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HEARTLAND MEDIA ANNOUNCEMENT  

Savings Critical to Chicago's Economic Recovery  

Worker's Capital on City's Infrastructure Investment Trust  

Chicago - Representatives of four of the nation's leading investment funds will join leaders of Chicago's AFL CIO Tuesday to address the dramatic economic growth that infusions of capital from workers' pension funds is having in rebuilding Chicago, and their potential as financing sources for the city's Infrastructure Investment Trust.   

Who:    Ted Chandler, Chief Operating Officer, AFL CIO Housing Investment Trust; Herb Kolben, Senior Vice President, and Debbie Nisson, Regional Marketing Director, Union Labor Life Insurance Company (ULLICO) Real Estate Investment Group; Jim Lingberg, Chief Operating Officer, AFL CIO Building Investment Trust (BIT); Michael Ibarra, Senior VP, Investor Relations, Multi-Employer Property Trust (MEPT); Thomas Villanova, President, Chicago and Cook County Building and Construction Trades Council (BCTC), and Bob Reiter, Secretary-Treasurer, Chicago Labor Federation    

What:    Presentations on economic growth resulting from $2.2 billion of  workers' pension savings invested in Chicago's built environment and implications for growth potential  of the city's new Infrastructure Investment Trust    

Where:  Millennium Park Conference Room, 7th Floor, Suite 750
One Prudential Plaza, 130 East Randolph Street    

When:   Noon, Tuesday, December 4    

There will be  15 minutes for media questions following the presentations and panelists will be available for interviews upon request.   For more information, contact: Marco Trbovich, Tricom Associates, 412-760-4335.

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America's New Infrastructure Banks--New Questions to Ask  

Second of Series, "Connecting The Dots"   

By John Williams, Chairman & CEO of Impact Infrastructure, LLC and Adjunct Faculty Member at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs 

Is there a prudent approach for pension funds and other institutional investors to allocate a greater amount to high impact infrastructure?  There's good news and bad news concerning this question.

The good news is that there's a happy convergence in which pension funds are moving into infrastructure to reduce inflation and market risk, while deficit-ridden governments are deep in bond debt and looking for new ways to rebuild and expand crumbling infrastructure.

"We are at a unique crossroads where there is a desire from many different sectors to find ways to overcome whatever hurdles there might be," Robert Udall Lazier, deputy executive officer of the California Public Employees Retirement System( CalPERS) wrote recently. ["CalPERS looks at job-creating infrastructure," May 21, 2012 in CalPERS Investments]  Read more of the America's New Infrastructure Banks - New Questions to Ask

Introduction to 

"Responsible Investment Strategies" a new Heartland Blog Series 

Responsible investing continues to grow as a share of total capital markets. This growth has led to the development of a plethora of resources that seek to enable greater investments in a responsible and sustainable manner alongside obtaining positive financial returns. This is the first blog in a series aimed at describing the various guidelines, tools and investment beliefs available to investors for responsible investing. Our hope is to increase investor understanding of these resources and, ultimately, help direct investors to the resources most suitable to their responsible investment goals. In addition, this series will focus primarily on social issues within the environmental, social and governance framework, or the S in the ESG, as measured and reported through these resources. This blog series is authored by Annie Malhotra, Strategic Advisor to Heartland Capital Strategies.  For more information contact: Annie Malhotra, heartland@steelvalley.org

United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI)

First of Series:  Responsible Investment Strategies

By Annie Malhotra, Strategic Advisor to Heartland Capital Strategies

One of the more globally recognized and utilized guidelines encouraging investments in a responsible manner is the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI). The Principles support the view that environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) issues can affect the performance of investment portfolios and therefore must be given appropriate consideration by investors if they are to fulfill their fiduciary (or equivalent) duty.

More importantly, the Principles were developed by an international group of institutional investors brought together by the United Nations Secretary-General, reflecting the increasing relevance of ESG issues to investment practices.  Read more on the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment