Green Building Accomplishments & Sustainability Initiatives

The LEED® Green Building Certification Program is one of the most widely used green building rating systems globally. Its certifications symbolizes that a building is sustainable.

CalPERS is proud to renew its LEED® certification every five years as required.

In 2024, both LPEW and LPN maintained LEED Gold®. Platinum is the highest-achievable LEED® rating, with Gold being the next highest.

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 size and construction.

In 2024, Lincoln Plaza remained Energy Star certified and continued to meet the mandated Energy Star score of 75: LPEW scored 85 and LPN scored 75.

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're committed to continued efforts to reduce water consumption. Lincoln Plaza used 26% less water in 2024 compared to 2010.

We achieved the WELL Health-Safety rating for the third year in a row in 2024. WELL Health-Safety measures a building’s air and water quality, along with numerous other operational policies, maintenance protocols, and emergency plans.

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 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 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 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 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 goal, the Café continues its partnership with the Imperfectly Delicious Produce Program, utilizing fruits and vegetables that are usually discarded due to slight cosmetic imperfections 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 2024, we received All Star level status for the 2023 GHG inventory, achieving an emissions reduction of 83% or 5,395 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent when measured against the 2010 baseline.

We have 27 light-duty fleet vehicles including two pure EVs and eight hybrids, with plans to replace more internal combustion engine vehicles with hybrids and pure EVs 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 four compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

A Level 1 charging station provides an outlet for team members to plug in their own charging cord and takes approximately 16 hours to charge 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 five 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 and to promote our sustainability initiatives.

In 2024, we created 4.6 tons of commercial solid waste per week, 57% of this was diverted from the landfill through recycling and composting.

In 2024, by participating in the Imperfectly Delicious Produce Program, we saved 6,370 gallons of fresh water and 245 pounds of produce that would have otherwise gone to waste.

In 2018, we launched our Member Publication Redesign project which consolidated our member publications, reduced paper, and moved more of our news and educational assets to digital platforms. Additionally, CalPERS 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. We're pleased to offer a hybrid work schedule that's reduced the number of cars on the road, resulting in lower GHG emissions and air pollution leading to better health and a cleaner environment for Californians.

In October 2022, we contracted with a third-party consultant to 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 2024 and going forward, we'll work with our executive team and building management on how and when to best implement the plan. Implementing the initiatives suggested in the plan would increase Lincoln Plaza's energy efficiency achieving net-zero status, meaning we'd use 100% renewable energy and eliminate nearly all on-site carbon emissions.