Bond Awards 2020

Investor of the Year (not a fund) - Highly commended: Nuveen

For its exceptional work in the sustainable investment sphere over the calendar year 2019, led by respected industry figure Steve Liberatore, global investment manager Nuveen was highly commended at Environmental Finance's 2020 Bond Awards.

In 2019, Nuveen's TIAA-CREF Core Impact Bond Fund attracted net inflows of $1.8 billion.

As one of the largest investors of green bonds globally, Nuveen is able to exert enormous influence on issuers and underwriters on appropriate use of proceeds and leading-edge impact reporting metrics and frequencies.

In 2019, Liberatore, lead portfolio manager for Nuveen's ESG and Impact fixed income strategies, and his team averaged one engagement meeting a week with issuers to uphold use of proceeds and reporting standards.

Also in 2019, Liberatore completed his second consecutive term on the Executive Committee of the Green Bond Principles and its Impact Reporting Working Group.

Nuveen is also not shy of expressing its opinions on the market's development. In 2019 Enel's innovative €2.5 billion ($2.8 billion) sustainability-linked bond was branded "a form of greenwashing" by Liberatore at an Environmental Finance conference. Although the bond attracted an order book of €10 billion, Liberatore stated that none of the portfolios or mandates he manages were among the buyers.