Our Commitment To
Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)
Principles
ESG at Slate
We strive to embed leading ESG strategies across our business so we can enhance value for our partners, reduce environmental impact, deliver healthy and resilient spaces, and provide an engaging workplace for our employees.
Our ESG vision is clear: to strategically invest capital in a way that drives strong commercial results while simultaneously generating impact through environmental and social benefits. By embedding ESG practices across our business, we enhance our resilience, create long-term value for our stakeholders, and future-proof our business for sustained success.
Our ESG strategy is built on our core investment principles of Basis, Proactive, and Perspective, and tailored to the unique needs of each of our four business verticals. We ensure that our ESG strategies are aligned with the key priorities of each vertical, reflecting ESG best practices and standards, while staying true to our overarching ESG vision.
Bozena Jankowska
Managing Director, Global Head of ESG
“We understand the necessity of an adaptable ESG strategy that evolves with the changing landscape, enabling us to drive strong commercial outcomes while generating meaningful impact. This flexibility allows us to effectively navigate ESG risks and capitalize on emerging opportunities.”
Our ESG Strategy
Guided by our investment principles of Basis, Proactive, and Perspective, our ESG strategy outlines our approach to ESG across each of our business verticals.
Basis
Proactive
Perspective
ESG is embedded in our investment and asset management approach, enabling us to anticipate and mitigate ESG risks. New investment opportunities undergo comprehensive ESG due diligence, including an evaluation of climate-related risks, which are reviewed by the Investment Committee. Our asset management teams are responsible for managing material ESG risks and work closely with the ESG Team to ensure these risks are effectively mitigated, aligning with our commitment to sustainability and long-term value creation.
We take a proactive approach to monitoring the ESG performance of our funds. By focusing on material ESG topics, we capture relevant data that allows us to track ESG performance. To achieve this, we develop customized KPI’s and scorecards that evaluate progress of fund specific ESG goals and objectives to enable us to address areas for improvement and drive meaningful impact.
We align our fund-level ESG goals, objectives, and targets with fund investment objectives to ensure materiality and relevance. These are detailed in comprehensive fund and asset-level environmental management plans, which include decarbonization plans. These plans provide a clear ESG roadmap, outlining actions to be taken over the short-, medium-, and long-term, ensuring that our investments are both sustainable and aligned with our overarching investment goals.
Basis
ESG is embedded in our investment and asset management approach, enabling us to anticipate and mitigate ESG risks. New investment opportunities undergo comprehensive ESG due diligence, including an evaluation of climate-related risks, which are reviewed by the Investment Committee. Our asset management teams are responsible for managing material ESG risks and work closely with the ESG Team to ensure these risks are effectively mitigated, aligning with our commitment to sustainability and long-term value creation.
Proactive
We take a proactive approach to monitoring the ESG performance of our funds. By focusing on material ESG topics, we capture relevant data that allows us to track ESG performance. To achieve this, we develop customized KPI’s and scorecards that evaluate progress of fund specific ESG goals and objectives to enable us to address areas for improvement and drive meaningful impact.
Perspective
We align our fund-level ESG goals, objectives, and targets with fund investment objectives to ensure materiality and relevance. These are detailed in comprehensive fund and asset-level environmental management plans, which include decarbonization plans. These plans provide a clear ESG roadmap, outlining actions to be taken over the short-, medium-, and long-term, ensuring that our investments are both sustainable and aligned with our overarching investment goals.
Basis
Proactive
Perspective
Integrated risk management is central to our approach for new credit investments. ESG due diligence is woven into the credit diligence process, using a tailored approach that specifically addresses credit-related ESG risks. This review enables us to comprehensively evaluate potential risks and opportunities, ensuring that our investment decisions are both informed and aligned with our ESG commitments.
Our goal is to understand and monitor the material ESG characteristics of our credit investments, helping us to identify and manage ESG risks and opportunities that could impact the underlying collateral and overall portfolio resilience. As material ESG issues become increasingly financially significant in an evolving regulatory and market landscape, this approach ensures we are well-positioned to navigate these challenges and opportunities.
Capturing key ESG metrics on each of our credit investments allows us to stay attuned to key ESG market developments and opportunities to create innovative credit products and solutions for our borrowers as they look to transition their assets for a lower carbon future.
Basis
Integrated risk management is central to our approach for new credit investments. ESG due diligence is woven into the credit diligence process, using a tailored approach that specifically addresses credit-related ESG risks. This review enables us to comprehensively evaluate potential risks and opportunities, ensuring that our investment decisions are both informed and aligned with our ESG commitments.
Proactive
Our goal is to understand and monitor the material ESG characteristics of our credit investments, helping us to identify and manage ESG risks and opportunities that could impact the underlying collateral and overall portfolio resilience. As material ESG issues become increasingly financially significant in an evolving regulatory and market landscape, this approach ensures we are well-positioned to navigate these challenges and opportunities.
Perspective
Capturing key ESG metrics on each of our credit investments allows us to stay attuned to key ESG market developments and opportunities to create innovative credit products and solutions for our borrowers as they look to transition their assets for a lower carbon future.
Basis
Proactive
Perspective
Our infrastructure strategy prioritizes companies and projects that deliver essential and sustainable infrastructure for cities and communities across a broad range of sectors. By employing a materiality-based approach, we can identify the most relevant ESG risks specific to each investment. This sector-specific focus is integral to our infrastructure ESG due diligence process, ensuring that our investment decisions are informed, responsible, and aligned with our ESG commitments.
To assess the effectiveness of our infrastructure strategy in delivering essential and sustainable infrastructure for cities and communities, we carefully select material KPI’s and utilize ESG scorecards to track and monitor the ESG performance of the companies and projects in which we invest.
