Don't Go Green with your money

[dan_s]

According to a report released this week by the American Council for Capital Formation (ACCF), the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) -- the nation’s largest public pension fund – has ramped up its focus on such "green" ventures. The result: environmentally-driven funds made up four of the nine worst performing funds in the CalPERS portfolio and represented none of the system’s 25 top-performing funds this past year. As this focus on "Environmental Investments" has increased, CalPERS has moved from a $3 billion pension surplus in 2007 to a reported $138 billion deficit today.
Yet those who manage the fund remain unwilling to put their own money on the line; the personal investment portfolios of the fund’s Chief Investment Officer and at least two other senior executives report no ESG-related investments at all. What’s up with that?