Why It's Time to Align Retirement Funds With Sustainability Goals

In 2017, Bloomberg announced that it was the first U.S. domiciled company to become a U.N. PRI signatory as a corporate pension plan sponsor (it was a signatory since 2009 as a service provider). It took about four to five years to get key decision-makers comfortable including an ESG-themed fund in the lineup, said Lee Ballin, head of sustainable business at Bloomberg, an effort led by the Global Benefits Team to align the investment and retirement committee; senior business leaders; legal counsel; the professional development team and investor and retirement consultants. 

"The Bloomberg investment committee decided to include an ESG-themed fund [the Parnassus Core Equity Fund] into its corporate retirement plan after a thorough review of its pension plan lineup," said Cathy Bolz, Bloomberg's global head of benefits. "It was fundamental, however, that the ESG-themed fund met the same rigorous criteria like any other fund in the plan lineup."

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