Crucial steps businesses can take to protect both their facilities and finances in the event of a natural disaster.

Across the country, businesses are choosing to go green. In addition to helping the planet, environmentally friendly practices and facilities can enhance the reputation of a business and lower its energy and water costs. Businesses are also encouraged to go green by government tax credits and other incentives.

While environmentally friendly buildings and equipment can provide numerous benefits to businesses, they also add costs and risks. Insurers have responded by offering policy options to protect a business’s investment in going green.

A specialized type of professional liability insurance, medical malpractice insurance provides coverage to physicians and other medical professionals for liability arising from disputed services that result in a patient’s injury or death. A majority of American doctors face at least one medical malpractice lawsuit in the course of their career.

If you operate an aviation business, you’ll want to consider purchasing specialized aviation insurance. Because operating and servicing airplanes and helicopters entails numerous risks, several types of aviation insurance are available, including:

Crop insurance is purchased by agricultural producers, including farmers, ranchers and others to protect against either the loss of their crops due to natural disasters, or the loss of revenue due to declines in the prices of agricultural commodities. There are two major types of crop insurance: multiple peril crop insurance (MPCI) and crop-hail insurance.

Multiple peril crop insurance (MPCI)

MPCI covers crop losses, including lower yields, caused by natural events, such as:

Don’t let the term “inland marine” confuse you. As opposed to “marine insurance,” which covers products when transported over water, inland marine insurance covers products, materials and equipment when transported over land—e.g., via truck or train—or while temporarily warehoused by a third party. Collisions and cargo theft are the two most frequent causes of inland marine losses.

If you operate a marine business or regularly ship cargo overseas, you should consider purchasing ocean marine insurance. The following types of businesses are especially exposed to maritime risk and may need specialized marine coverage:

Unfortunately, it can sometimes be a very dangerous world. In some countries, kidnapping for ransom and business extortion have become a means for lawless individuals and gangs to make money. Quite aside from the personal trauma, the kidnapping of an employee can lead to significant financial losses, not only from ransom payments but also from associated costs such as business interruption, litigation, adverse publicity and long-term reputation damage. 

Many businesses—especially small businesses with fewer employees—depend on a single person or a few key people for their success. If a key person becomes unable to work or dies, the business might lose valuable accounts or be temporarily unable to operate, resulting in lost revenue.

In recent years, there have been an increasing number of costly computer hacking attacks against large companies, such as Target and Home Depot. But smaller companies face computer liability risks as well. Virtually all businesses use information technology (IT) in some way—to communicate via email, to provide information or services through a website, to store and use customer data and more. Your business can be held liable if certain data is compromised, not only by hacking attacks but even if a smartphone is lost or a laptop computer is stolen.