ClimateWise 2010 Case Study: QBE CRES Environmental Reporting ClimateWise Principle 5: Reduce the environmental impact of our business:

• Measure and seek to reduce the environmental impact of the internal operations and physical assets under our control

• Disclose our direct emissions of greenhouse gases using a globally recognised standard

Corporate Real Estate Services (CRES EO) has primary responsibility for identifying, monitoring, reducing and reporting environmental impacts from our physical assets and internal activities. QBE European Operations began to compile environmental key performance indicator data during 2007. Since 2008, CRES EO has developed and implemented a management system throughout all 78 of our European offices, now covering more than 2,600 QBE employees in 17 countries. This system monitors a range of environmental key performance indicator data including: energy and water consumption, business travel (air, rail and company vehicles) and fugitive losses of refrigerants from systems owned or controlled by QBE. Since its introduction, we have continuously sought to improve the system:

• We work with a qualified and experienced external consultant on an on-going basis, as this allows quarterly data assurance;

• The scope of reporting was expanded in 2009 to include reporting of office paper consumption. • QBE’s European Operations Environmental Reporting format was adopted as standard by

QBE Group and applied globally throughout the company at the start of 2010. Data is used for public reporting, to support decision making and help identify opportunities to improve environmental management:

• Data is compiled on a quarterly basis, with data gaps, limitations and opportunities for improvement identified in quarterly reports that are issued to reporting offices and our head office in Australia;

• Data has been used to compare performance between offices and benchmark performance against external standards. This process of internal and external benchmarking has improved our understanding of the company’s environmental impact and will allow identification of best practice and support development of initiatives to reduce adverse impacts;

• Direct Greenhouse Gas emissions associated with our European offices are calculated in accordance with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development / World Resources Institute Greenhouse Gas Protocol and current Defra / DECC guidance for Company Reporting and reported through ClimateWise;

• QBE Group Annual Report reports three global carbon based metrics: business air travel, car fleet and electricity usage.