RI Landscape 2008 asset owners survey hits $1.5 trillion

Global asset owners with more than $1.5 trillion (€1 trillion) in assets have outlined how they are integrating environmental, social and governance issues (ESG) into their investments in the RI Landscape 2008 survey, one of the widest ever direct global surveys of institutional investors. The findings of the survey, run jointly by Responsible Investor and IPE Magazine, which closed at the end of February, will be discussed at a high-level Round Table of pension funds and asset managers in Paris next week before publication in May. Pension fund managers participating in the Round Table, to be held at the headquarters of AFG, the French Asset Management Association, are PGGM, which manages over €88bn in assets for the healthcare pension fund Zorg en Welzijn, ERAFP, the €8.4bn French public service supplementary pension scheme ERAFP, PensPlan, the €500m pension services provider of the semi-autonomous Trentino Alto Adige region in northern Italy, and the UK Pensions Protection Fund.
The event is sponsored by HSBC Investments and AXA Investment Managers.
The second part of the RI Landscape 2008 survey, asking asset managers about the integration of environmental, social and governance issues into investment practices, opened at the start of March to all SRI related firms from equities to venture capital, clean-tech to microfinance and alternatives. The survey can be linked to from: Click for link The asset manager survey will close on April 4for publication in June.
The consideration of ESG in investing is one of today’s hottest institutional topics. The ground-breaking joint research into the responsible investment landscape aims to show, for example, to what extent investors are allocating to emerging asset classes such as renewable energy or incorporating extra-financial factors into their research.
The survey draws distinctions between responsible investment approaches based on negative screening of companies, weighted screening, engagement, integration of ESG into investment decisions, and pure-play mandates such as allocations to clean energy and water funds. The findings will be drawn together in two comprehensive reports: one for asset owners published in May, 2008 and one for asset managers published in June. The format for these reports is unique, incorporating aggregated analysis of investment levels by type of institution, region and asset class. The findings will be accompanied by commentary and analysis and the data will also be published in Excel format. The reports will be issued via both print and web distribution through Responsible-Investor.com, Investment & Pensions Europe magazine as a special supplements and IPE.com. For further information, please contact: Tony Hay, Publisher, Responsible Investor, Office: +44 20 8682 3638, Mobile: + 44 7887 683025, tony@responsible-investor.com.