Faith Ward and Brunel Pension Partnership, the local government pension scheme asset pooling company, were presented with the Outstanding Contribution in Transition Management award at the IPE Transition Awards in The Hague yesterday evening.
The award recognises a pension fund whose strategy for investing in, and managing the risks of, the energy transition is a blueprint for others to follow.
The judges said that Ward’s role in setting direction, building frameworks and mobilising industry action positioned her as a leading transition figure.
An emotional Ward, Brunel’s chief responsible investment officer, said the award was very meaningful, in particular in light of the scheme winding down.
“We do think we’ve worked tirelessly as Brunel over the past eight years to show the art of the possible and that things can be done,” she said. “But very much of what we do is in collaboration with everybody in the industry.”
Key responsible investment achievements for Brunel over the years include a one-year climate “stocktake” process that led to a new climate change policy in 2023, leading a roundtable on aligning asset owner and asset manager stewardship expectations, and pushing asset managers in areas such as multi-asset credit.
It has also sought to exert systemic influence by participating in collaborative work on issues such as sustainable value creation in the UK, through the Issuer and Investor Forum, with Ward also travelling beyond UK and Europe to support sustainable finance developments in China.
Although she will eventually relinquish these roles, Ward is currently still chair of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change and a member of the strategic steering committee of the UK’s Transition Finance Council.
Last year, Ward was recognised in the King’s Birthday Honours List with an MBE award for “services to pensions and the environment”.
Asset class leadership, stewardship
Seventeen judges from across the pensions and institutional investment industry assessed entries across six categories in total. The winner of the Private Investment award was APG, with judges impressed by, among other things, the Dutch allocator’s investments spanning renewables, grid, battery storage and sustainable aviation fuel, thereby tackling the transition across the full value chain.
ERAFP in France scooped the award for its work in Public Markets Investments, where judges particularly looked for thoughtful integration of energy transition considerations, and inclusion/exclusion of companies based on policies and track record.
Brunel and Denmark’s PFA Pension were joint winners of the award for Leadership in Energy Transition & Net Zero, which recognises the integration of the energy transition across a wide range of asset classes. In PFA’s case, the judges said a defining strength was capital deployment, with a clear commitment to real economy decarbonisation.
Norway’s KLP secured the win in the Transparency & Communication category, which covered how a pension fund communicates publicly and to its stakeholders about its net zero goals, its success, objectives and progress.
The judges said that an honest acknowledgement of data gaps and engagement constraints made KLP’s climate positions more, not less, credible.
Railpen took home the award for Stewardship Campaign & Strategy, with its systems-level ambition standing out. Through initiatives such as the Governance for Growth Investor Campaign and the Investor Coalition for Equal Votes, the UK investor is seeking to actively reshape market rules and governance standards rather than simply respond to them, the judges noted.
