Principal® earns ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year: Sustained Excellence Award for sixth consecutive year

Principal also named Certification Nation Premier Member

DES MOINES, Iowa--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Principal Asset Management^SM, through its dedicated real estate investment team, has been named an ENERGY STAR^® Partner of the Year: Sustained Excellence award winner for the sixth consecutive year. Principal has also been named a Certification Nation Premier Member, a special one-time recognition in celebration of the EPA program’s 30th anniversary for organizations that certified 15 or more buildings in 2022.

“The consistent recognition Principal receives as an ENERGY STAR award winner underscores our long-standing commitment to corporate stewardship and responsible property investment,” said Jennifer McConkey, managing director of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and operations, real estate, Principal Asset Management. “We strive to deliver positive financial and ESG outcomes for our clients and our strong performance over the past six years is a testament to that work. We are especially proud to receive this accolade and be named a Certification Nation Premier Member on the anniversary of the program.”

Principal has been an ENERGY STAR partner since 2009 and has earned Partner of the Year status for eight years. Principal continues to integrate energy efficiency into its Pillars of Responsible Property Investing, the overarching ESG platform for the firm’s dedicated real estate investment team. 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.¹ From 2008-2020, Principal Real Estate achieved 15.2% energy savings, avoided more than $51 million in cumulative energy costs, and prevented more than 130 thousand metric tons of cumulative carbon dioxide emissions.² Now, Principal is working towards 2035 targets to reduce emissions by 40% and energy by 20% (over a 2019 baseline). In 2022, Principal achieved:

• ENERGY STAR certification at 37 properties.
• An average ENERGY STAR score of 87 for certified properties, meaning these properties perform within the top 13% on average 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 2023 winners and more information about ENERGY STAR’s awards program, visit energystar.gov/awardwinners.

Learn more about the Principal commitment to responsible property investing.

1 Top 8 Reasons to Pursue ENERGY STAR Certification

2 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 Asset Management^SM

With public and private market capabilities across all asset classes, Principal Asset Management^SM 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 $501.5 billion in assets¹ and recognized as a “Best Places to Work in Money Management²” for 11 consecutive years. Learn more at www.PrincipalAM.com.

[1] As of December 31, 2022

[2] Pensions & Investments, “The Best Places to Work in Money Management”, December 12, 2022.

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.

©2023 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.

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Shawn Finlen, 515-878-0507, finlen.shawn@principal.com

Source: Principal Financial Group