What are Sustainable ‘green’ repairs?
At Zurich, we’re working hard to incorporate sustainability into the heart of our business.
A lot of this hard work goes on behind-the-scenes, for example, reducing business miles and phasing out petrol and diesel company cars in favour of electric hybrid models.
At the same time, we’re working closely with our repairers to make sure that, where appropriate, they’re repairing vehicles using ‘green’ parts.
What are green parts? How does using green parts benefit you and the environment?
They are originally manufactured parts, reclaimed from vehicles which are no longer roadworthy.
Not all parts are suitable to be re-used, for example safety critical parts would always be sourced direct from manufacturers. However, choosing to repair non-safety critical parts with green parts will save the energy costs of manufacturing and shipping those parts, and the costs of recycling the old part.
Don’t forget, most of the parts on a modern car will never need to be replaced during its lifetime. The green parts Zurich authorises its repairers to use, have all been checked and all conform to British Standards and include parts such as doors and lights.
David Nichols, Zurich’s Chief Claims Officer, said:
“Green parts are a more sustainable way to repair components that are non-safety critical. By extending the life of parts that would otherwise be scrapped, we can reduce harmful carbon emissions while continuing to offer our customers high quality repairs.”
An added benefit of getting cars repaired using green parts during the current global economic situation, is being able to source genuine parts in the UK. As global manufacturing continues recover post-COVID and with the war in Ukraine, supply chains are squeezed. New parts, particularly those from the far east and China, can take much longer to be supplied or may be substituted with parts from other manufacturers.