About Us News room News releases Principal® earns ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year Sustained Excellence Award
May 10, 2022

Principal® earns ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year Sustained Excellence Award

Principal Real Estate Investors, the real estate investment team of Principal Global Investors®, has been named an ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year Sustained Excellence award winner for the fifth consecutive year. This recognition, the highest honor among ENERGY STAR awards, is reserved for ENERGY STAR partners that demonstrate outstanding leadership and superior contributions year-over-year.

A top 10 global real estate manager1, Principal has been an ENERGY STAR partner since 2009 and continues to integrate energy efficiency into its Pillars of Responsible Property Investing (PRPI) initiative. PRPI is an overarching environmental, social, and governance (ESG) framework that Principal has used since 2013 as it seeks to deliver positive financial results and ESG outcomes through asset management and fiduciary governance. In 2021, the PRPI platform was enhanced to reflect current best practices, including the expansion from three (market resilience, corporate governance, and property performance) to five guiding principles: environmental performance, occupant experience, community impact, climate resilience, and managerial excellence. These principles align to the commitment by Principal Real Estate Investors to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

“Receiving the Sustained Excellence award for the fifth consecutive year is testament to the ongoing commitment our property management team and partners have made to sustainability," said Jennifer McConkey, managing director of ESG and operations for Principal Real Estate Investors. “With the enhanced Pillars of Responsible Property Investing as our guide, we are committed to investing in high-performing, energy-efficient properties that minimize the impact on the environment while delivering attractive returns for our clients.”

ENERGY STAR certified buildings use an average of 35% less energy than similar buildings nationwide and have been shown to have higher occupancy and rental rates.2 Since 2008, Principal has achieved 14% energy savings, avoided more than $48 million in cumulative energy costs, and prevented more than 135 thousand metric tons of cumulative carbon dioxide emissions.3 In 2021 alone, Principal achieved:

  • ENERGY STAR certification at 31 properties.
  • An average ENERGY STAR score of 77 for certified properties, meaning these properties perform within the top 23% of peers across the country.

Each year, the ENERGY STAR program honors a group of businesses and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to protecting the environment through superior energy achievements. ENERGY STAR award winners lead their industries in the production, sale, and adoption of energy-efficient products, homes, buildings, services, and strategies. These efforts are essential to fighting the climate crisis and protecting public health.

Winners are selected from a network of thousands of ENERGY STAR partners. For a complete list of 2022 winners and more information about ENERGY STAR’s awards program, visit energystar.gov/awardwinners.

Learn more about the Principal commitment to responsible property investing.

News Release Contact

Investment solutions and asset management

Lauren Fraser, +44 (0) 20 7355 8832
Ashley Miller, 515-878-0507
Erin Parro, 515-878-0152

1 Managers ranked by total worldwide assets (net of leverage), as of June 30, 2020. “Largest Real Estate Managers,” Pensions & Investments (October 2020)
2 Top 8 Reasons to Pursue ENERGY STAR Certification
3 The information provided is based on data input by individual property teams as of October 2021 into ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager, with select review and validation.

About Principal Global Investors

Principal Global Investors® leads global asset management at Principal®. As a multi-investment team firm, we bring a focused perspective and offer expertise across a host of asset classes.

At our core, we are driven by our purpose to help investors and businesses achieve their financial goals. Our global investment professionals deliver investment solutions for public and private pension funds, foundations and endowments, central banks, insurance companies, sub-advisory arrangements, sovereign wealth funds and individual portfolios.

Principal Global Investors manages approximately $579.4 billion in assets on behalf of over 800 institutional clients located in over 80 markets as well as retirement plans and individual clients, reflecting our worldwide market reach and experience and our commitment to high-quality research and service (as of March 31, 2022). To find out more, visit us at principalglobal.com.

About Principal Real Estate Investors

Principal Real Estate Investors manages or sub-advises $106.2 billion in commercial real estate assets (as of March 31, 2022). The firm's real estate capabilities include both public and private equity and debt investment alternatives. Principal Real Estate Investors is the dedicated real estate group of Principal Global Investors, a diversified asset management organization and a member of the Principal Financial Group®. 

About ENERGY STAR

ENERGY STAR® is the government-backed symbol for energy efficiency, providing simple, credible, and unbiased information that consumers and businesses rely on to make well-informed decisions. Thousands of industrial, commercial, utility, state, and local organizations—including more than 40 percent of the Fortune 500®—rely on their partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to deliver cost-saving energy efficiency solutions. Since 1992, ENERGY STAR and its partners helped American families and businesses avoid more than $500 billion in energy costs and achieve more than 4 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas reductions. More background information about ENERGY STAR’s impacts can be found at www.energystar.gov/impacts and state-level information can be found at www.energystar.gov/statefacts.

###

Principal®, Principal Financial Group®, and Principal and the logomark design are registered trademarks of Principal Financial Services, Inc., a Principal Financial Group company, in the United States and are trademarks and services marks of Principal Financial Services, Inc., in various countries around the world.