Green Building Accomplishments & Sustainability Initiatives

The LEED® Green Building Certification Program is one of the most widely used green building rating systems globally. LEED® certification signifies that a building meets rigorous sustainability standards.

We are proud to maintain our LEED® certification, which is renewed every five years as required. In 2025, both LPN and LPEW maintained LEED Gold® certification. 

Energy Star is an energy and water benchmarking program for existing buildings led by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) that provides a glimpse of a building's energy performance. Annually, buildings receive an Energy Star score between one and 100 based on energy performance in comparison with buildings nationwide.

In 2025, LP remained Energy Star certified and continued to meet the mandated Energy Star score of 75 and above: LPN scored 75 and LPEW scored 83.

In August 2017, we were the first state agency to participate in Sacramento Municipal Utility District's (SMUD) SolarShares program. The program is a partnership between SMUD and its customers to provide a community solar option that will improve the regional power mix and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

The SolarShares program will save us an estimated $3.7 million in energy costs over our 20-year agreement and will deliver at least 50% of LP’s electrical energy from a local solar field. Since its implementation, we have saved about $500,000.

We're committed to reducing water consumption through ongoing conservation efforts, such as using drought-tolerant landscaping on campus and efficient drip irrigation systems. Lincoln Plaza used 47% less water in 2025 compared to 2010.

In 2025, we achieved the WELL Health-Safety rating for the fourth year in a row. WELL Health-Safety measures a building’s air and water quality, along with numerous other operational policies, maintenance protocols, and emergency plans.

This certification recognizes buildings for facility operations and management within WELL’s rigorous review. It’s a symbol of our extensive preparation and commitment to providing a safe and healthy workspace for our team members.

The Sustainable Investments Program helps the Investment Office deliver returns through the identification, analysis, and management of high-value sustainable investment risks and opportunities that may affect our long-term investment performance. We consider the entire fund when it comes to sustainable investments.

Learn more about our commitment to Sustainable Investment Programs.

The CalPERS Café takes sustainability and quality to heart when it comes to serving the people of Sacramento. 

• Almost 60% of the produce and dairy products used are locally sourced.
• 100% of the milk served is free of artificial growth hormones.
• 100% of the seafood is sourced from sustainable fish vendors.
• 100% of the eggs used are certified human cage-free.
• 100% of the coffee served is from Eco/Fair Trade certified coffee beans. 

The Café vendor, Compass Group USA, focuses on waste reduction throughout all operations, participating in local composting and waste tracking programs, with a yearly waste reduction percentage of 20-40%. 

The Café also participates in a Waste Not Program to reduce food waste by donating excess food that would otherwise be thrown away. The Café became involved with this program in 2025 and looks forwards to its continued partnership.

We continue to go above and beyond by being one of the few state agencies that voluntarily completes third-party verification of its GHG emissions through The Climate Registry (TCR). This verification ensures that the reported values have an accuracy of plus or minus 5%. 

TCR is a nonprofit organization that maintains standards that allow agencies to measure, report, and verify their entity-wide GHG emissions.

In 2025, we completed third-party verification of our 2024 GHG inventory, achieving an emissions reduction of 84% or 5,405 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent compared to our 2010 baseline.

We currently operate 25 fleet vehicles: two pure electric vehicles (EVs), 10 hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), and 13 internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. In 2025, we replaced two HEVs and one ICE vehicle with new vehicles of similar power source. Additionally, two ICE vehicles were removed from the fleet without replacement in March 2025. As part of CalPERS’ Fiscal Year 2024/2025 Fleet Acquisition Plan, four more ICE vehicles are scheduled to be replaced with new EVs in 2026.

The LP garages offer Level 1 and Level 2 EV charging stations to help reduce GHG emissions. In 2019, we completed the installation of all Level 1 and Level 2 charging stations and now have a total of 69 EV charging stations: 51 Level 1 and 18 Level 2, including four that comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

A Level 1 charging station provides an outlet for team members to plug in their own charging equipment and takes approximately 16 hours to charge an 80-mile battery and 40 hours for a 200-mile battery. We also provide ChargePoint® Level 2 charging stations with built-in cords, which take approximately 3.5 hours to charge an 80-mile battery and eight hours for a 200-mile battery.

Our Bike Share Program supports alternate transportation options and encourages a healthy lifestyle by offering five bikes for team members to use for personal and business trips during work hours at no charge. Established in 2012 through a partnership between our Parking & Rideshare, Sustainable Operations, and Wellness programs, the program continues to support active transportation and sustainable commuting options for team members.

The Sustainability Committee, formerly Green Club, launched in September 2012 and is comprised of volunteer team members from all levels of the organization. 

The Committee meets quarterly to increase sustainability awareness by educating and engaging team members and to promote our sustainability initiatives.

Annually in April, CalPERS’ Sustainable Operations Program hosts an enterprise Earth Month event where team members can explore eco-friendly initiatives and connect with local vendors that highlight topics such as alternative transportation, waste reduction, and plant-forward nutrition. The event offers team members various ideas and practical ways to reduce their environmental impact both at work and home, while highlighting our commitment to sustainability.

In 2025, we created 4.6 tons of commercial solid waste per week, 49% of which was diverted from the landfill through recycling and composting. Starting in 2024 and continuing throughout 2026, we worked with building management to initiate an enterprise-wide waste audit, which aims to evaluate current use of waste streams on campus (landfill, recycling, and composting) as well as educate team members and continue our dedication towards sustainability goals. 

In 2018, we launched our Member Publication Redesign project which consolidated our member publications, reduced paper use, and moved more of our news and educational assets to digital platforms. Additionally, team members are encouraged to minimize printing electronic files to conserve paper whenever possible.

We offer a hybrid work schedule to a majority of our team members. Most team members work from the office three days a week and remotely two days a week. This hybrid work schedule has reduced the number of cars on the road, resulting in lower GHG emissions and air pollution, which contributes to better health and a cleaner environment for Californians.

In 2022, we contracted with a third-party consultant to help develop a Decarbonization Plan. The plan included:

• A carbon assessment
• An American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Level II energy audit
• An energy end use breakdown
• A list of energy efficiency measures
• Costs associated with construction, labor, and equipment upgrades

In 2025, we began an LED lighting retrofit in the LPEW buildings to replace existing lighting with more energy-efficient LED technology. The LED lighting retrofit in LPEW wrapped up in March 2026, and planning for a similar retrofit in the LPN building has begun and is set to be completed by the end of 2026.

We remain in the review and development phase of our broader Decarbonization Plan and continue to collaborate with executive leadership and building management to evaluate implementation timing, funding strategies, and alignment with state mandates. These efforts aim to enhance campus energy efficiency and support progress toward long-term decarbonization goals.