Morgan Stanley have announced the launch of the Morgan Stanley Sustainable Solutions Accelerator – a new strategic initiative to identify breakthrough innovations focused on systemic change for sustainability. The Initiative will have three major elements: a new Sustainable Solutions Innovation Award; a year-long intensive partnership with Morgan Stanley; and an ongoing Sustainable Solutions Collaborative that will provide an ongoing forum for cross-sector collaboration to drive sustainable solutions at scale.
“The challenges that have come to the forefront this year exposed just how urgently we need to address structural issues in societal and environmental design,” said James Gorman, Morgan Stanley CEO and Chair of the Institute for Sustainable Investing Advisory Board. “The Sustainable Solutions Accelerator represents Morgan Stanley’s latest commitment to help scale the solutions that drive positive, sustainable and systemic change, and builds on the longstanding work of our Institute for Sustainable Investing.”
In its first year, the Sustainable Solutions Accelerator will select five breakthrough innovations that are tackling major global sustainability challenges. Those selected will each receive a $250,000 Sustainable Solutions Innovation Award to develop and help scale the solution.
Innovators will also participate in a year-long, strategic partnership with experts at the Institute for Sustainable Investing where they will have access to the full range of Morgan Stanley’s expertise, networks and innovative solutions to help them achieve scale and sustained impact. After the initial year, the innovators will become part of the Morgan Stanley Sustainable Solutions Collaborative, a group of leaders focused on helping solve some of the world’s most pressing sustainability challenges.
“Whether the challenge is climate change, social justice or plastic waste reduction, we cannot drive global, systemic change if we persist in business-as-usual thinking,” said Audrey Choi, Morgan Stanley’s Chief Sustainability Officer and CEO of the Institute for Sustainable Investing. “Now is the time to support holistic solutions that will become the next frontier in sustainable investing.”
This effort builds on Morgan Stanley’s decade long commitment to sustainability and sustainable investing since the founding of the Global Sustainable Finance Group in 2009 and the launch of the Institute for Sustainable Investing in 2013. Criteria for selection include: a) breakthrough innovative thinking; b) potential for broad reaching systemic change; c) potential for impact to be significantly increased through participation in the Accelerator.
The Sustainable Solutions Accelerator will draw on the expertise of the Institute’s distinguished Advisory Board that includes Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman, Harvard University’s School of Business Professor Linda Hill, Ford Foundation President Darren Walker, National Academy of Sciences Fellow Dr. Rosina Bierbaum, and former SEC Chair Mary Schapiro.
“We are excited to see this latest step forward by Morgan Stanley. The Accelerator will serve as a catalyst for bold, yet pragmatic solutions. It will reach and support the innovators who imagine a more sustainable future and are determined to bring solutions to market fast. The systemic approach ensures these solutions will have real impact,” said Advisory Board Member Dr. Linda A Hill, Faculty Chair of the Leadership Initiative and Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.
The Institute will establish a network of independent, external nominators who will identify the innovations with the most potential around the world. A selection committee comprised of experts from across different industries, sectors and communities will review, evaluate and recommend finalists from among the nominees.
To learn more about the Morgan Stanley Sustainable Solutions Accelerator and Collaborative please visit www.morganstanley.com/ideas/sustainability-accelerator-systemic-change.
