Northern Trust Asset launches sustainable real estate index and fund

By Wendy Van Sickle

Columbus, Ohio, Jan. 19 – Northern Trust Asset Management announced the launch of a sustainable real estate index.

A Dutch-domiciled pooled fund passively managed to this new index has also been launched, according to a press release.

The industry-first index is available only to investors using Northern Trust Asset Management vehicles and was developed in response to demand for a passive approach to real estate investing incorporating environment, social and governance [ESG] factors.

“We are delighted to collaborate with GRESB [Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark] to create this ground breaking index and to launch a fund which tracks the index,” Hazel McNeilage, managing director for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Northern Trust Asset Management, said in the release.

“This enables passive investors to benefit from the long-term returns associated with listed real estate companies, whilst incorporating sustainable investing principles.”

GRESB is a Netherlands-based investor-driven organization that assesses the ESG performance of real assets, including real estate portfolios and infrastructure assets, globally, using more than 40 indicators across seven aspects of sustainability.

“The environmental performance of buildings has been shown to have a clear link with the underlying financial performance of the assets, and with the risk return profile of property companies or investment funds ultimately owning the assets,” Sander Paul van Tongeren, managing director of GRESB, said in the release.

“This new fund will, uniquely, allow investors to passively gain exposure to companies that are highly transparent about their ESG performance and reducing environmental and social impact while also incorporating broad geographic and sector diversification.”

Northern Trust is a Chicago-based global asset management firm, which reports with $942 billion in assets under management.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.