DIF organised a conference on Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) factors in the infrastructure sector, focused on road projects. At DIF, we believe our role is to create opportunities for our portfolio investments to communicate and exchange ideas to break barriers to the realisation of ESG initiatives. The aim of the conference was to create the opportunity for these road projects to exchange on ESG initiatives and best practices.
The ESG Road Projects conference was well attended by a variety of representatives from road projects across Europe, including Portugal, France, Germany and Ireland. Attendants also included peers from the investment management industry and service providers. The day was organised around the themes of safety and environment, the two main areas for road projects that were identified in our 2018 ESG Survey (please refer to our 2018 ESG Report for more details https://www.dif.eu/responsible-investment).
The topics that were covered sharing best practice in the following areas:
- How to increase road safety by facilitating resting areas for heavy goods vehicles and bringing the maintenance staff in contact with the truck drivers;
- Supporting landscaping and mobility projects in the local communities;
- Improving safety on adjacent roads;
- Increasing the employment opportunities for people with a distance to the labour market;
- Reducing energy consumption through the implementation of a dimming program for street lighting;
- The success of interactive behavioural health and safety training;
- Use of social media to send traffic alert and road safety campaigns for road users.
Our key take-aways from the conference are:
- Infrastructure asset managers are convinced of the added value of sound ESG management for the long-term value and resilience of their assets and are already actively working on ESG topics;
- Every single asset, small or large, in construction or in operation, has the potential to realise ESG initiatives.
The conference fits well into our conviction that sound ESG management is synonymous with good business and will enhance the ultimate returns from our investments.
As part of its ESG strategy DIF is committed to:
- Being a responsible company that respects the interests of its environment and its stakeholders, including the investors in its funds, shareholders, business counterparties, employees, workers on and users of the assets in which its funds invest and the surrounding local communities;
- Promoting organizational behaviour, in line with our ethical beliefs and best industry practice;
- Adopting a transparent and pro-active approach to ESG and its implementation.
For more information regarding ESG and/or to indicate your interest in participating in future events, please contact Frank Siblesz, Head of ESG (f.siblesz@dif.eu).
About DIF
DIF is an independent infrastructure fund manager, with €5.6 billion of assets under management across seven closed-end infrastructure funds and several co-investment vehicles. DIF invests in greenfield and brownfield infrastructure assets located primarily in Europe, North America and Australasia through two complementary strategies:
- DIF Infrastructure V targets equity investments in public-private partnerships (PPP/PFI/P3), concessions, regulated assets and renewable energy projects with long-term contracted or regulated income streams that generate stable and predictable cash flows.
- DIF Core Infrastructure Fund I targets equity investments in small to mid-sized infrastructure assets in the energy, transportation and telecom sectors with mid-term contracted income streams that generate stable and predictable cash flows.
DIF has a team of over 115 professionals, based in eight offices located in Schiphol (the Netherlands), Frankfurt, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Paris, Sydney and Toronto. Please visit www.dif.eu for further information.
