Trusteeship - November/December 2020 - 35

risks of climate change. In 2017, the Financial Stability Board published a global set of
recommendations to help organizations with
this task, while also seeking to standardize
the information that companies report to
investors on this topic. These recommendations, known as the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosure (TCFD),
are now being used by investors like TIAA
to strengthen climate risk management
practices across investment portfolios. TIAA
formally endorsed the TCFD recommendations and is now striving to implement its
best practices across four pillars: governance,
strategy, risk management and metrics, and
targets (see illustration below).

tions to senior leadership on how to
close those gaps.
■	 Through our annual UN Principles for
Responsible Investment assessment, we
publicly disclosed our progress against
the TCFD recommendations.
■	 We are beginning to use "next generation" climate risk data to model potential
impacts on investment value under different climate scenarios. We also make
carbon emissions data from thousands of
companies available to all our investment
teams to reference during investment
research and portfolio management.
■	 We strongly emphasize engagement with
portfolio companies on how they are

Core Elements of Recommended Climate-Related Financial Disclosures

Governance
Strategy
Risk
Management
Metrics
and Targets

Governance
The organization's governance around climate-related
risks and opportunities
Strategy
The actual and potential impacts of climate-related
risks and opportunities on the organization's business,
strategy, and financial planning
Risk Management
The processes used by the organization to identify,
assess, and manage climate-related risks
Metrics and Targets
The metrics and targets used to assess and manage
relevant climate-related risks and oppportunities

Getting Started with the TCFD
In partnership with our in-house asset
manager Nuveen, we have taken a number
of concrete steps to align with the TCFD
recommendations. We share this in hopes
that university asset owners can draw inspiration for their own climate risk management journey, while also recognizing that
our own strategy will evolve over time.
■	 TIAA and Nuveen launched a Climate
Risk Task Force in 2019 to better manage climate risk across investments and
operations.
■	 The task force assessed climate risk best
practices by peers, identifying gaps vs.
best practice, and made recommenda

SHUTTERSTOCK/ SEPP PHOTOGRAPHY

managing climate risk. For instance, we
vote for more climate change shareholder
proposals than any other U.S. investor.5
■	 Nuveen Real Estate sets ambitious targets to
reduce emissions in our real estate investments, aiming for net carbon zero by 2050.
We seek opportunities to invest in green
and low carbon projects through public
markets, and own over $4 billion in green
bonds across TIAA and Nuveen.6
Additionally, endowment focused associations, such as the Intentional Endowment Network among others, can serve as
helpful resources to colleges and universities who are on their climate-risk management journey.

Conclusion
There is an opportunity for institutions to
leave a positive legacy of climate risk leadership. While the risks of climate change
are upon us, the tools to manage these risks
are available to investors and institutions
alike-the next step on the journey is to
implement them.
Allison Spector is a director of responsible
investing at Nuveen, and is responsible for
setting the sustainability strategy and driving
implementation of best practices in environmental,
social and governance (ESG), climate risk and
impact investing within real assets and private
markets, which include investments across
farmland, timberland, agribusiness, energy and
infrastructure, private equity, and private debt.
She has B.A. in International Studies from Emory
University and an M.Sc. in Sustainable Development
from the School of Oriental and Asian Studies at
the University of London, where she focused on
sustainable agriculture. Email: Allison.Spector@
nuveen.com
Sarah Wilson is a senior director of responsible
investing at Nuveen, and is responsible for
the integration of environmental, social and
governance (ESG) factors in the investment process
within fixed income. She also focuses on firm-wide
climate change initiatives, as well as measuring
the social and environmental impact of the firm's
public and private investments. She has a MBA and
master's degree in environmental management
from Yale University and a BA in economics from
the University of Texas at Austin. She serves on the
advisory board of the Yale Initiative for Sustainable
Finance. Email: Sarah.Wilson@nuveen.com

References
1.	National Center for Education Statistics, Fall 2020
2.	Gates Notes, COVID-19 is awful. Climate
change could be worse., 2020
3.	Hsiang, et. Al. Estimating economic damage
from climate change in the United States.
Science, 30 June 2017.
4.	IPCC, Global Warming of 1.5C: Summary for
Policymakers, 2018
5.	ShareAction, Voting Matters Report, 2020
6.	As of 30 June 2020
The views and opinions expressed are for informational and educational purposes only as of the date
of production/writing and may change without
notice at any time based on factors such as market
conditions or legal and regulatory developments. All
information has been obtained from sources believed
to be reliable, but its accuracy is not guaranteed.
Nuveen provides investment advisory solutions
through its investment specialists

NOV. DEC. 2020  TRUSTEESHIP  35



Trusteeship - November/December 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Trusteeship - November/December 2020

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