Desjardins offers premium discount for hybrid vehicles

Desjardins General Insurance, the property and casualty insurance arm of Desjardins Group, a Canadian cooperative financial group, is introducing an additional 10% discount on the automobile insurance premium for hybrid vehicles.”Under the circumstances, promoting the use of vehicles that have both an internal combustion engine and an electric motor is certainly a worthwhile strategy for reducing environmentally-damaging gas emissions,” Jude Martineau, the president and CEO of Desjardins General Insurance, said in a press release. “As a member of Desjardins Group, we are aware of the importance of being forward-thinking, especially in the social, economic and environmental choices we make. And as an insurer, we are proud to contribute to these efforts in our own way.”The company says its premium discount is in keeping with a sustainable development policy adopted by Desjardins Group and all its subsidiaries in October 2005. Desjardins said it adopted the policy as a way of signaling the company’s desire to help achieve the major objectives of the Kyoto Protocol, as well as its commitment to a healthier environment.”All gasoline-powered vehicles emit CO2, one of the six greenhouse gases identified in the Kyoto Protocol,” Desjardins said in its release. “In Qubec, 37.4% of total greenhouse gas emissions come from the transportation sector. Generally speaking, the less gas a car consumes, the less it pollutes.”