Sustainable Investing Challenge Taps Grad Students for Innovation

Now in its 11th year, the Kellogg-Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge saw a 34% increase in the number of global students pitching innovative finance and investing ideas that help address critical social and environmental issues. For the 2021 competition, 414 students from 50 countries submitted proposals that target sustainability challenges in 33 countries. The growth in participation helps illustrate a continued rise of sustainable and impact investing, and the burgeoning role that the next generation of financial professionals can play to scale solutions through capital markets.

This year, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and Morgan Stanley's Institute for Sustainable Investing are advancing 16 finalist teams to pitch their sustainable investing concepts. The graduate students will present their proposals virtually on April 9th to a group of sustainable investing professionals who will judge the competition and choose a winning team. Building on Morgan Stanley’s Plastic Waste Resolution, judges will award an additional prize to the top team developing an innovative financial solution that helps reduce plastic waste.

For this year’s competition, 123 teams from around the world submitted proposals. Ideas ranged from a fixed-income fund for mangrove conservation in Indonesia that would help sequester greenhouse gases and improve coastal communities’ resilience to climate change to municipal bonds that would accelerate healthcare uptake-and-delivery solutions for rural communities in India.

Students' Home Countries

_{Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, British Indian Ocean Territory, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Denmark, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Republic of Korea, Lebanon, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malawi, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Romania, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Vietnam.} 

Countries Targeted for Impact

_{Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Nepal, Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States.}