New indices pioneer passive investing with a custom and holistic ESG component by RepRisk
ZURICH–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#duediligence–RepRisk, the leading ESG data science company, empowers the iSTOXX APG Real Estate CRREM-aligned Responsible Investment Index series launched today by APG Asset Management, one of the world’s largest pension investors with EUR 541 billion AUM, with its independent and AI-powered ESG risk data.
Notably, the inclusion of RepRisk data adds sustainability dimensions to the index construction beyond climate and carbon considerations, encompassing also social and governance factors. RepRisk is the sole provider of social factors for the index construction. These additional dimensions to the index significantly broaden the range of ESG factors available, enabling clients to customize indices for their individual sustainability requirements. Furthermore, RepRisk data is uniquely suited to identify and assess adverse impacts and enable compliance with the Do No Significant Harm Principle under SFDR due to its business conduct risk focus and independent research approach.
“We are excited to provide our AI-powered and fast-moving data to accelerate innovation in the indices landscape,” said Alexandra Mihailescu Cichon, Chief Commercial Officer at RepRisk. “The incorporation of holistic ESG and business conduct considerations into index construction and investment decision-making points to a larger trend of ease-of-access to sustainable choices. We are proud to be working with APG on this pioneering series and to empower clients with more choices.”
“At APG, we are constantly innovating and investigating more responsible options for our clients,” commented Rutger van der Lubbe, Head of Global Real Estate Investment Strategy at APG. “Today’s launch of our APG Real Estate CRREM-aligned RI Index strategy underlines our adherence to the highest ESG standards across the industry. Through our partnership with RepRisk we can develop our client offering, to be more sustainable and, importantly, customized.”
The iSTOXX APG Real Estate CRREM-aligned Responsible Investment Index, while passive, allows an active ESG component to customize sustainability criteria. It is constructed using APG’s methodology and blends RepRisk data with other data to create custom indices which can be designed to suit client sustainability requirements. In particular, RepRisk’s ESG and business conduct risk data is used as an input for decisions on which companies to include or exclude, monitoring of target companies, and calculating adjustments to the indices.
The index series brings a number of features that were previously unavailable in the passive investment real estate index landscape, informed largely by APG’s mission to create real estate index series comprising companies with less exposure to ESG risk and fitting particular sustainability criteria, like those outlined by SFDR Article 8 and various sustainability frameworks such as the Global ESG Benchmark for Real Assets, the Carbon Risk Real Estate Monitor Project, the Sustainable Development Goals, and APG’s proprietary Controversy Screening.
About RepRisk
Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Switzerland, RepRisk is a pioneer in ESG data science that leverages the combination of AI and machine learning with human intelligence to systematically analyze public information and identify material ESG risks. RepRisk’s flagship product, the RepRisk ESG Risk Platform, is the world’s largest and most comprehensive due diligence database on ESG and business conduct risks, with coverage of 240,000+ public and private companies and 65,000+ infrastructure projects. For more than a decade, the world’s leading financial institutions and corporations have trusted RepRisk for due diligence and risk management across their operations, business relationships, and investments. Find out more on reprisk.com.
Notes to Editors
To generate its dataset, RepRisk combines AI and advanced machine learning with human intelligence to identify material ESG risks on companies, real assets, and countries. RepRisk intentionally excludes company self-disclosures to provide independent and transparent insights into a company’s ESG and business conduct risks. RepRisk takes an outside-in approach by looking at a broad range of public media and stakeholder sources in 23 languages to identify ESG risks – with daily data updates across 102 ESG risk factors and mapped to standards such as UNGC, SASB, and the SDGs.
Contacts
Gina Walser
Head of Marketing and Communications
+41 43 300 54 43
[email protected]