Member Article

Morgan Stanley announces 2015 Sustainable Investing Challenge winners

An investment vehicle that aims to alleviate drought and reduce forest fire risk while seeking market-rate returns for investors has won first prize in the 2015 Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge. Blue Forest Conservation Notes, a team of students from the Haas School of Business at the University of California Berkeley, presented the investment strategy last week at Morgan Stanley’s London headquarters.

The Blue Forest Conservation Notes proposal outlines a proactive and strategic forest thinning program that works to monetize the value forest management brings to numerous stakeholders, including public utilities and government agencies.

As a collaboration among the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, INSEAD Business School and the Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing, the Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge seeks to identify the next generation of sustainable investing practitioners, connect emerging leaders with industry professionals, and foster greater emphasis on sustainability at graduate schools around the world.

At last week’s final event, ten finalist teams from nine graduate school programs proposed investment vehicles addressing topics including renewable energy, desertification and agriculture. In February, 380 students from 78 schools in 20 different countries submitted proposals for the competition.

“We commend all the students for creating sustainable investing concepts that combine ambitious visions for impact with a focus on financial rigor,” said Audrey Choi, CEO of the Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing. “The Sustainable Investing Challenge is a call to the next generation of finance professionals to match their business acumen and investment creativity with their passion for producing a positive impact, and this year’s participants answered the call with great success.”

The winning team consisted of Zach Knight, Leigh Madeira, Chad Reed and Nick Wobbrock.

The team from the National University of Singapore Business School – Gustavo Bernal, Leslie Chua, Animesh Pant and Oscar Posada – was selected as runner-up for their CampoColombia Fund that proposes a real estate investment fund supporting the development of sustainable agricultural business opportunities for displaced Colombian farmers.

Student teams from the London Business School and Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University also placed in the top four with their proposals - EnPower Capital (providing working capital finance to renewable energy entrepreneurs in Sub-Saharan Africa) and Floating Green Capital (financing controlled environment agriculture systems in the US) respectively.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Morgan Stanley .