Novacore, an independent specialty insurance provider, has launched a new environmental segment, expanding its platform into environmental remediation and pollution liability risk. The launch lands at a genuinely pivotal moment for the line: two major insurers have exited site environmental liability in recent years just as PFAS-driven claims activity climbs sharply, a combination that's left real gaps in both capacity and, for many clients, coverage that hasn't been reviewed to reflect it.
The segment will center on a re-engineered Environmental Remediation Cost Cap (ECC) product alongside a Pollution Legal Liability (PLL) product, with underwriting and program details to be announced as Novacore Environmental prepares to begin writing business later this year.
Cole Russo joins as president, environmental, bringing more than 30 years of experience across underwriting, broking and claims management. Russo has developed casualty and specialized insurance programs for Fortune 500 and large multinational companies in the industrial, chemical manufacturing, pharmaceutical and financial sectors, and previously served as a client executive and manager at Marsh, Willis and Aon, as well as executive vice president at Crawford & Company, where he directed a Global Markets Americas business unit managing more than $150 million in comprehensive claims programs. He also spent 17 years as founder and president of Cole Russo & Company, providing customized insurance products to private equity firms.
"Roland, Al and I are delighted to become part of the Novacore team and to spearhead their environmental segment," said Russo. He said Novacore's disciplined underwriting approach and commitment to profitability aligned completely with their viewpoint and goals, and that the team looked forward to working with Novacore colleagues to provide environmental insurance risk solutions for broker partners and their clients.
Roland Costanzo joins as chief operating officer and executive vice president of Underwriting, bringing more than 30 years of experience spanning organizational leadership, corporate environmental management, environmental claims management, underwriting management, consulting, reserve forecasting, site remediation and litigation support. A former senior manager at AIG, Costanzo directly resolved many of the company's most complex environmental insurance claims across the Americas and Europe, and previously served as senior corporate environmental manager for the Hertz Corporation, overseeing operations across more than 1,000 facilities.
Al Nesheiwat joins as vice president, senior underwriter, bringing more than 30 years of executive and technical experience across the insurance, petroleum, chemical, real estate and energy sectors. Nesheiwat spent fourteen years at AIG managing the scientific, technical and regulatory activities of its environmental claims consulting group, and previously served as director of environmental affairs for Witco Chemical Company after beginning his career as a regulator with the US EPA Region II.
Russo, Costanzo and Nesheiwat were founding members of Ryan Transactional Risk Enviro and were the team that developed and managed North Branch Global Risk, a managing general agency underwriting environmental cost cap insurance on Munich Re paper.
"Profitability discipline is at the core of everything we build at Novacore, and Cole, Roland and Al have spent their entire careers proving they can deliver it, even in some of the most complex, long-tail environmental risk in the industry," said Aaron Miller, chief executive officer of Novacore.
He said their track record of underwriting with precision and managing claims to protect the bottom line was exactly the kind of leadership Novacore wanted anchoring the platform as it scales.
The launch comes as demand for environmental and pollution liability coverage in the US is being reshaped by growing claims tied to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, commonly known as PFAS or forever chemicals.
According to the NAIC, claims activity linked to PFAS contamination in groundwater has been rising across multiple states, with regulator-driven monitoring increasingly extending to previously closed cleanup sites, creating fresh exposure for property owners and their insurers - exposure that may not have existed, or been priced, when a site was originally remediated and closed out.
Aon has noted that the site environmental liability segment has faced real headwinds in recent years, including the exit of two major insurers and heightened underwriting scrutiny, even as the contractor's pollution liability market has separately seen increased capacity and broader coverage terms from carriers looking to expand their appetite in the space.
Environmental liability isn't just a line to place for new business right now, it's one worth actively revisiting on existing accounts. A site or client considered low-risk and closed out five years ago may be back under active regulatory monitoring today because of PFAS-specific testing that didn't exist when the original remediation was signed off. Clients with any historical environmental exposure, manufacturing history, chemical handling, or a previously "closed" cleanup site are worth a fresh conversation now, rather than waiting for the next scheduled renewal to surface a gap that may have already opened.
The global environmental remediation and cleanup market is projected to grow from $149.5 billion in 2026 to more than $258 billion by 2032, according to Research and Markets, with North America accounting for more than 40% of that spend.
Novacore's timing lines up with a market in flux: PFAS-driven claims are pushing demand for coverage higher just as two major insurers have exited the site environmental liability segment, tightening capacity in precisely the area Novacore's new ECC and PLL products are designed to address.
Bringing in a leadership team with decades of combined experience at AIG, the EPA and prior cost-cap MGA North Branch Global Risk suggests Novacore is betting that deep underwriting and claims expertise, rather than scale alone, will be the differentiator in a market where broader coverage terms are becoming more common even as capacity remains constrained.
With the environmental remediation market projected to grow by more than 70% over the next six years, the segment's success will likely hinge on whether that underwriting discipline holds as more capital looks to enter the space - and for brokers, the bigger opportunity sits less with any single new entrant than with proactively identifying which existing clients now sit in the gap between rising PFAS exposure and a market still adjusting to reduced capacity.
