Investment

Investors urge adoption of carbon legislation

RACHEL ALEMBAKIS  |  WEDNESDAY, 14 SEP 2011  |  NEWS
The Gillard government has introduced its Clean Energy Future Legislation into parliament and scheduled a vote in the House of Representatives for 12 October, a move welcomed by the Investor Group on Climate Change (IGCC).

Investor Profile: Local Government Super

RACHEL ALEMBAKIS  |  FRIDAY, 9 SEP 2011  |  NEWS
The New South Wales-based Local Government Super (LGS) manages nearly AU$6bn in assets with 100,000 members, including 60,000 employees working for local government or related employers throughout NSW and 40,000 former local government employees. It ...

Carbon price to have limited impact on superannuation funds

RACHEL ALEMBAKIS  |  FRIDAY, 9 SEP 2011  |  NEWS
The proposed carbon price would have a limited impact on superannuation funds overall, amounting to a cost of up to 0.8% of revenue from companies held in the Australian equity portfolios of 14 of the largest superannuation funds. This conclusion comes ...

PRI signatories develop farmland principles

RACHEL ALEMBAKIS  |  WEDNESDAY, 7 SEP 2011  |  NEWS
A group of institutional investors have developed and launched the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) in Farmland, which seek to improve the sustainability, transparency and accountability of investments in farmland. The five principles provide ...

Australian property funds top GRESB list

RACHEL ALEMBAKIS  |  FRIDAY, 2 SEP 2011  |  NEWS
A Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) survey of environmental and social performance at 340 of the world's largest property companies has found that the companies on average have reduced their energy consumption in 2010 by almost 3% and ...

Local Government Super properties awarded 6 NABERS stars

RACHEL ALEMBAKIS  |  FRIDAY, 2 SEP 2011  |  NEWS
The New South Wales (NSW) based Local Government Super (LGS) has seen nine of its 11 directly owned buildings upgraded from five NABERS stars to six stars, the maximum score for environmental performance of commercial buildings.

Paper guides investors to ESG investment integration

RACHEL ALEMBAKIS  |  WEDNESDAY, 24 AUG 2011  |  NEWS
Institutional investors can integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into their investment approaches in a number of structured fashions, including tilting towards or against ESG factors, taking an active ownership approach, targeted ...

ACSI release governance guidelines

RACHEL ALEMBAKIS  |  FRIDAY, 12 AUG 2011  |  NEWS
The Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI) has released the fifth edition of its governance guidelines 'A Guide for Superannuation Trustees to monitor listed Australian companies'. The guide, which is updated every second year, includes ...

Forthcoming GRESB report to benchmark RE environmental, social performance

RACHEL ALEMBAKIS  |  FRIDAY, 5 AUG 2011  |  NEWS
In September, the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) will release its second survey assessing the environmental and social performance of public and private real estate investments. GRESB will be used by institutional investors to engage ...

Imbalances, sustainability and their impact on investing

RACHEL ALEMBAKIS  |  FRIDAY, 5 AUG 2011  |  NEWS
Although sustainability/ESG considerations and sovereign defaults are not, at first pass, connected to each other, when Tim Hodgson, senior investment consultant and head of Towers Watson's Thinking Ahead Group talks about both, the word "imbalances" ...