Last week, I mentioned that Fireman’s Fund will permit folks who lost homes in the recent Southern California wildfires to reconstruct in a green manner.
It seems that Lexington may be going one better. From Insurance Business Review:
Lexington Insurance Company, a member company of American International Group, has introduced Upgrade to Green Residential, an insurance coverage allowing US homeowner policyholders to rebuild their property to green standards following a covered loss.
The company said that Upgrade to Green responds whether the insured home suffers a partial or a total loss from a covered event and extends coverage beyond the basic replacement value afforded by standard homeowners insurance policies. In the event of a covered partial loss to the insured property, the policy pays for the insured to purchase products and materials and make repairs to adopt Energy Star or equivalent levels of energy efficiency.
While I’ve got to believe that such a program is just asking for a resurrection of the insurance-to-value mess that many insurers worked through in the 90’s, it is nice to see carriers seemingly willing to sacrifice a little in the interest of some measure of environmental responsibility.