Resilient Waters Fund Wins the 2024 Kellogg-Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge

The Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing and Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University today announced that the Resilient Waters Fund team was named the winner of the 14^th annual Kellogg-Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge. The global competition inspires graduate students to address critical social and environmental issues through innovative financial vehicles. The winning team was one of 12 finalists selected from a competitive field, which included 84 teams comprised of 290 students from 44 countries.

The graduate students from the University of Utah's David Eccles School of Business were awarded the top prize of $10,000 for their proposal to help protect the Great Salt Lake, a keystone ecosystem and economic engine at significant risk of drying up in the next five years. The Resilient Waters Fund would catalyze federal, state and investment funds through a creative land trust mechanism to spur irrigation efficiency, responsible cropping and water savings. The winning team consisted of Cody Clifford, Hunter Conrad, Michael Hall and Alex Parlogean.

“Through the Sustainable Investing Challenge, students develop financial solutions to real-world issues, providing them with invaluable experience and insights into sustainable finance,” says Jessica Alsford, Morgan Stanley’s Chief Sustainability Officer and CEO of the Institute for Sustainable Investing. “As the demand for sustainability talent grows across industries, we’re excited to help cultivate a pipeline of emerging leaders committed to driving the transition to a more sustainable future.”

The finalists pitched a wide variety of ideas, addressing social and environmental issues including decentralized microgrid development in the US, wealth transfer in Mexico's manufacturing sector, the sustainability transition of Indonesia’s shrimp industry and grazing land restoration in Kenya.

The second- and third-place prizes of $5,000 and $2,500 were awarded to the Caatinga Bank team from the University of Navarra’s IESE Business School and the Renewable Back Security team from Columbia Business School, respectively.

The Caatinga Bank proposal aims to provide farmers in the Caatinga region of Brazil with working capital loans in the form of seeds, resources, technical knowledge and cash. The team consisted of Gabriela Ferreira Galera, Luana Gomes Nogueira, Carolina Pascotto and Danielle van Drunen. The Renewable Back Security team, including Ignacio Aguirre, Nadim Dabbous, Dion Koreman and Diego Rehder, developed a solution to reduce the cost of capital necessary for emerging and developing economies (EMDEs) to scale up renewable energy adoption in southern and central Africa and the US.