How environmentally friendly is your manufacturing business? The small things, like having recycling containers and reusing as much old cardboard and other things as possible, only go so far, especially if your company produces products that can have environmental consequences. Whether these hazardous items are the byproducts of your manufacturing process or are a major component of the products themselves, you need to ensure that you have your environmental risks covered with a liability insurance policy or two.
Types of Environmental Liability Insurance
Your manufacturing company needs to have the required types of environmental liability insurance in place. Otherwise, your business may take a financial hit should there be a catastrophic spill or release of harmful chemicals on site. If you don’t have the right insurance policies, your company could end up paying for the cleanup costs, employee medical bills, and more out of pocket. Having insurance will save you from these excruciating losses.
In addition, depending on your location, you may have to carry environmental liability insurance in order to operate in compliance with state and federal laws. If you can’t prove that you have this protection, then your business could be operating illegally and will be subject to fines and penalties.
Thankfully, there are several different types of environmental liability insurance to choose from, including:
Site Pollution Liability
Site pollution liability policies are exactly as they sound. If your manufacturing business handles or deals in liquids, solids, or gases that could potentially pollute the land around it, then you need to have this type of insurance in place, just in case of a leak. This particular liability insurance also covers harm done to your employees or anyone else located on site, such as those who walk through the property and are injured by the pollution.
Contractors Pollution Liability
Although this type of insurance may not apply to your manufacturing company, it could, depending on how you operate. Contractors pollution liability insurance is designed to cover contractors (hence the name) who work at third party job sites for your company. How could this apply to a manufacturing business? Well, if you have an offsite location that’s staffed with temporary contractors due to it being a busy time of year, it’s possible that you need to have this type of insurance.
Integrated Casualty Liability
Finally, there’s integrated casualty liability. This type of insurance combines a number of different types of environmental pollution policies, hence its name. Usually, this includes product pollution liability, which applies to the products that you make, as well as general liability coverage under the environmental umbrella, which pays for things like medical bills for people who accidentally wound up in the polluted area, as well as the costs of clean up, although this depends widely on the terms of the policy.
Have Questions? Contact Charlotte Insurance
Want to learn more about environmental liability insurance? Worried that your manufacturing plant might accidentally contaminate the environment? Contact Charlotte Insurance. Our agents can explore and explain all available options and put together the insurance coverage plan your business needs.