Four-star GRESB rating for Principal real estate strategies showcases its long-standing commitment to sustainable investment

Principal Asset Management℠ announced today that its United States real estate core strategy and two European real estate core property strategies received a 4-star rating in 2023 from the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB). This year marks the eighth consecutive year Principal’s U.S. real estate core strategy has earned a 4-star rating from GRESB.

This year’s ratings place all three Principal strategies in the top 40% of GRESB participants worldwide¹ and exhibit a long-standing commitment by Principal to integrate sustainability standards into its investment practices while pursuing positive financial results for clients. Ten strategies also received the green-star rating, which is awarded to entities with scores higher than 15 out of 30 on the Management and 35 out of 70 on Performance components.

"We are committed to implementing the latest innovations in the real estate industry to help clients achieve positive financial outcomes in addition to sustainability practices," said Jennifer McConkey, managing director of ESG and operations for Principal Asset Management. "Our strong GRESB performance over the past eight years is evidence of the success of our Pillars of Responsible Property Investing platform and the ability of funds to continually implement new ESG practices and perform well against their peers in North America and Europe."

In total, Principal Asset Management submitted five U.S. real estate funds and seven European real estate funds for participation in GRESB in 2023. All strategies scored 30 out of 30 points on the Management component that covers leadership, policies, reporting, risk management, and stakeholder engagement. Several strategies showed increased scores in the Performance component for building certifications, improved data coverage, and year-over-year performance on water and waste.

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

About GRESB

Each year, GRESB assesses and benchmarks the ESG performance of real estate assets worldwide. Overall fund participation grew by 15% this year to 2,084 listed and non-listed portfolios, generating a benchmark that covers USD7.2 trillion of AUM across 75 countries. Growth was particularly strong in Oceania and Asia, while markets like Europe and the Americas continued with steady growth rates. On a global scale, Europe led the pack with the highest number of new participants, rising from 907 to 1,013. Of the 433 US portfolios that participated, 53 were new in 2023.

Information on the 2023 GRESB Real Estate results can be found at GRESB.com. Principal paid GRESB and application fee to be evaluated and to use the rankings.

About Principal Asset Management℠

With public and private market capabilities across all asset classes, Principal Asset Management℠ 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.² Principal Asset Management is the global investment solutions business for Principal Financial Group® (Nasdaq: PFG), managing $506.9 billion in assets² and recognized as a “Best Places to Work in Money Management”³ for 11 consecutive years.

© 2023 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.

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.

² As of September 30, 2023

³ Pensions & Investments, “The Best Places to Work in Money Management”, December 12, 2022

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