Managers and funds as PRI Awards finalists

The Principles for Responsible Investment organisation annual awards will be announced at the PRI Digital Conference next week, October 18-21.

The conference and awards will provide a suitable opening act for the COP26 meetings to be held in Glasgow in the first week of November, arguably the most important climate change event in several years.

Finalists in each of the five PRI awards categories were announced last month. The two super funds in the running, in separate categories, are NZ Super for ‘Stewardship Initiative of the Year’, and Unisuper for ‘Real-world Impact Initiative of the Year’.

Big US-based managers dominated the ‘ESG Incorporation Initiative of the Year’ category with finalists J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Rockefeller Asset Management, Acadian Asset Management and GMO all US headquartered. BNP Paribas Asset Management is also in the running as the only non-US manager.

In the ‘ESG Research Innovation of the Year’ category, a collaboration between global manager Ninety One and the World Wildlife Foundation has been shortlisted alongside global manager Insight Investment (a BNY Mellon company), Sustainalytics (a specialist ESG research subsidiary of Morningstar) and MioTech, an artificial intelligence startup backed by Singapore’s GIC.

The Ninety One/WWF shortlisted project is the Climate and Nature Sovereign Risk Index, which was launched last year with the aim to harness the potential of the US$50 trillion sovereign debt market to support countries in their sustainable transition.

The benchmark encourages governments to seek green investment packages in order to make foreign investment and sovereign lending more attractive over the long term.

Australia, India, Portugal, Greece and the Gulf Cooperation Council are countries identified by the index as having the most to benefit from a green recovery.

Ninety One and the WWF have collaborated before in the interests of improving sustainability in the fixed income market. They produced a joint report in 2019, ‘Satellites and Sustainability’ which highlighted the critical role of sovereign debt investors in sustainability.

The KEHATI Foundation of Indonesia, which promotes biodiversity, is the only organisation to have been shortlisted in two categories, for the ‘Real-world Impact Initiative of the Year’ and the ‘Emerging Markets Initiative of the Year’, both for the same project.

The nominated project, SRI KEHATI, is also an index, launched in 2009 with the Indonesian Stock Exchange. The foundation’s aim is to “create mutualism between the world of conservation and the business sector”.

The finalists in each category for 2021 are:

ESG incorporation initiative of the year

ESG research innovation of the year

Stewardship initiative of the year

Real-world impact initiative of the year

Emerging markets initiative of the year

Registrations for the PRI Annual Conference and other information on: https://digitalconference.unpri.org/pri/

Greg Bright

Greg has worked in financial services-related media for more than 30 years. He has launched dozens of financial titles, including Super Review, Top1000Funds.com and Investor Strategy News, of which he is the former editor.