AXA XL and Grocers Launch Ocean Protection Education Campaign in Bermuda

DUBLIN, Ireland, Oct. 9 -- AXA XL, an insurance and reinsurance company, issued the following news release:

AXA XL, the P&C and specialty risk division of AXA SA ("AXA"), today announced, as part of its commitment to stem the tide of ocean risk, the launch of an ocean protection education campaign that will involve major local supermarkets.

This week, Harrington Hundreds in Smiths, Lindo's Market in Devonshire and Lindo's Family Foods in Warwick, The Supermart in Hamilton and Somer's Supermart in St. George's as well as The MarketPlace stores will provide one reusable shopping bag to each customer who purchases groceries totalling $50 or more, and two bags to those who purchase more than $100 of groceries. There will be a limit of two free bags per shopping visit. The front and back panels of the bags feature artwork, by local photographer Meredith Andrews, of a variety of plastic waste found on the island's shoreline.

The campaign will also include television and radio commercials, social media posts and presentations in schools - all designed to reach every sector of the island.

Commenting on the initiative, Patrick Tannock, CEO of AXA XL's Bermuda Insurance Operations and President of AXA XL's Bermuda-based philanthropic unit, the XL Foundation, said: "Research has shown that 80 percent of all marine debris is plastic and that by the year 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean. As an island, we in Bermuda rely heavily on the ocean. Last year our company, with scientific and Bermuda-based partners, sponsored Bermuda's first Ocean Risk Summit. The summit brought together representatives of governments, the finance sector, the (re)insurance industry and other sectors to consider specific risks posed by changes in the world's oceans caused by climate change and other man-made impacts. It focused on how governments and the business sector need to work together to address these risks. By collaborating with many of the island's grocers in this new initiative we aim to increase greater awareness and understanding of how we all can and must do our part to protect the ocean for ourselves and future generations."

Harrington Hundreds Owner Anthony Aguiar said: "Each day every one of us must do at least one thing that makes our planet a better place to live."

Lindo's Group of Companies Manager Zach Moniz said: "Lindo's is proud to be working with AXA XL, Supermart, Harrington Hundreds, and Marketplace on this exciting new initiative to reduce our shared consumption of plastic. We admire and are inspired by the talented people at AXA XL who developed this idea and we look forward to a future ahead with less plastic. Lindo's has consistently sought out and applied procedures and practices to reduce our waste and our carbon foot print and we are thrilled to be a part of this initiative!"

The Supermart Ltd President Tredick Gorham said: "As a company we are committed to reducing single-use packaging materials. This initiative highlights the importance of reusable bags and should reduce the need for single-use paper and plastic. We are continuing to examine waste across all departments and see this as an exciting opportunity to collaborate with our customers on reducing our impact on the environment."

Seth Stutzman, President of The MarketPlace group of stores, said: "We are in full support of this initiative. As part of our ongoing commitment to environmental sustainability we are working aggressively to eliminate single-use plastics, continue to offer environmentally safe products for our customers and have introduced biodegradable take-out containers for our food court. The bags will be provided to customers for our online ordering service in addition to in-store availability."

AXA XL has played a leading role in pushing for greater understanding of our oceans, supporting the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences as well as sponsoring independent scientific research into key indicators of change including extensive work on coral reefs and Arctic sea ice loss/*. It has most recently, in partnership with the public and private sectors, led the formation of the innovative Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance (ORRAA)/**, launched at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York.

ABOUT AXA XL/1

AXA XL/1, the property & casualty and specialty risk division of AXA, provides insurance and risk management products and services for mid-sized companies through to large multinationals, and reinsurance solutions to insurance companies globally. We partner with those who move the world forward. To learn more, visit www.axaxl.com

Footnotes:

*/AXA XL sponsors ocean science research and promotes its free distribution to the world's scientific community. Alongside its long running support of the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences, it has investigated the impacts of changes to the Arctic Ocean (2009-2011), created the first freely available digital baseline of coral reef health with the Seaview Survey (2012-2016) and helped to develop a standardized framework for assessing deep ocean habitats through the Deep Ocean Survey (2016).

**/ About ORRAA

The Alliance is an outcome of the first Ocean Risk Summit held in May 2018 in Bermuda, and was an initiative presented at the 2019 G7 Environment Ministerial in Metz, France. It was the only initiative presented there that was supported by all G7 members as well as Fiji, India, Mexico and Norway.

The Alliance comes in response to the United Nations' call for a transformative response by the finance and insurance industries to reduce the exposure and vulnerability of coastal communities and ecosystems through the global mobilisation of private capital and risk reduction expertise.

Members: ORRAA's current members are AXA, Ocean Unite, Government of Canada, the Global Resilience Partnership, The Nature Conservancy, Willis Towers Watson and Rare.

1/AXA XL is a division of AXA Group providing products and services through four business groups: AXA XL Insurance, AXA XL Reinsurance, AXA XL Art & Lifestyle and AXA XL Risk Consulting.