The Principles for Responsible Investment initiative, convened by the United Nations Environment Program Finance Initiative and the UN Global Compact, says it has achieved over 180 leading institutional signatories from all round the globe, representing in excess of US$8 trillion in assets under management.
Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan presided over the North American launch on the April 27, 2006 at the New York Stock Exchange. At the time, twenty mainstream institutional asset owners representing US$2 trillion signed up. The European launch by James Plaskitt, under-secretary for the UK Department for Work and Pensions, took place a week later in Paris. Since then, it has grown to 183 signatories.
"In the first year, we have focused on spreading the word, signing up investors and putting in place the nuts and bolts to support signatories in implementing the Principles, including development of a robust process to monitor progress," said Donald MacDonald, chair of the PRI and a trustee of the British Telecom Pension Scheme. "We have great buy-in from the investment community, and we now have in place the support structures to assist in implementation. So year two is about action."
Antoine de Salins, CEO of the French Fonds de Reserve said, "PRI has been a tremendous success not only because the number of signatories and assets under management have been growing, but also because of the expansion of ESG resources at pension funds as well as leading asset manager firms. This is a tangible example of the credibility of PRI."
During the first four months of 2007 more than 40 investors have signed up including AP1, AGF Asset Management, JPMorgan Asset Management, HSBC Investments and Scottish Widows Investment Management.
