Announce Specific Commitments to Scale-Up Energy Efficiency,Better Working Conditions Worldwide, Green Investing
OAKLAND, Calif., May 11, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --Sustainable business practices got a powerful, public boost todaywhen a group of globally prominent investors, Fortune 500 companiesand organized labor announced a series of coordinated commitments tocombat climate change and other societal challenges while building asafer, more sustainable global economy.
Commitments announced at the 2011 Ceres Conference here rangefrom the nation's largest public pension fund launching plans tointegrate social and environmental factors into all investmentdecision-making, to an iconic apparel company announcing a paradigmshift in treatment of workers in global contract factories, to asoftware giant unveiling new and enhanced energy managementsolutions with the potential for influencing one-sixth of theplanet's collective manmade greenhouse gas emissions.
"We face enormous global challenges that require bold solutionsto build a new, sustainable 21st Century economy," said Cerespresident Mindy Lubber, whose group helped coordinate thecommitments announced today at the Oakland Marriott City Center.
"We cannot take global economic prosperity for granted," addedAnne Stausboll, Ceres board co-chair and CEO of the CaliforniaPublic Employees Retirement System (CalPERS), the nation's largestpublic pension fund with $236 billion in assets. "The sustainabilityof our natural resources is essential for the long-term health ofour financial markets and the retirement security of our pensionfund's 1.6 million members."
Participants in the Investor-Business Roundtable for aSustainable Economy include Levi Strauss & Co., SAP, Jones LangLaSalle, AFL-CIO, the nation's two largest pension funds, CalPERSand CalSTRS, Generation Asset Management and the Skoll Foundation.
In addition to the individual commitments, CalPERS and CalSTRSwill be joining two-dozen other investors in sending letters nextweek to all of the Russell 1000 companies requesting that theirmanagement teams and boards address sustainability issues acrosstheir organizations - from the boardroom, to their operations,across their supply chains. The letters will also encouragecompanies to use the Ceres 21st Century Roadmap for Sustainability,as a framework for integrating sustainability into their businessstrategies.
Among the individual commitments by Roundtable participants:
-- CalPERS: Fully integrate environmental, social and governance(ESG) factors in all investment decision-making across all assetclasses. Use the Ceres Sustainability Roadmap for its companyengagement work, including its Focus List program.
-- California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS), whichmanages $152.9 billion in assets: Accelerate a program for outsidefund managers investing on its behalf to integrate sustainabilityand environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into theirdecision-making.
"It is vitally important for our investment managers and partnersto identify and address ESG risks in order to help build a strongand sustainable global economy," said CalSTRS CEO Jack Ehnes.
-- Levi Strauss & Co.: Launch an effort to improve not justfactory conditions among its suppliers, but to make a materialdifference to the people and communities across its entire globalsupply chain. This effort will include setting new performancerequirements aligned with key United Nations Millennium DevelopmentGoals.
"Levi Strauss & Co. is proud to heed Ceres' call for action witha new commitment in our supply chain," said company president andCEO John Anderson, speaking at the conference today. "On the 20thanniversary of our Terms of Engagement, we're proposing a newstandard for supplier factors because we believe that it willproduce positive results for workers and for companies."
-- SAP: Releasing new and enhanced energy management solutionsfor companies around the world this quarter. SAP estimates that itstotal customer base of 170,000 customers emits 1/6th of the world'smanmade greenhouse gas emissions, providing a unique opportunity forlarge scale energy-saving impacts.
"SAP's purpose is to help make the world run better through ITinnovation," said Peter Graf, chief sustainability officer at SAPAG. "We see sustainability as a transformational force - similar toglobalization or the arrival of the Internet - that will rely on ITas a catalyst. In this context, the Investor-Business Roundtable fora Sustainable Economy is essential in encouraging collaborationbetween businesses and investors to identify and eliminate theboundaries that keep us from building a sustainable economy."
-- AFL-CIO: Work with the Clinton Global Initiative, Taft-Hartley, public pension funds and private investors to create newfinancing mechanisms to boost investment and job creation incommercial building retrofits for energy efficiency and cleanenergy.
"The recent Empire State Building retrofit shows the vastpotential for upgrading our nation's building infrastructure withmore efficient technologies, leading to good jobs and significantcost savings," said Damon Silvers, policy director at the AFL-CIO."Institutional investors can both lead and benefit from unleashingthis enormous opportunity that will benefit all parts of the U.S.economy."
-- Jones Lang LaSalle: Seize on vast energy efficiencyopportunity by developing new global, integrated tools for realestate property owners and real estate investors to assess,benchmark, manage and improve the energy and environmentalperformance of their assets. JLL is a major real estate managementfirm, with a portfolio of about 1.8 billion square feet worldwide.
"More and more companies recognize that a well-run program tominimize their environmental impact produces financial benefits thatoutweigh the costs," said Dan Probst, chairman of energy andsustainability services at Jones Lang LaSalle. "We see it in our ownoperations and in our work on behalf of corporations and investors:a strong energy and sustainability program is good for the bottomline as well as for the environment."
-- PG&E: Launch an effort to further quantify the impacts of thecompany's program to integrate sustainable business practices acrossits supply chain, including measuring and reducing greenhouse gasemissions.
-- Skoll Foundation: Commits to make sustainable capitalism - andits hugely important role in tackling climate change and waterscarcity - a key focus at the Skoll World Forum in early 2012.
The Roundtable is an outgrowth of a process that began lastDecember, when Ceres brought together business, investor and laborleaders at CalPERS headquarters in Sacramento to discuss the urgencyof global sustainability challenges and what they could docollectively to address them.
"The Roundtable is an acknowledgment that we need deepercollaboration between investors, companies, labor and other economicplayers to accelerate large-scale environmental and socialsolutions," Lubber said.
Lubber emphasized that today's commitments are only a beginningand that additional companies and investors will be participating inthe Roundtable at future meetings.
"The world can no longer afford business as usual," said thegroup's collective statement, citing specific challenges such asclimate change, increasing competition for resources and populationpressures. "We, as business, investor and labor leaders, must leadthe way in spurring transformative change. We recognize thatincremental progress in addressing these global challenges is notenough."
The group statement is available at www.ceres.org
SOURCE Ceres, Boston, MA
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