EUROPE - The Environment Agency pension fund was last night crowned the Best Investor in ESG at the IPE-TBLI ESG Leaders Awards hosted in Amsterdam.

This is the third year in a row that the pension fund has been praised for exploiting the relationship between good environmental management and long-term sustainable business returns.

Judges said the Environment Agency pension fund was selected because it applies ESG strategy to every aspect of its global public and private equity, emerging markets equity, UK property and global bonds asset classes, ands despite being confined to operating within UK fiduciary responsibility rules.

At the same time, Sustainable Asset Management (SAM) was named Best Asset Manager Investing in ESG for the second year in a row, for its continued position as a leader in ESG integration, driven in part this year by a series of well-conceived joint ventures.

APG, the wholly-owned asset manager of the ABP pension fund, was also rewarded with the title of Most Innovative Development, for its work on IMQubator; a multimanager investment fund specifically targeted at the Dutch asset management market, which focuses on sustainable investment funds, but also provides advice on a whole host of marketing-related service associated with investments. (See earlier IPE story: APG makes first IMQubator investment)

Bank Sarasin was named Best ESG consultancy or research house, despite being a bank, for the work it does with pension schemes offering advice and investment solutions on SRI and ESG.

And founding member of KLD Research & Analytics, Amy Domini, was presented with the Outstanding Contribution Award for ESG, for her tireless devotion to creating a sustainable and responsible investment environment. She is now founder and chief executive of Domini Social Investments.

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