PRI Awards 2025: Shortlist

“The entry was well put together, with clear aims and detail on background as to how the campaign was built, compelling KPIs and excellent testimonials. Video content was accessible with minimal jargon, straightforward presentation, educational content and an engaging mix of explainers/graphics/talking heads. There was obvious care in the anti-greenwashing controls and it was interesting to hear about the eco-friendly production methods. Impressed by the quality of this entry.”  - Dawn Hyams

”This is a great concept. Novel and ambitious in terms of the subject matter. The project shows strong client focus and appears to be very effective at generating engagement. The tracking of the average daily carbon footprint is very innovative and shows the commitment of the organisation as a whole to sustainability. The only area of possible improvement would be to go beyond efficiency KPIs to show real campaign impact and business outcomes in terms of changing attitudes, opinions and behaviours.” - Patrick Ide

”Novel and ambitious concept with a focus on impact and changing behaviours. Broad spectrum of channels and tools. The only shortfall is in terms of demonstrating the measurability and actual impact of the initiative. Great potential for further impact.” - Patrick Ide

”Report does a good job of communicating in an engaging fashion the breadth of the firm’s activities, the wider context, its engagement with the VC ecosystem, its investment approach, engagement with and key metrics relating to portfolio companies. Based on the award submission, it also seems to be part of a thoughtful and targeted approach to increasing ESG focus and action in the VC community. It also took a thoughtful approach to evidence of impact of its comms within this ecosystem.” - Chris Hall

”This appears to be a well-targeted campaign to get the energy transition opportunity across to a notoriously conservative and sceptical audience, i.e. financial advisers, and would appear to do so well, by positioning the opportunity in terms of aligning investments with long-term trends using solid facts and figures. I would say that the approach is comprehensive rather than innovative, but it certainly seems to be using the right channels, language and approach for this market - as reflected in the impact numbers provided.” - Chris Hall

”A strong multi-channel campaign with real clarity around the purpose, tightly aligned to PRI principles and well executed. The paper was long but well laid out and clearly signposted with helpful appendices. Key themes of the campaign were clearly articulated. Accessibility had been considered with simple presentation and data visualisation. There was also good evidence of impact through shifts in corporate behaviours, global reach and awards for the campaign. A little more innovation in delivery would have seen this hit perfect scores.”  - Dawn Hyams

”This was a strong entry with a clear and innovative structure implemented in the last two years to address specific responsible investment objectives. The reporting would appear to be comprehensive to demonstrate both traditional financial returns and broader outcome objectives.” - Michael Marks

”Creating evergreen funds for impact investing is an absolutely critical development for the industry – so, well done with this initiative. Where this initiative needs to focus, though, is on quantifying impact and not just relying on ESG metrics to suggest that real change is occurring.” - Anne Cabot-Alletzhauser

“Very good progress! Creating a maturity programme and assessing companies along with 100-day and 180-day action plans is a very effective approach.” - Vipul Arora

“I am not sure how many other private equity managers have started down this route of analysis, but intuitively it seems far more rigorous than any other impact measurement processes I have seen. I have been watching this measurement orientation with keen interest. If Summa can demonstrate that this approach indeed translates into demonstrable value for both the investor and the area targeted for impact, then it would be nice to see this become the standard for impact assessment.” - Anne Cabot-Alletzhauser

”Summa Equity’s submission presents a compelling example of how ESG can be fully integrated into private equity strategy. It meets — and exceeds — the outlined criteria through a systematic, evolving, and research-backed framework. There is quantitative proof of both impact and financial outperformance, and strong transparency and stakeholder alignment mechanisms. It has demonstrated leadership in shaping industry standards and thinking.” - Gabriel Hasson

”Getting to a place where women represent 54% of senior management nd 70% of the overall workforce across the fund’s portfolio companies is a great feat! Not just that, the metrics you are achieving in other themes speak highly of your impact. Keep going. Look forward to more innovation!” - Vipul Arora

”I like how you’ve identified the problems posed by traditional investment processes in fixed income and your solutions for addressing them” - Anna Cabot-Alletzhauser

