GuideOne Insurance is a major insurance provider of insurance to faith congregations, religious organizations, and schools – nearly 75% of the company's business portfolio is composed of faith organizations. The company also provides insurance coverage to build and operate coal, oil, and gas, enabling fossil fuel expansion at a time when global bodies including the Catholic Church, the International Energy Agency, and the UN Secretary General are all urgently calling on financial institutions to stop enabling the sectors that are driving the climate crisis.

The faith community has a unique opportunity to raise a collective voice of morality, representing GuideOne's client base, and to call for GuideOne to match its business practices with its stated values and to help accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy by ending its insurance coverage for and investments in fossil fuels.

Individual religious leaders/clergy, congregations, religious organizations, and religious schools are all welcome to sign onto the letter. You do not need to be a GuideOne policyholder to sign. This sign-on letter has been drafted by the Insure Our Future campaign (www.insureourfuture.us) in consultation with interfaith advocates.

Questions can be directed to Mary Sweeters, Senior Campaigner, Insure Our Future - mary@sunriseproject.net

Please see the text of the letter and form to sign below.


 ------SIGN ON DEADLINE (EXTENDED): August 6, 2021-------


GuideOne Insurance
Attn: Ms. Jessica Snyder, CEO
1111 Ashworth Road West
Des Moines, IA 50265-3538

Dear Ms. Snyder,

We, the undersigned organizations and congregations, in practicing the tenets of our respective faiths, urge you to align GuideOne’s business practices with the Paris Climate Agreement and GuideOne’s own message of “Make Positive Change Possible” by immediately ending support for new fossil fuel projects and rapidly phasing out underwriting services for existing fossil fuel projects and companies not aligned with a 1.5°C limit to global warming.

As leaders and organizations in the faith community, we see a moral imperative to address the climate crisis with the urgency it demands. Many religious orders have taken steps to divest from fossil fuels, for example, in recognition of the need to stop financing the industries driving climate change and to instead enable the transition to a clean energy economy, now.

Insurance companies have a key role to play to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy. Most importantly, they can end insurance coverage for and investments in the coal, oil, and gas companies and projects that are driving climate change and harming our planet and its people.

Notably, GuideOne leadership has said the company wants to provide coverage to coal companies and utilities that have lost insurance coverage from other insurers. This is concerning due to coal’s harmful effects on the planet and human health. Coal is the most carbon-intensive fuel and the pollution from burning coal kills over 10,000 Americans prematurely every year. Over 25 insurance companies worldwide have adopted their own policies to limit and/or end coverage for coal due to the financial risk and to align with their sustainability goals. Given GuideOne’s role as a values-based insurance company, we urge you to join them.

We are aware that GuideOne also currently provides insurance to renewable energy. Given the urgent need to decarbonize our energy economy, we encourage GuideOne to step into a leadership position by investing heavily in renewable energy and other solutions to climate change, helping to accelerate the transition to a clean energy future.

Specifically, we are calling on GuideOne Insurance to:

1. Immediately stop insuring new and expanded coal, oil, and gas projects.
2. Immediately cease insuring coal companies.
3. Phase out, in line with a 1.5°C pathway, insurance for oil and gas companies.
4. Divest all assets, including assets managed by third parties, from coal, oil, and gas companies not aligned with a 1.5°C pathway.
5. Bring stewardship activities, membership of trade associations and public positions as a shareholder and corporate citizen in line with a 1.5°C pathway in a transparent way.
6. Establish robust due diligence and verification mechanisms to ensure clients fully respect and observe all human rights, including the right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) as articulated in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

We respectfully request a meeting with you to discuss this matter within one month of receipt of this letter.  

We look forward to your response and to working with GuideOne to align your business practices with your stated values of doing good for the communities, and therefore the planet, that we all call home.