Morgan Stanley is launching an accelerator programme to identify and scale breakthrough innovations focused on systemic change for sustainability.
In its first year, the Sustainable Solutions Accelerator will dole out $250,000 to each of its top five picks and provide access to Morgan Stanley’s expertise, networks and 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 coalition 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,” says 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.”
Morgan Stanley last month become the first top tier US bank to commit to measuring greenhouse gas emissions fueled by its loans and investment products, joining the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF) which is working to develop a global accounting standard that can be used by all financial institutions to measure and reduce their climate impact.