Craig Turnbull

Local Government Super (LGS) has announced that it has been identified by the world’s leading independent proponent of responsible investment, the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI), as being in the top 10% of responsible asset owners worldwide. As a result, LGS has been included in the UNPRI Leaders’ Group which was recently announced at the UNPRI conference in Paris.

The UNPRI is an international network that works to better understand the investment implications of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors, and to support asset owners to incorporate these factors into their investment and ownership decisions. The UNPRI founded the Leaders’ Group to showcase ESG leadership, and to increase the accountability in respect to responsible investment standards.

LGS’ Chief Investment Officer, Craig Turnbull, said: “We’re proud to have been included in the UNPRI Leaders’ Group. The main aim of the UNPRI is to encourage investors to use responsible investment not only to better manage risk, but to improve returns, and this aligns with LGS’ core objective of enhancing the retirement income of our members through the responsible, long-term stewardship of their funds.”

Selection into the UNPRI Leaders’ Group is based on an assessment of governance, responsible investment implementation and transparency. Asset owners with high scores are then screened against a specific theme. In 2019, asset owners were screened against the selection, appointment and monitoring of external managers of shares and private equity.

LGS’ Acting Chief Executive Officer, Donna Heffernan, said: “This is a great achievement for LGS. We’ve long been an industry leader in Australia, so it’s very pleasing to be included in the Leaders’ Group. It’s a global endorsement of our achievements in responsible investment.

LGS is also a proud signatory to the Australian Asset Owner Stewardship Code. LGS has a well-established active ownership policy, and strongly believes that positive social and environmental outcomes can be achieved by taking a responsible, long-term approach to the management of its members’ retirement savings.

The post Local Government Super identified as global leader in ESG investment appeared first on AdviserVoice.

GRESB is an industry backed organisation committed to assessing the environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance of real assets, including real estate portfolios and infrastructure assets globally. This year 903 property companies, REITs, funds, and developers participated in the GRESB assessment.

LGS’ Head of Property, Scott Armstrong, said: “LGS is proud to be awarded a 5-star GRESB rating, and our highest score to date. The score of 85/100 places us 2^nd in our peer group, which is a great achievement given our peers have more sizable and higher grade portfolios.”

“Our aim is to continually improve the environmental performance of our direct property assets. Over the past seven years, we’ve reduced our electricity consumption by 42% and our water consumption by 52%. We’re actively working with our tenants to further reduce energy consumption and remain at the forefront of sustainability management.”

LGS Chief Investment Officer, Craig Turnbull, said “this GRESB rating reflects our ongoing commitment to invest in a range of responsible assets on behalf of our members, so they can reap the benefits of long-term sustainable returns.”

The GRESB Assessment evaluates performance against seven ESG categories, including management practices, green building certifications, and stakeholder engagement programs. The Assessment also contains approximately 50 performance indicators, such as energy consumption, GHG emissions, water consumption and waste.

LGS has been widely recognised for its commitment to responsible investment and local and global initiatives:

• Named Australia’s Best Green Super Fund for the sixth time at the 2018 Money magazine ‘Best of the Best’ awards.
• Founding signatory and the sole Australian signatory to the Green Bond Pledge.
• Awarded a fixed-income ESG mandate to PIMCO for approximately AUD $440 million.
• No.1 ranking for the management of climate change in the global 2017 Asset Owners Disclosure Project.

The post Local Government Super adds to responsible investment credentials with highest GRESB score to date appeared first on AdviserVoice.