CREO and CDPQ announce partnership to invest in sustainable economy

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Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec

Apr 10, 2019, 09:31 ET

MONTRÉAL and NEW YORK, April 10, 2019 /PRNewswire/ - The CREO Family Office Syndicate (CREO), a not-for-profit global network of family offices headquartered in New York City, and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), a leading long-term institutional investor, today announced a new partnership to foster more capital into climate investments by creating new opportunities, sharing expertise and exercising stronger climate leadership within the industry.

CREO (Clean, Renewable and Environmental Opportunities) enables some of the world's leading family offices to exchange knowledge, expertise and opportunities in sustainable investment to help transition to a clean and sustainable economy. With a diverse community of active family offices and aligned investors, CREO seeks to catalyze new investments in clean energy and transportation, sustainable food, agriculture and water, and other environmental opportunities, and offers the insights of world-class experts and innovators.

Régine Clément, President and CEO of CREO, commented: "Through this partnership, we are breaking down silos within the financial industry to allow aligned family office and large institutional investors that have a long term outlook to work together and advance common goals including addressing climate risk and opportunities and helping transition towards a low carbon economy for the public good. Business as usual is no longer good enough."

This partnership is in line with CDPQ's commitment to work with family offices and other innovative organizations to share best practices, market intelligence and to collaboratively create new investment opportunities. Through the deployment of its strategy on climate change in the last year, CDPQ has reduced the carbon intensity of its global portfolio by 10% while increasing investments in low-carbon assets by $10 billion. These results show CDPQ's focus to enhance its portfolio's sustainability in a constructive way.

"We are pleased to create this new partnership with CREO, with whom we share values, a long-term perspective and a commitment to make sustainable investments a priority. Our joint efforts to contribute to the transition toward a low-carbon economy, by factoring in climate change in our investment decisions, will bring meaningful value to both organizations and its members," said Mario Therrien, Senior Vice-President, Strategic Partnerships – Developed Markets.

ABOUT THE CREO FAMILY OFFICE SYNDICATE
The CREO Syndicate ("CREO") is a 501c3 public charity founded by wealth owners and family offices with a mission to address some of the most pressing environmental challenges of our time affecting communities across the globe – climate change and resource scarcity – by catalyzing commercial capital into innovative solutions to protect and preserve the environment and accelerate the transition to a more sustainable economy for the benefit of the public. CREO provides education and capacity building by enabling its members and other stakeholders to share applied knowledge and expertise, resources, and investment opportunities, helps build relationships amongst aligned investors and experts, and conducts research to support the advancement of its mission. For more information visit creosyndicate.org.

ABOUT CAISSE DE DÉPÔT ET PLACEMENT DU QUÉBEC
Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) is a long-term institutional investor that manages funds primarily for public and parapublic pension and insurance plans. As at December 31, 2018, it held CA$309.5 billion in net assets. As one of Canada's leading institutional fund managers, CDPQ invests globally in major financial markets, private equity, infrastructure, real estate and private debt. For more information, visit cdpq.com, follow us on Twitter @LaCDPQ or consult our Facebook or LinkedIn pages.

SOURCE Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec