The California Public Employees’ Retirement System’s (CalPERS) mission is to deliver retirement and health benefits to members and their beneficiaries. For more than eight decades, CalPERS has been a respected partner, providing a sustainable retirement system for state, school, and public agency members who invest their lifework in public service. CalPERS serves more than 2 million members in the retirement system and administers health care benefits for 1.5 million members and their families. CalPERS is the largest defined-benefit public pension system in the U.S. CalPERS' total fund market value currently stands at approximately $423 billion.
Alignment with Guiding Principles
At the Council for Inclusive Capitalism, we invite companies of all sizes, industries, and geographies to champion our Guiding Principles for Inclusive Action and demonstrate how they contribute to meaningful change. To ensure alignment with our principles, our members are assessed by at least one reporting body, sustainability-related certificate, benchmark, rating agency or similar organization.
Marcie Frost
We believe it is vital to state clearly to the world the set of our beliefs about Inclusive Capitalism. As such, we start with our Statement of Guiding Principles for Inclusive Capitalism. Knowing that words alone are not enough, each of us is making a series of commitments about how we will operate our institutions so that they help achieve Inclusive Capitalism. These commitments are forward-looking statements based on current goals, expectations and assumptions, which are not guarantees of future performance. For more information, please refer to our Terms of Use
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Summary
Trusted Leadership and Transparency: Five-year goal to achieve a score of 5.43 out of 7 on our stakeholder assessment survey regarding risk.
Activities & Initiatives
- Educate employers, members, and stakeholders on system risks (Investment Risk, Employer Affordability, Climate Change) and mitigation strategies
- Hold and webcast public board meetings
- Identify opportunities for increased stakeholder engagement that ensures access, transparency and mechanisms for feedback and listening.
- Provide education and ethics training to leadership and board members
Measures & Targets
- Five-year goal to achieve a score of 5.43 out of 7 on our stakeholder assessment survey regarding risk
Summary
CalPERS is committed to Talent Management and Diversity. We plan to increase employee engagement survey score average related to diversity and inclusion by 1.6 percent annually (8 percent by 2022).
Activities & Initiatives
CalPERS is committed to Talent Management and Diversity.
- Recruit and empower a broad range of talents to meet CalPERS priorities
- Cultivate leadership competencies and develop succession plans
- Enhance total fund performance by increasing board diversity
Measures & Targets
- Increase employee engagement survey score average related to diversity and inclusion by 1.6 percent annually (8 percent by 2022)
- Of CalPERS employees surveyed, more than 59% rate the organization in the high performing category.
- All public companies that CalPERS invests in have a dimension of board diversity
- Appoint CalPERS’ first Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer
Summary
CalPERS is the co-founder of Climate Action 100+. We are committed to leading the engagement with 22 companies on their commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050.
Activities & Initiatives
- Review and conduct research on emerging sustainable investment issues and opportunities, prioritizing topics with the highest potential financial value to CalPERS
- Guide and support sustainable investment practices and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factor integration into investment decision-making processes
- Lead advocacy efforts on various sustainable investment and financial markets topics
- Conduct engagements with companies, external managers, and stakeholders, prioritizing resources toward topics with the highest potential financial value to CalPERS
- Partner with global organizations to share experiences, pool resources and magnify our influence and voice
Measures & Targets
- All public companies in which CalPERS invests have a dimension of board diversity
- All external managers have policies and procedures for including ESG information in decision making
- All Climate Action 100+ companies to achieve net zero emissions by 2050
- All CalPERS asset classes establish and implement documented procedures for ESG due diligence, contracting and monitoring activities
CalPERS Investment Belief 4
- Long-term value creation requires effective management of three forms of capital: financial, physical and human
Sign up your company
Recognizing it will take alignment of all our organizations to scale impact globally, we invite you to join the movement as a Steward of Inclusive Capitalism. Together, the collective action of Council members will contribute to a fairer, more inclusive and sustainable future for all people and our planet.
