Nuveen, CalSTRS Target $2B for Sustainable Infrastructure Credit
Nuveen has struck a strategic partnership with the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) to deploy up to $2 billion into sustainable infrastructure via Nuveen’s Energy Infrastructure Credit (EIC) platform. CalSTRS will act as anchor investor for a sustainable infrastructure sleeve within the Energy & Power Infrastructure Credit Fund II (EPIC II), and is positioned to back future complementary strategies as the clean energy economy scales.
The mandate spans renewable power generation, energy storage, industrial decarbonization, energy-efficiency solutions and circular economy investments, with an additional focus on onshoring key infrastructure supply chains to support domestic manufacturing jobs. The portfolio will also target assets tied to the build-out of artificial intelligence and the broader digital economy, reflecting how data and electrification needs are reshaping infrastructure demand.
“The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence, the onshoring of manufacturing and industrial supply chains, and the broad electrification of the economy are collectively creating a generational need for new infrastructure investment,” said Don Dimitrievich, global head of Nuveen EIC. “We believe private credit is uniquely positioned to play a leading role in financing that buildout while also achieving positive sustainable outcomes.”
For CalSTRS, the partnership aligns long-duration sustainable infrastructure credit with the plan’s core objective of delivering attractive risk-adjusted returns for more than one million California public-school educators and their beneficiaries, while helping to catalyze positive sustainability results and reduce or avoid emissions.
“We believe sustainable infrastructure credit requires specialists’ expertise to originate, underwrite and structure bespoke capital solutions,” said Nick Abel, investment director at CalSTRS.