As the world continues to transition to a lower carbon and environmentally sustainable future, our infrastructure strategy is centered on delivering essential and sustainable infrastructure for cities and communities as we build on our ESG Basis and Proactive ESG approaches.
Basis
Our infrastructure strategy prioritizes companies and projects that deliver essential and sustainable infrastructure for cities and communities across a broad range of sectors. By employing a materiality-based approach, we can identify the most relevant ESG risks specific to each investment. This sector-specific focus is integral to our infrastructure ESG due diligence process, ensuring that our investment decisions are informed, responsible, and aligned with our ESG commitments.
Proactive
To assess the effectiveness of our infrastructure strategy in delivering essential and sustainable infrastructure for cities and communities, we carefully select material KPI’s and utilize ESG scorecards to track and monitor the ESG performance of the companies and projects in which we invest.
Perspective
As the world continues to transition to a lower carbon and environmentally sustainable future, our infrastructure strategy is centered on delivering essential and sustainable infrastructure for cities and communities as we build on our ESG Basis and Proactive ESG approaches.
Basis
Proactive
Perspective
At Presima, ESG considerations are integrated into the security valuation process. Presima believes that there is a positive link between ESG risk management and cost of capital in real estate and uses dedicated ESG research providers to track ESG risk metrics across its coverage universe. Presima ensures all its employees stay informed of emerging ESG considerations and trends through regular education sessions.
A cornerstone of Presima’s investment process is engagement with companies in its investment universe on ESG matters, aiming to motivate them to enhance their operational practices. Presima also expresses engagement priorities through proxy voting, where research is actively conducted prior to engaging with the respective company on voting intensions. Presima’s ESG framework guides its approach to engagement. It incorporates research and metrics in efforts to influence added value to companies’ capital stock and benefit to shareholders and communities.
Presima is enhancing its carbon data collection process with the intention to improve accuracy in assessing the environmental impacts of its investments. Presima will develop a climate dashboard including key portfolio climate metrics. Climate-related regulations and policies are continuously evolving and impacting global REIT valuations, making it important to stay informed and to share the knowledge with all business verticals.
Basis
At Presima, ESG considerations are integrated into the security valuation process. Presima believes that there is a positive link between ESG risk management and cost of capital in real estate and uses dedicated ESG research providers to track ESG risk metrics across its coverage universe. Presima ensures all its employees stay informed of emerging ESG considerations and trends through regular education sessions.
Proactive
A cornerstone of Presima’s investment process is engagement with companies in its investment universe on ESG matters, aiming to motivate them to enhance their operational practices. Presima also expresses engagement priorities through proxy voting, where research is actively conducted prior to engaging with the respective company on voting intensions. Presima’s ESG framework guides its approach to engagement. It incorporates research and metrics in efforts to influence added value to companies’ capital stock and benefit to shareholders and communities.
Perspective
Presima is enhancing its carbon data collection process with the intention to improve accuracy in assessing the environmental impacts of its investments. Presima will develop a climate dashboard including key portfolio climate metrics. Climate-related regulations and policies are continuously evolving and impacting global REIT valuations, making it important to stay informed and to share the knowledge with all business verticals.
ESG Opportunities Across Our Business
Assessing and understanding material ESG topics across each business vertical is essential to crafting a meaningful and impactful ESG strategy. This approach is vital in helping us pinpoint the most significant environmental, social, and governance factors that may impact our business. By focusing on what truly matters, we can prioritize resources and efforts on areas that drive the most value – both commercially and sustainably. This approach enables us to align our strategies with stakeholder expectations and to enhance our ability to identify and manage risks, seize opportunities, and ensure that our ESG initiatives are both relevant and impactful.
ESG Governance
Slate’s approach to ESG governance is multifaceted and focused on embedding ESG practices into our business.
1
Partners and Senior Leadership
Actively review opportunities, identify risks, and develop mitigation plans as it relates to their area of operation and control
2
ESG Business Committees
Task forces comprised of management from each business vertical, meeting quarterly to discuss updates on ESG strategies, initiatives, risks, and mitigation plans
3
ESG Experts
Slate’s ESG Team supports the different business verticals to drive ESG data collection, share best practices, and facilitate external reporting
4
Employees
Responsible for implementing ESG Policy practices and action plans as it relates to their individual areas of operation and control
Affiliations and Partnerships
Slate engages with the following sustainability frameworks and organizations to thoughtfully advance all firmwide environmental, social, and government efforts.
Slate became a member of GRESB in 2022, which has allowed us to have a comprehensive and consistent way of understanding, measuring, and improving the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance of our funds against peers.
Slate became a UN PRI signatory in 2024 and publicly committed to incorporating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into our investment decision making and ownership practices.
Presima, Slate Asset Management’s investment adviser subsidiary that focuses on publicly traded REIT’s and infrastructure, has been a UN PRI signatory since 2009, and from 2024, Presima is covered under Slate Asset Management’s signatory status.
Community
We create value by creating spaces where people want to be – where our tenants and surrounding communities can thrive.
Building Talent & Teams
We aim to create the most diverse team we can across backgrounds and experiences, and then retain those employees by creating a positive work environment.
Entrepreneurial & Growth Mindset
We ensure that everyone we work with is empowered to voice their opinions, have a seat at the table, and see examples of success across gender and ethnicity.
Ownership, Accountability & Responsibility
We empower our employees both in and out of the office with education and development opportunities, a focus on health and wellness, and community service opportunities.
Bias for Action
We are committed to continuous progress, improvement, and learning in all that we do. We understand our impact depends on how we act and operate every day, internally and externally.
