Green Building Accomplishments & Sustainability Initiatives

The LEED® Green Building Certification Program is one of the most widely used green building rating system globally and its certifications symbolize that a building is sustainable.

In 2018, LPEW earned LEED Platinum® and LPN earned LEED Gold®. Platinum is the highest-achievable LEED® rating, with Gold being the next highest. LEED Is assessed on a five-year cycle and we’ll apply for the next certification in August 2023.

Energy Star is an energy and water benchmarking program for existing buildings led by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, and provides a snapshot 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 of a similar construction and size.

In 2021, Lincoln Plaza remained Energy Star certified and continued to exceed the mandated Energy Star score of 75: LPEW scored 88 and LPN scored 85.

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 the 20-year agreement and will deliver at least 50% of Lincoln Plaza's electrical energy from a local solar field. Since its implementation in 2017, CalPERS has saved about $500,000.00.

We continue to take water conservation measures, such as recapturing water from cooling towers to use for maintenance purposes. This water would normally go to the combined sewer/storm drain system but is instead captured and stored in our two water recapture tanks that each hold up to 2,000 gallons. It’s been estimated that it would be possible to recapture a total of 1.8 million gallons of cooling tower blowdown a year.

In 2021, we applied for the WELL Health-Safety rating for Lincoln Plaza for the first time. WELL Health-Safety measures a building’s air and water quality, along with numerous other operational policies, maintenance protocols, and emergency plans. We received the certification in January 2022 and will renew on an annual basis. This certification serves as a way for buildings to receive recognition for facility operations and management within WELL’s rigorous review. It’s a symbol of our extensive preparation and confidence in providing a healthy and safe 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 investment returns. 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 to heart when it comes to serving the people of Sacramento. Not only is quality at the forefront, but the long-term longevity of the food sources. 59% of the produce and dairy products utilized are locally sourced, 100% of the milk served and used is free of artificial growth hormone, 100% of the seafood served is sourced from sustainable fish vendors, 100% of the eggs used are certified human cage-free, and 100% of the coffee served is from Eco/Fair Trade certified coffee beans.

The Café vendor, Compass Group USA, continues its partnership with The Imperfectly Delicious Produce Program, which utilizes fruits and vegetables that are usually discarded due to slight cosmetic imperfections but are suitable for consumption.

The Café also focuses on waste reduction throughout all operations, participating in local composting and waste tracking programs, with a yearly waste reduction percentage of 20-40%. To assist with this waste reduction goal, the Café also utilizes imperfect fruits and vegetables; these food items may not be used by other restaurants or stores due to not looking perfect despite being perfectly edible, safe to consume, and delicious.

We continue to go above and beyond by being one of the few state agencies that voluntarily completes third-party verification of its GHG through TCR. This verification ensures that the reported values have an accuracy of plus or minus 5%. TCR is a nonprofit governing body that maintains the standards that allow agencies to measure, report, and verify their entity-wide GHG.

In 2020, we achieved Allstar status which is a higher level of certification than our previous Gold level. TCR recognized us for our commitment to sustainability by reporting and verifying GHG emissions with them.

The 2020 GHG inventory, reported at the end of 2021, achieved an emissions reduction of 85% or 5,485 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent when measured against the 2010 baseline. Since our GHG inventory results are received for the year prior, we’ll have the 2021 results in 2022.

We have 33 light-duty fleet including one pure EV and six hybrids, with plans to replace more internal combustion engine vehicles with hybrids and plug-in hybrids as they age.

The Lincoln Plaza 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 charging stations, including five compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

A Level 1 charging station only requires an outlet for employees to plug in their own charging cord and takes approximately 16 hours to charge for an 80-mile battery and 40 hours for a 200-mile battery. We also provide infrastructure from ChargePoint® to offer Level 2 charging stations with cords taking approximately 3.5 hours to charge an 80-mile battery and eight hours to charge a 200-mile battery.

Our Bike Share Program supports alternate transportation and encourages a healthy lifestyle by offering eight bicycles at no charge for team members to use for personal and business trips during work hours. Established in 2012 through a partnership between our Parking & Rideshare, Sustainable Operations, and Wellness programs, it continues to be frequently utilized by 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.

In 2021, we created 3 tons of commercial solid waste per week, 73% of this was diverted from the landfill through recycling and composting.

In 2021, the Café remained closed due to COVID-19 and the reduced building occupation. Therefore, the 2021 figures are unavailable for the gallons of water and pounds of produce saved.

In 2018, we launched our Member Publication Redesign project which aims to consolidate our member publications to reduce paper and move more of our news and educational assets to digital platforms.

In the last five years, the number of publications printed reduced by 60%, from 331,661 in FY 2018-19 to 129,728 in FY 2021-22.