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Name: Vincent Felteau
Title: Senior Director, Sustainability and Climate Innovation
Organization: PSP Investments
ESG topics of interest:Â
- Climate Change: Deep interest for better understanding climate-related physical and transition risks, as well as opportunities
- Net Zero Transition Investing: How organizations can position themselves for the transition to a low-carbon economy
- Role of data, innovation, and technology in improving the operational performance of real assets
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What motivated you to join the GRESB Foundation Board?
I have been involved with GRESB since its inception, closely following its progress and watching it become the world-leading benchmarking framework to improve the performance of real assets.
The overall quality of the benchmark, its structure, and the growth of its member participants make it uniquely positioned to enhance and improve the ESG performance of real assets and make a significant positive impact in the real economy.
How does your organization view ESG and what is your organization’s approach to responsible investing?
At PSP Investments, we believe that our actions can promote positive change on pressing social and environmental challenges and contribute to a more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable future.
Our sustainable investment approach is aligned with our investment mandate and our total fund perspective. As a long-term investor, we believe that proactively integrating material ESG factors, including systemic climate change risk, in our investment process contributes to a better total fund long-term risk/return profile.
We are positioning our portfolio to deliver investment results by identifying and managing material ESG risks and opportunities as the world transitions to a low-carbon economy. We are active stewards of the assets we own and regularly engage with our portfolio companies and partners across all asset classes to improve relevant sustainability practices. We believe that through this ongoing dialogue, we can encourage sustainable corporate conduct and enhance long-term overall performance.
How does your organization use GRESB and its data?
First and foremost, we use GRESB and its data to benchmark the operational performance of our large-scale and diversified global real estate portfolio. Each year, we evaluate the performance of more than 1000 individual standing investments and developments across sectors and geographies.
We rely on GRESB indicators to evaluate how each individual investment performs and to identify what can be done from an asset management perspective to make improvements going forward. We also recommend that our portfolio companies use GRESB to measure their own performance.
What is next for ESG and what role will organizations like GRESB play going forward?
We are collectively facing very significant ESG-related challenges going forward and we need global and collaborative solutions like GRESB to be successful in solving those problems.
Investors have an important role to play in continuing to enhance the integration of material ESG considerations in the investment process and portfolio construction. The real assets industry could also significantly improve how it operates from a sustainability perspective and reduce its negative impact on people and the planet. With existing technologies and solutions, the real estate and infrastructure industries can significantly reduce their carbon emissions and generate attractive returns at the same time, hence these asset classes could positively contribute to the climate transition.
As the global leading benchmarking tool for real assets investments, GRESB is well positioned to continue to drive the industry forward with data-driven performance and practical solutions.
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