”CalPERS has clearly articulated its objectives regarding the integration of labour principles into investment decision-making. Its communication process across the value chain is transparent and well structured. Given the fund’s scale, its ability to engage a broad network of investment managers seems particularly impactful. One area for improvement would be to clarify whether adherence to labour principles is also expected along the value chains of its investee companies.” - Patricia Moles

“The Church Commissioners for England demonstrate bold and effective leadership in embedding human rights across their investment strategy, spanning asset-level engagement, fund manager oversight, proxy voting, and systemic advocacy. Rooted in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), the initiative not only targets corporate conduct but also aims to reform the underlying infrastructure that shapes investor and market behaviour, including ESG data providers and proxy advisers.” - Gabriel Hasson

”Schroders’ innovative framing of ‘Just Resilience’ brings a rights-holder lens to climate adaptation — an underexplored dimension of ESG investing. The initiative is ambitious, grounded in international norms, and delivered through credible engagement strategies. Transparency is excellent, and the toolkit sets a benchmark for practitioner use. While currently focused on apparel, the approach has high potential for cross-sectoral influence.” - Hao Liang

”AREA is a technically sophisticated tool that allows investors to map human rights risks at the asset level with unprecedented granularity. Its integration of structural, process, and outcome indicators offers strong diagnostic value. Future evidence of investor or company-level action stemming from AREA would enhance its outcome impact.” - Hao Liang

“Verisk Maplecroft’s AREA is a standout contribution to human rights-aligned investing, offering a pioneering solution to a long-standing gap in ESG risk analysis: the lack of asset-level visibility into civil, political, labour, and security-related risks.” - Gabriel Hasson

”This is a standout, system-level initiative tackling the frontier of human rights in the digital economy. WBA has mobilised a global investor coalition, driven corporate AI disclosures, and created open-source benchmarks that enhance accountability and replicability. The clarity of ambition, investor coordination, and transparency are exemplary, with tangible outcomes already achieved in a complex and fast-moving space. A leading model for collective impact.” - Hao Liang

“An absolutely worthy, ambitious, and most relevant initiative for our times, and that is front and centre in promoting and safeguarding human rights. It is comprehensive and ambitious in its investor and company collective engagement; it spreads best practices and provides clear capacity-building and education fora. The supplementary report is quite realistic in identifying key gaps in commercial practices and in asking the right questions on governance and enforcement and grievance. The initiative is very inclusive and leans on other global initiatives. It is also very brave in advocating for AI regulation, which is a very thorny issue. The key to success is in investor impact in getting them to ask the right and difficult questions - this remains to be seen. The numbers of companies are growing, and what they should highlight is the degree and success rate in depth of adoption. Otherwise, a fantastic human rights initiative.” - Tina Mavraki

”BTG Pactual’s scalable approach to deploying finance for land restoration and biodiversity is commendable. Its approach showcases the importance and potential of science and impact-driven strategy combined with the involvement of public and private finance actors - the focus on the suite of instruments, including sustainability-linked instruments, is also commendable. It would be helpful to understand how BTG Pactual is engaging on policy advocacy to accelerate impact.” - Puninda Thind

” While directing financing towards nature-based outcomes remains relatively nascent, it is encouraging to see these two flagship funds contributing to the development of regenerative agriculture, sustainable grazing, and forestry. Particularly noteworthy is the Nature Based Carbon Fund, which is making a tangible difference in the lives of smallholder farmers by enabling their participation in carbon markets, enhancing pastoralist resilience, as well as providing high-quality nature-based carbon credits to the market.” - Emily Farrimond

” EOS at Federated Hermes has demonstrated a strong commitment through their stewardship practices to advancing nature-based outcomes. The implementation of clear expectations, and then engagement and associated voting on nature and deforestation issues is driving real-world change.” - Emily Farrimond

“As nature-related shareholder engagement becomes more widespread, investors need timely research and resources to identify which companies to engage with and which metrics to prioritise. The Valuing Water Finance Initiative delivers exactly that in an impressive way.” - Zacharias Sautner

