Retirement Investment by CalPERS Shifts Funds to Sustainable Forestry

The vote in Feb., 2008 by CalPERS Board of Trustees creates sustainable management standards for its Forestlands Investment policy, part of a new inflation-linked assets class. The new standards require timber managers to use ecologically sustainable logging practices in order to foster long-term and steady growth of both forest and financial returns.

The move by CalPERS, the nation’s largest public pension fund, continues California’s precedent-setting leadership role in fighting global warming and comes at a time when the economic benefits of forests are expanding as the result of growing worldwide demand for protecting the environmental health of the planet.

Forestry experts at The Nature Conservancy point out that by requiring independent, third-party certification for its forest investments, CalPERS will gain access to increasing consumer markets favoring sustainable forest products and green building materials, and keep CalPERS ahead of new regulatory actions.

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PROBLEM: Institutional investment supports deforestation when they do not require sustainable forestry management.

SOLUTION: Encourage your investment managers to support carbon sequestration by requiring forests to be maintained for longterm health and carbon reduction.  Make your voice heard!