Environmental
Liability Insurance

If your company deals with hazardous materials regularly or even just on an occasional basis, it’s impossible to guarantee that those materials won’t be leaked into the land, air or water as a result of human error or an equipment breakdown. If you’re not prepared, the resulting fines and mandated clean up can bankrupt your business. That’s why you need pollution and environmental liability insurance.

Do you really want to take the chance that a simple mistake or equipment failure can destroy all that you’ve worked to build?

Environmental Liability Insurance Claim Examples 

Here are a few examples of where having an environmental liability insurance policy can protect your business from disastrous losses: 

Incomplete Removal 

As an independent contractor, part of your job is clearing out mold and asbestos (an extreme health risk) from old structures to make way for new renovations. While you are normally very attuned to detail and you generally do not have any issue with completing such a task, on one particular residential job you overlook some asbestos growth. This reduces the air quality in the home once the new family moves in, causing breathing problems for some of the family members. 

The family might sue you because of their injuries or illness. If you had an environmental liability insurance policy, this incident could be covered under your policy, helping to offset your remediation costs, lawsuit costs and legal expenses.  

Residential Mold 

While working as a plumber on a job for a client, you make an error which slowly causes water seepage into the home. As a result, mold grows in the basement and middle floor, causing a significant decrease in the home air quality over the years. The issue is traced back to you, as the one who made the mistake. The client sues you for bodily injury and property loss, but that could be covered if you had an environmental liability insurance policy.  

How Much Does Environmental Liability Insurance Cost? 

Environmental liability rates are calculated using several different factors, including: 

• Your business’ industry – Some industries may only deal with pollution as an extremely rare side effect of doing business, where others may deal with hazardous materials on some level every single day. For example, a painting company might have to dispose of unneeded paint materials/control paint fumes, but a waste removal company runs a higher risk of damages. 
• Business experience – The newer the business, the likelier the company is to run into unexpected issues because of a lack of training. Businesses that have been around longer or that have more experience dealing with matters like pollution are better equipped to handle unexpected losses. 

• Annual/projected gross revenue – If an interruption was caused by a pollution event, your insurer may need to know your typical revenue to gauge what you would lose for lost costs. You may receive lost costs as compensation if you have business interruption insurance with your environmental liability insurance package. 
• Number of employees – Human error is one of the biggest causes of losses. Depending on how many employees you have, their training and protocol, the odds of a loss may be greater or less. 
• Past pollution claims – If you’ve made multiple claims in the past five years, your odds of making a claim again in the future are likelier — or at least, they are in the eyes of insurers. You can prevent making claims by implementing adequate risk management solutions. 
• Licencing and certification – Does your business have adequate and relevant training? If so, your risk may be less than if you were unlicensed, not certified and dealing with hazardous materials in such a way that put your business at risk.  
• Physical location – Foot traffic, proximity to large bodies of water (i.e., for spill incidents) may affect your insurance rates. 

Get a free environmental liability insurance quote with CCV Insurance to see just how much your insurance package may cost your business or give us a call to discuss. 

Why CCV Insurance?

The environmental liability insurance brokers at CCV Insurance are experts in Ontario insurance. Providing our clients with optimal protection is our top priority. 

Whether you’re a company owner or an independent contractor, it’s critical to ensure that your financial interests are sufficiently covered by the likes of a comprehensive business insurance policy. If you have a risk of hazardous waste exposure at any point in your daily duties, then it’s a good idea to check with a broker and discuss the addition of environmental liability insurance to your policy. You cannot purchase insurance after an accident, and pollution is not covered under a standard general liability insurance policy. While it’s ultimately up to you whether to purchase environmental liability insurance, we highly recommend its addition to your comprehensive commercial policy to protect your business and bottom line. 

To learn more about protecting your company from the fines and cleanup expenses that can result from a hazardous material leak, and to request a free pollution and environmental liability insurance quote as a supplement to your existing business insurance policy, contact CCV Insurance today!