ImpactAlpha, April 16 – Over the years, the Kellogg-Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investment Challenge has spawned funds such as Blue Forest Conservation and Fresh Coast Capital.
This year’s student winners from the Kellogg School of Management designed the Carbon Yield Fund to finance midwestern farmers to make the transition to organic farming by loaning funds to begin the certification process. The capital would be returned by aggregating carbon offsets generated by emission reductions from regenerative agriculturing.
The competition, now in its ninth year, drew teams from 80 graduate schools that developed financing vehicles for sustainability and impact challenges in 31 countries. At the finals in Hong Kong, second-place went to the Grey to Green Fund, which would aggregate hotels’ greywater infrastructure in order to reduce water consumption. Students came from Johns Hopkins, Columbia, Duke and MIT.
