Staying the course: 2024 TIAA Climate Report

A message from TIAA

TIAA’s mission is to deliver financially secure retirement to those that have entrusted their assets to be managed by our firm. Throughout our history, we’ve traversed through economic difficulties, global turmoil, and catastrophes, as well as positive market runs and technological advancements solving some of the world’s most pressing challenges.

We know our country faces a retirement crisis where more than 40% of Americans won’t have enough money to retire—and that changes to our climate will affect the way each of us is able to retire with dignity.¹ We also know the effects of a changing climate won’t be felt equally across all geographies and economic groups.

Climate change is transforming not only how we generate energy, but also how we access natural capital, affecting nearly every supply chain and creating logistical challenges in the wake of severe and often unpredictable weather patterns and storms. Each of these events, separately and in tandem, creates risks for our clients’ investment portfolios, and we recognize the changes that must be made to meet their investment objectives.

We must transform our business, our investment offerings, and our interactions with clients to deliver on our promises to a new generation and generations to come. Our focus on transformation is essential to achieving optimal long-term investment outcomes for our clients, while remaining rooted in the pace of change in the real economy.

To achieve our goals, including our goals to reach Net Zero carbon emissions across different portions of our business, we’re focusing on efficient operations, portfolio repositioning, and engagement with companies around the globe. Many of these activities are carried out by Nuveen, the investment management arm of TIAA.

We’re pleased to provide updates on these targets and how we’ll continue to deliver for this generation and those to come:

1. TIAA General Account: Net Zero by 2050
2. Nuveen Real Estate: Net Zero by 2040
3. TIAA Corporate Operations: Net Zero by 2040

As stewards of our clients’ financial futures and the generations beyond, we continue to make meaningful progress against these targets and guide the company through the low-carbon transition.

We continue to further align to the Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) guidelines and expand the coverage of our disclosures across new asset classes. Our future climate disclosures will evolve over time based on the data available and the industry standards put in place during this transformative time.

Our 2024 report reflects the key areas of our business transforming the way we think about investing and generating retirement income on behalf of our clients:

• Governance: Our dedication to addressing climate related risks starts with our Board and firm leaders who set the strategy and monitor progress. This past year we added our Climate Center of Excellence to the central Responsible Investing team and continue to promote collaboration between the investment side of the house and our operations with the Sustainability Action Team.
• Strategy: By expanding carbon data coverage; engaging deeply with public companies; seeking efficiency improvements in our operations and directly owned assets; and investing parts of our General Account to reflect carbon intensity guidelines. We also began exploring a range of new climate scenarios that may inform future strategic asset allocation in the General Account.
• Risk management: In 2022, TIAA began a phased build-out of our enhanced climate risk management framework, a map of processes that will help us take a consistent approach to how we invest, adhere to existing and evolving regulations, operate our business efficiently, and represent ourselves in the fast-changing world.
• Metrics and targets: TIAA and Nuveen are on track or ahead of schedule against all three interim Net Zero targets to date, with reductions in carbon intensity or carbon emissions ranging from 21% to 31% versus 2019.

We’re proud of our transformative progress to date, and we’ll continue this positive momentum to deliver on our retirement equality promises.