Brunel gets noticed for advances in stewardship

While the eyes of the world were trained on Qatar for the FIFA World Cup at the start of December, Brunel Pension Partnership was gathering gongs and adding a new trophy cabinet to its Christmas list.

At the 2022 IPE Awards in Rotterdam, it scooped the impact investing category, with its work on Cornwall Pension Fund’s Cornwall Local Impact Portfolio playing a major role in the entry.

The portfolio was the first multi asset portfolio to target local impact across the LGPS, with three mandates divided between affordable housing in Cornwall, renewables in Cornwall and renewables across the UK.

“We worked closely with Brunel to ensure that pooling delivers not just scale advantages – but local impact, too,” said Councillor Jayne Kirkham, chair, Cornwall Pension Fund pensions committee.

“The new Cornwall Local Impact portfolio, as part of our social impact allocation, enables us to combine our fiduciary responsibilities to our members with delivering positive social and environmental outcomes in our county, where our members have worked and lived.”

The Cornwall Pension Fund also took the innovative investment category at the LAPF Investments Awards 2022, also in December. These successes build on two others: The International Corporate Governance Network named Brunel winner of its 2022 Global Stewardship Disclosure Awards in the category of asset owners with under £60 billion in AUM.

Brunel also won first place in the 2022 Diversity Award from SFDR4AO, the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Rewards for Asset Owners, for its commitment to positive diversity outcomes and heightened reporting standards.