BGO continues excellence in the GRESB and Principles for Responsible Investment assessments for 13th year
Toronto (January 12, 2024) – BGO announced today that for the 13th consecutive year its global real estate investment platform has continued to demonstrate leadership and outperform industry averages in the annual GRESB Real Estate Assessment, with all of its investment strategies receiving four or five stars. Additionally, BGO earned high accolades in the annual Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) Assessment and outperformed PRI averages for the real estate industry.
BGO’s 2023 GRESB results saw two of the firm’s investment strategies, already amongst the best performing funds in their global categories, achieve five-star ratings with performance in the top 20% of the global ESG benchmark for real estate investments. Additionally, three of BGO’s strategies achieved four-star ratings, scoring above their peer group and global benchmark averages. Additional highlights from BGO’s 2023 GRESB rankings include:
- All BGO funds scored 100% on social and governance indicators, above global and peer group averages on environmental indicators.
- Four BGO strategies scored 100% on GRESB’s Management component, demonstrating leadership in firm-level sustainability policies and programs.
- BGO’s Welput strategy received five stars in the standing investments and development components, demonstrating industry leadership in all areas of the assessment.
- BGO’s Prime Canadian Property Fund received five stars in the Diversified/Americas peer group and ranked in the top 6% of the Diversified/ Americas peer group.
- All of BGO’s Diversified strategies ranked in the top 11% of the Diversified/ Americas peer group.
This was BGO’s 14th year participating in PRI, the world’s leading proponent of responsible investment to enhance returns and better manage risks. BGO scored above global averages for every module. Additional highlights from BGO’s 2023 PRI scores include:
- BGO scored five stars in the Confidence Building Measures, highlighting its strong governance and data quality.
- BGO scored four stars in Policy, Governance and Strategy, and Real Estate, Fixed Income – Private Debt, a first-time submission for BGO.
“The determination from BGO teams around the world to continuously raise the bar on ESG is what has fueled our efforts and enabled consistent excellence in sustainability for 14 straight years,” said Ailey Roberts, Principal, Sustainable Investing at BGO. “At the heart of this pursuit of excellence in sustainability is an enduring belief that the better we are at reducing our carbon and overall environmental footprint, investing in the resilience of our assets, and elevating our asset management through collaboration with our tenants, the better our performance will be for the clients who’ve entrusted us as their fiduciary.”
Learn more about BGO’s sustainable investing approach at www.bgo.com/esg
About BGO
BGO is a leading, global real estate investment management advisor and a globally-recognized provider of real estate services. BGO serves the interests of more than 750 institutional clients with approximately $81 billion USD of assets under management (as of September 30, 2023) and expertise in the asset management of office, industrial, multi-residential, retail and hospitality property across the globe. BGO has offices in 27 cities across thirteen countries with deep, local knowledge, experience, and extensive networks in the regions where we invest in and manage real estate assets on behalf of our clients in primary, secondary and co-investment markets. BGO is a part of SLC Management, the institutional alternatives and traditional asset management business of Sun Life.
The assets under management shown above includes real estate equity and mortgage investments managed by the BGO group of companies and their affiliates, and as of 1Q21, includes certain uncalled capital commitments for discretionary capital until they are legally expired and excludes certain uncalled capital commitments where the investor has complete discretion over investment.
For more information, please visit www.bgo.com
About GRESB
GRESB is a mission-driven and industry-led organization providing standardized and validated Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) data to financial markets. Established in 2009, GRESB has become the leading ESG benchmark for real estate and infrastructure investments across the world, used by 140 institutional and financial investors to inform decision-making.
For more information, visit GRESB.com.
The Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI)
The PRI works with its international network of signatories to put the six Principles for Responsible Investment into practice. Its goals are to understand the investment implications of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues and to support signatories in integrating these issues into investment and ownership decisions. The PRI acts in the long-term interests of its signatories, of the financial markets and economies in which they operate and ultimately of the environment and society as a whole. The six Principles for Responsible Investment are a voluntary and aspirational set of investment principles that offer a menu of possible actions for incorporating ESG issues into investment practice. The Principles were developed by investors, for investors. In implementing them, signatories contribute to developing a more sustainable global financial system. More information: www.unpri.org
Media Contact
Rahim Ladha
Global Head of Communications, BGO
media@bgo.com
