Sustainable Investing Challenge: A Decade of Driving Financial Innovation

Each year, the Kellogg-Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge offers graduate students from around the world the opportunity to pitch innovative financial and investing ideas that help address critical social and environmental issues.

This year, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management celebrates a decade of hosting the Challenge and fostering exciting innovations in sustainable investing. As lead sponsor of the event for the last seven years, Morgan Stanley's Institute for Sustainable Investing has been a proud supporter of the Challenge and looks forward to continuing to build sustainable investing capacity for the next generation of finance professionals.

Ninety-five teams from around the world submitted proposals this year, seeking to improve everything from pandemic response capabilities in Nigeria to agricultural plastic waste reduction in the U.S. Twelve finalist teams have been chosen to present their ideas at the final event, where the winning team will receive $10,000. New in 2020, and as part of the Morgan Stanley Plastic Waste Resolution to help prevent, reduce and remove 50 million metric tons of plastics waste from the environment, proposals that seek to address the issue of plastic waste will be eligible for an additional prize of $5,000.

This year’s competition drew a more diverse group of participants than ever: 308 students from 56 different countries submitted investment prospectuses targeting sustainability and impact challenges in 34 countries. The volume of proposals and the breadth of the problems they aim to address underscores that a new generation of investment leaders view finance as a critical tool for helping solve global challenges.