Morgan Stanley Announces Second Cohort of the Sustainable Solutions Collaborative

May 26, 2022 at 09:30 AM EDT

The 2022 cohort brings together five teams of innovators focused on tackling global sustainability challenges, from protecting our oceans and fighting climate change and plastic waste, to increasing educational opportunities across the African continent.
Each of the winning teams will receive a $250,000 award and participate in a year-long program that will aid and guide them as they work to scale their systemic solutions.

The Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing (the Institute) today announced the second cohort of its Sustainable Solutions Collaborative (the Collaborative). The Collaborative, launched in 2020, aims to identify breakthrough innovations that address systemic change to support a sustainable future. The second cohort of five winners will join a bespoke yearlong strategic collaboration with the Institute where they will tap into the full range of Morgan Stanley’s expertise, networks and resources to help them achieve scale. Each winner will also receive an award of $250,000 to increase the impact of their initiative.

The 2022 Sustainable Solutions Collaborative cohort is comprised by a diverse group of organizations:

CarbonBuilt is a startup from Los Angeles, California, delivering a scalable concrete product that reduces embodied carbon by 70 to over 100% compared with traditional concrete, without compromise to performance or production cost.
ISeeChange, the data company from New Orleans, Louisiana, empowers communities to report and track real-life climate change impact. Their AI-enabled model cross-references community-reported events with real-time data, enabling sustainable, equitable and efficient infrastructure and public works projects in municipalities across North America.
Notpla, a sustainable packaging startup based in the UK, delivers the convenience of single-use plastics without the environmental impact. Notpla’s home-compostable, seaweed-based plastic alternatives biodegrade in nature in just 4-6 weeks.
OceanMind is a nonprofit based in the UK that powers enforcement and compliance to protect the world’s oceans. OceanMind draws on AI modeling and satellite data to provide marine enforcement agencies with locations of suspected illegal fishing, human and workers’ rights violations, and other threats to ocean health.
Teesas is a Nigeria-based EdTech startup, delivering curriculum-aligned, online educational content to elementary school students across the African continent. Teesas delivers engaging tutor-led videos and e-books in both English and local indigenous languages.

“Each of these organizations has the potential to scale and contribute to creating the type of systemic change needed to achieve a more sustainable future,” said Matthew Slovik, Head of Global Sustainable Finance at Morgan Stanley.

In 2020, Morgan Stanley launched the Sustainable Solutions Collaborative to boost sustainability initiatives that would benefit from partnerships across private and public industries. This second cohort joins a group of global innovators thinking about health care, climate solutions, plastic waste reduction and ecosystem services through re-engineered distribution methods, technology platforms and a new perspective on the importance of nature.

“We are thrilled to welcome these visionary teams into the Collaborative and look forward to seeing their solutions scale as the need to reach a sustainable future is at an all time-high,” said Shelley O’Connor, Vice Chairman and Head of External Affairs for Morgan Stanley.

For this award, the Institute engaged a diverse network of sustainability thought leaders and practitioners from across a wide variety of industries and sectors to make anonymous nominations. Morgan Stanley carried out a rigorous selection process on the nominations received to identify the innovations with the greatest potential for systemic impact that would also benefit from deep and sustained engagement with Morgan Stanley.

To learn more about the Sustainable Solutions Collaborative, please visit here.

About Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is a leading global financial services firm providing a wide range of investment banking, securities, wealth management and investment management services. With offices in 41 countries, the Firm’s employees serve clients worldwide including corporations, governments, institutions and individuals. For further information about Morgan Stanley, please visit www.morganstanley.com.

About the Institute for Sustainable Investing

The Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing (The Institute) builds scalable finance solutions that seek to deliver competitive financial returns while driving positive environmental and social impact. Founded in 2013, The Institute creates innovative financial products, thoughtful insights and capacity building programs that help maximize capital to create a more sustainable future. For more information about the Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing, visit www.morganstanley.com/sustainableinvesting.

Disclosures

The returns on a portfolio consisting primarily of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) aware investments may be lower or higher than a portfolio that is more diversified or where decisions are based solely on investment considerations. Because ESG criteria exclude some investments, investors may not be able to take advantage of the same opportunities or market trends as investors that do not use such criteria. Diversification does not guarantee a profit or protect against loss in a declining financial market.