Principal Asset ManagementSM real estate strategies score highly for integrating ESG factors into investment practices

By: Principal Financial Group via Business Wire

November 22, 2022 at 09:00 AM EST

For seven consecutive years Principal strategies earned a 4-star GRESB rating

Principal Asset Management^SM announced today that its U.S. real estate core strategy and two European real estate core property strategies received 4-star ratings in 2022 from the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB). The ratings place all three strategies in the top 40% of GRESB participants worldwide¹ and exhibit a long-standing commitment to integrate Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) standards into its real estate investment practices while pursuing positive financial results for clients. Nine strategies also received the green-star rating, which is awarded to entities with scores higher than 50 on both the implementation and measurement, and the management and policy sections.

This is the seventh consecutive year the U.S. core strategy has earned a 4-star rating from GRESB.

“Principal Asset Management continues to evolve its social and governance practices as investors place increased emphasis on ESG integration within their financial and risk management strategy,” said Jennifer McConkey, managing director of ESG and operations, real estate. “Our strong GRESB performance over the past seven years is evidence of the success of our Pillars of Responsible Property Investing platform with the ability of funds to continually implement new ESG practices and perform well against their peers in North America and Europe. We are committed to implementing the latest innovations in the real estate industry to help clients achieve positive financial and ESG outcomes.”

In total, Principal Asset Management submitted five U.S. real estate funds and six European real estate funds for participation in GRESB in 2022. Several funds showed increased scores in building certifications as well as improved data coverage and performance on energy, greenhouse gas emissions, and water. All 11 strategies outperformed the peer average in every scored category for management, which includes leadership, policies, reporting, risk management, and stakeholder engagement.

The Pillars of Responsible Property Investing is the overarching ESG platform for the firm’s dedicated real estate investment team. This platform guides the implementation of ESG throughout the property life cycle as it seeks to invest in and lend on real estate that delivers positive financial and ESG outcomes for all stakeholders while promoting health and wellbeing for tenants and residents, minimizing environmental impacts, and enhancing the communities where we invest.

¹ The GRESB star rating is a relative score that ranks all GRESB participants worldwide, broken up into quintiles. Therefore, a GRESB 4-star score indicates performance within the top 40% of all participants.

About GRESB

Each year, GRESB assesses and benchmarks the ESG performance of real assets worldwide. Overall fund participation grew by 20% this year to 1,820 listed and non-listed portfolios, generating a benchmark that covers USD6.9 trillion of AUM across 74 countries. Significant growth was focused in the Americas (30%) and Europe (16%). Information on the 2022 GRESB Real Estate results can be found at GRESB.com.

About Principal Asset Management^SM

With public and private market capabilities across all asset classes, Principal Asset Management^SM and its investment specialists look at asset management through a different lens, creating solutions to help deliver client investment objectives. By applying local insights with global perspectives, Principal Asset Management identifies distinct and compelling investment opportunities for more than 1,100 institutional clients in over 80 markets.¹ Its dedicated real estate investment team manages or sub-advises $98.5 billion in commercial real estate assets.¹ The firm's real estate capabilities include both public and private equity and debt investment alternatives.

Principal Asset Management is the global investment solutions business for Principal Financial Group^® (Nasdaq: PFG), managing $484.6 billion in assets¹ and recognized as a Top 10 “Best Places to Work in Money Management²” for 10 consecutive years. Learn more at www.PrincipalAM.com.

GRESB is a global ESG benchmark for real estate assets. The ratings exhibit the commitment of Principal Asset Management to integrating ESG standards into its investment practices while pursuing positive financial results for clients. In order to receive a ranking, the Firm paid GRESB an application fee to be evaluated and use the ranking.

Environmental, social and governance responsible investing (ESG) is qualitative and subjective by nature, and there is no guarantee that the criteria utilized, or judgment exercised, will reflect the beliefs or values of any one particular investor. ESG criteria may present additional advantages or risks and does not protect against market risks or volatility. You should not make any investment assumptions based solely on the information contained herein. There is no assurance that the socially responsible investing strategy and techniques employed will be successful.

[1] As of September 30, 2022

[2] Pensions & Investments, “The Best Places to Work in Money Management”, December 13, 2021.

©2022 Principal Financial Services, Inc. Principal®, Principal Financial Group®, and Principal and the logomark design are registered trademarks of Principal Financial Services, Inc., a Principal Financial Group company, in the United States and are trademarks and services marks of Principal Financial Services, Inc., in various countries around the world.