the topic areas, a suitable format for electronic publication and dissemination of those accepted essays will be selected. Essays may also be presented at an SOA Research Institute meeting, webcast, or other professional development event.

In addition, other venues for publication or presentation of the ideas outside of the SOA Research Institute will be considered. It is hoped that publication of the collected essays will further knowledge and stimulate discussion as well as promote future efforts in this area.

Rights Granted

Please understand that by submitting an essay for consideration, the essay author(s) is granting to the Society of Actuaries Research Institute an unlimited license to print or republish their essay, with proper attribution given to the author(s).

Questions

Please direct any questions regarding this Call for Essays to:

Rob Montgomery, SOA Research Project Manager
Society of Actuaries Research Institute
e–mail: rmontgomery@soa.org