High ratings in global benchmarks show long-standing commitment to sustainable investment

Principal Asset Management^℠ announced today that two European real estate core property strategies received 5-star ratings and its U.S. real estate core strategy received a 4-star rating from the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) for 2024. The ratings place all three strategies in the top 40% and two in the top 20% of GRESB participants worldwide¹ and demonstrates the firm’s long-standing commitment to integrate sustainability standards into its real estate investment practices while pursuing positive financial results for clients.

This is the ninth consecutive year that the U.S. core strategy has earned a 4-star rating from GRESB. Additionally, 13 strategies also received the green-star rating, which is awarded to entities with scores higher than 15 out of 30 on Management and 35 out of 70 on Performance components.

“Our strong GRESB performance over the past nine years demonstrates the success of our Pillars of Responsible Property Investing sustainability platform, enabling us to implement sustainability strategies from development or acquisition throughout the asset lifecycle,” said Jennifer McConkey, managing director of ESG and operations for real estate at Principal Asset Management. “This approach has enabled our strategies to stand out among North American and European peers. As sustainability continues to rise in prominence as a critical risk management strategy, we’ve evolved our practices in line with GRESB’s focus on net zero and climate risk, aligning with our commitment to achieve net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050 or sooner.”

This is the first year that the Principal Green Property strategy (Vintage 2022) was submitted to GRESB and scored 93 out of 100 on the Management and Development components. It also ranked 2^nd of 23 entities among the peer group for Industrial: Distribution Warehouse: Non-Refrigerated Warehouse. In total, Principal Asset Management submitted seven U.S. real estate funds and seven European real estate funds for participation in GRESB in 2024. All strategies scored 29 out of 30 points on the Management component that covers leadership, policies, reporting, risk management, and stakeholder engagement.

The Pillars of Responsible Property Investing, our sustainable investing platform for private debt and equity, guides the implementation of sustainability throughout the property life cycle as it seeks to invest in and lend on real estate that delivers positive financial and ESG outcomes for all stakeholders while promoting health and wellbeing for tenants and residents, minimizing environmental impacts, and enhancing the communities where we invest.

About GRESB

Each year, GRESB assesses and benchmarks the ESG performance of real estate assets worldwide. Overall fund participation grew by 7% this year to 2,233 listed and non-listed portfolios, generating a benchmark that covers $7 trillion of AUM across 15 sectors in 80 markets. Growth was particularly strong in Asia at 15%, while markets like Europe and the Americas continued with steady growth rates of 5% and 6% respectively. On a global scale, both Asia and Europe led the pack with the highest number of new participants, with Asia increasing from 340 to 392 participants and Europe increasing from 1,013 to 1,063. Of the 456 US portfolios that participated, 23 were new in 2024.

Information on the 2024 GRESB Real Estate results can be found at GRESB.com.

About Principal Asset Management^℠

With public and private market capabilities across all asset classes, Principal Asset Management and its investment specialists look at asset management through a different lens, creating solutions to help deliver client investment objectives. By applying local insights with global perspectives, Principal Asset Management identifies distinct and compelling investment opportunities for more than 1,100 institutional clients in over 80 markets.¹ Principal Asset Management is the global investment solutions business for Principal Financial Group^® (Nasdaq: PFG), managing $585.6 billion in assets¹ and recognized as a “Best Places to Work in Money Management”² for 12 consecutive years.

Learn more at www.PrincipalAM.com.

©2024 Principal Financial Services, Inc., Principal®, Principal Financial Group®, Principal Asset Management, and Principal and the logomark design are registered trademarks and service marks of Principal Financial Services, Inc., a Principal Financial Group company, in various countries around the world and may be used only with the permission of Principal Financial Services, Inc. Principal Asset Management^℠ is a trade name of Principal Global Investors, LLC. Principal Real Estate is a trade name of Principal Real Estate Investors, LLC, an affiliate of Principal Global Investors.

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