Press release
Principal Real Estate Investors Fund Strategies Score Highly With GRESB for Advancements in ESG Program Initiatives
DES MOINES, Iowa--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Principal Real Estate Investors announced today that two of its private equity property strategies and a European core
About this update from Principal Financial Group Inc
[{"type":"text","content":" DES MOINES, Iowa--(BUSINESS WIRE)--\nPrincipal Real Estate Investors announced today that two of its private equity property strategies and a European core property strategy managed by one of its European affiliates received 4-star ratings in 2020 from GRESB, the global ESG benchmark for real estate assets. The ratings exhibit Principal Real Estate Investors’ commitment to integrating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards into its investment practices while pursuing positive financial results for clients.\n\nThis is the fifth consecutive year the core and core-plus private real estate equity strategies have earned a 4-star rating from GRESB and scored in the top 15 of their peer groups. The Principal European Core Property Strategy captured a 4-star distinction for the first time after increasing its 2019 GRESB score by 37 points.\n\nThe 4-star rating means all three strategies are in the top 40 percent of GRESB participants worldwide1.\n\n“Our strong GRESB performance demonstrates the success of our ESG program and an ability to apply ESG lessons learned to new fund strategies, resulting in high impact improvement,” said Jennifer McConkey, senior director of operations and sustainability for Principal Real Estate Investors. “We are continuously evolving our program to stay on top of the latest ESG developments in the real estate industry, and our GRESB results show our continued leadership in this important area.”\n\nIn total, all six of the strategies Principal Real Estate Investors had assessed by GRESB scored well under newly revised methodology. One strategy received the same score as it did in 2019, three increased their scores by an average of 29 points, and two others earned positive marks as first-time submissions.\n\n“Despite GRESB scoring changes that were predicted to decrease the scores for all participants, all our strategies increased or maintained their GRESB scores,” McConkey said.\n\nPrincipal’s three, 4-star strategies outperformed the peer average in every scored category for management. Both private real estate equity strategies received full points in six categories overall – three from management (leadership, policy, and reporting) and three from performance (risk assessment, targets, and data monitoring and review). The European core property strategy scored perfectly in policies, reporti...