Phoenix Energy, Northern Ireland’s largest gas distribution business, has been recognised, for the second year in succession, as a leader in Europe for its environmental, social and governance performance by GRESB in its Infrastructure Assessment.
GRESB is an industry-driven organisation committed to assessing the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) sustainability performance of Real Estate and Infrastructure assets around the globe. It has become the most preeminent and well-established standard used by institutional investors to measure and benchmark the ESG sustainability performance of their portfolios and funds.
This was the fifth year of participation by Phoenix Energy who in addition to coming top across Europe, were placed third across the globe, and maintained their maximum 5-star GRESB rating.
Speaking about the company’s achievements, Kailash Chada, Chief Financial Officer at Phoenix Energy says: “Our vision is to be recognised for excellence as a world leading utility which demands that our behaviours and business style is a benchmark for others in the marketplace and within the wider utility sector.
“With greater importance being placed across the business world on environmental, social and governance values, we are proud of our consistently strong performance in these areas and the recognition from GRESB as a leader. We will continue to benchmark our performance and seek even more ways to add real value for the customers, colleagues and communities we serve.”
Each year GRESB assesses and benchmarks the ESG performance of real assets worldwide. The GRESB Assessments are guided by what investors and the industry consider to be material issues in the sustainability performance of real asset investments and are aligned with international reporting frameworks, goals and emerging regulations.
The 2020 ESG benchmark covers more than US $5.3 trillion AuM (2019: 4.5 trillion), giving clarity and direction to the real asset investment market as a means to address complex sustainability challenges. GRESB data is used by hundreds of capital providers and thousands of asset managers to benchmark investments across portfolios and understand the opportunities, risks and choices that need to be made as the industry transitions to a more sustainable future.
"With accelerating sustainability risks, accessing standardized and reliable ESG data and benchmarks has never been more important to investors,” said Sander Paul van Tongeren, Co-founder and Managing Director at GRESB. “It’s inspiring to witness the collective industry effort from around the world to improve ESG transparency and advance sustainable real assets.”
For more information on Phoenix’s environmental, social and governance principles visit www.phoenixnaturalgas.com/abou...
Phoenix Energy Chief Financial Officer, Kailash Chada is pictured alongside the company’s Head of Compliance and Support Services, Gareth Wright.