APG, PGGM and USS were recognised for β10 years of ESG leadershipβ at the ΒιΆΉΣ³» Real Estate Global Awards, a decade after they co-founded real assets sustainability benchmark GRESB.
GRESB managing director Sander Paul van Tongeren and ΒιΆΉΣ³» Real Assets editor Richard Lowe presented the awards to the three pension fund investors during the annual awards ceremony in Amsterdam on Thursday.
Patrick Kanters, Mathieu Elshout and David Russell accepted the awards on behalf of APG, PGGM and USS, respectively.
Speaking to a room of some 400 investors, fund managers and consultants, ΒιΆΉΣ³» Real Assets publisher Janet Pearch said: βWhen APG, PGGM and USS co-founded GRESB in 2009, they sent a powerful signal to the market that investors demanded transparency about the environmental, social, governance performance of their real asset investments.
βTen years later, this message continues to reverberate through the investment chain, driving the spread of sustainability best practices around the world.β
It is also eight years since ΒιΆΉΣ³» Real Assets awarded APG, PGGM and USS its annual outstanding industry contribution at the same event in Amsterdam in 2011, two years after GRESB was established.
ESG was a key theme at the ΒιΆΉΣ³» Real Estate Global conference in the day, during which Hans Opβt Veld, head of responsible investment at PGGM, explained why ESG formed an integral part of real estate risk management.