“The Valuing Water Finance Initiative (VWFI) convinces with an integrated approach of data and capacity-building on one of the most important topics facing investors (and society) today: water. As water stress increases due to climate change, we need to start valuing it. VWFI helps investors do just that.” - Jakob Thomä

“This is a good example of an institution that recognises how the value of its portfolio is connected to biodiversity, ecosystems, and local communities, and how that applies a thoughtful approach to decision-making. SAIL places strong emphasis on integrating multiple nature-related data inputs and indicators to guide choices and measure outcomes, reflecting a holistic understanding of the interconnected challenges and opportunities at ground level.” - Gemma James

AllianceBernstein’s submission reflects thoughtful participation in one of the most promising areas of system-level stewardship: sovereign-level environmental finance. While many investors reference outcome bonds, AB has developed a decision-making framework and has shown willingness to engage on structure, monitoring, and replication. The result is credible influence in shaping how emerging market sovereigns fund biodiversity protection and debt restructuring simultaneously. Continued leadership would benefit from clearer articulation of how AB exercises accountability (e.g. escalation), influences other investors, and how it scales its framework across portfolios — not just transaction by transaction.” - William Burckart

“Aviva is raising the bar for what investor engagement with sovereigns can look like. It connects financial system stability with credible climate governance, using a strategic mix of tools and partnerships. Aviva’s leadership in shaping the NDC narrative globally, while maintaining humility about the complexity of influence, is particularly commendable. Future enhancements could include a more standardised public reporting structure on national engagement outcomes and integration with sovereign bond ratings or ASCOR frameworks.” - William Burckart

“This is an outstanding example of system stewardship, evidencing focus on ambitious additionality, a clear theory of change, and sustained collaboration.” - Shusheela Peres da Costa

“Incredibly clear and powerful programme. While the primary focus is on climate stewardship, the knock-on impact of asset owners, whose money it is, reestablishing criteria for asset managers to manage asset owners’ money, may be more impactful over time” - Jon Lukomnik

“The authorship of the letter, and subsequent follow-through with respect to the pension’s own investment, struck an important blow for authentic stewardship. It will be important to monitor and show how the additionality flows in future years.” - Rick Alexander

“This is a strong submission and is particularly important due to the applicant’s position in the market and its role within the investment ecosystem. The initiative draws on publicly available standards, making it a useful benchmark for others and it has already delivered results. Collaboration with other investors is noted as well as the systematic efforts to engage with investee companies.” - Clare Hierons

“It’s been great to see ASCOR develop since its inception and mature, with the proof of impact in this submission. The growing use and interest are terrific. It’s very good to see a solution for government debt. The collaboration involved in developing and refining this solution is inspiring.” - Sagarika Chatterjee

”EMK Capital offers a strong alignment with Emerging Climate-Related Imperatives and SBTi with a focus on the Built Environment & Circular Economy. EMK Capital’s move to use absolute emissions reduction for portfolio target-setting is highly aligned with real-world decarbonisation goals, as advocated by SBTi, GFANZ, and TCFD-aligned initiatives. (…) The modular framework across Governance, Strategy, Decarbonisation and Fundamentals, helps structure company engagement and capability-building beyond compliance. The only suggestion would be to incorporate adaptation opportunities by following the same process.” - Constance de Wavrin

”I really liked this application as it focuses not only on a core topic that is very difficult, but also on the opportunity set for the industry. The white paper and the collaborative industry-wide approach are interesting and a good example of thinking beyond an individual firm level. The quantitative proof points to the economics of action. Appreciated the regional focus.” - Sagarika Chatterjee

”The MSCI GeoSpatial Asset Intelligence project is highly relevant and strategically well-structured, given current trends in climate finance, regulatory alignment, and the evolution of physical and nature-related risk assessment. Traditional portfolio-level risk models fall short in a world where climate and nature risks are location-specific. Investors and regulators alike now demand granular, asset-level insights.” - Constance de Wavrin

”I really liked this targeted approach focused on a sector and on SMEs. I appreciated that the impact metrics covered avoided emissions, emissions reductions and jobs. I liked the problem-solving approach and the collaborations included in the strategy.” - Sagarika Chatterjee