APG, PGGM and USS were recognised for “10 years of ESG leadership” at the IPE Real Estate Global Awards, a decade after they co-founded real assets sustainability benchmark GRESB.
GRESB managing director Sander Paul van Tongeren and IPE 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, IPE Real Assets publisher Janet Pearch said: “When 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.
“Ten years later, this message continues to reverberate through the investment chain, driving the spread of sustainability best practices around the world.”
It is also eight years since IPE 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 IPE Real Estate Global conference in the day, during which Hans Op’t Veld, head of responsible investment at PGGM, explained why ESG formed an integral part of real estate risk management.
