Shelley B. Leibowitz Director | Morgan Stanley
The Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University have announced the winners of the 2025 Kellogg-Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge. The BanglaShield team from Oxford University secured the top position, winning $10,000 for their innovative approach to affordable flood resilience financing for low-income households in Bangladesh. Their strategy involves blending concessional loans with parametric insurance. The team is composed of Harry Breidahl, Achyut Gautam, Sachi Jain, and Phetogo Mogotsi.
Jessica Alsford, Morgan Stanley’s Chief Sustainability Officer, remarked on the event's significance: “The Sustainable Investing Challenge showcases the creativity and innovation of the next generation of sustainable finance leaders. We’re inspired by the bold ideas presented this year, which demonstrate the potential of financial solutions to drive real, lasting impact across industries and communities.”
The competition highlighted various ideas targeting global social and environmental issues. Projects ranged from New Zealand's sustainable aviation transition to tackling urban heat and high energy costs in Harlem, addressing Morocco’s desert truffle industry's stability, and reducing post-harvest losses in Nigeria.
The second- and third-place awards were given to teams from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and York University’s Schulich School of Business, respectively. The Sustainable Agri-aqua Investment Fund team, including Debdeep Bhattacharjee, Karuna Chauhan, Apurva P, and Shagun Sharma, proposed a strategy to mitigate groundwater depletion in Punjab by linking micro-irrigation financing with pooled carbon credits and government-backed repayments. The Pharoah Brick Fund team, consisting of Sara Amin, Aayush Rathore, and Sadanand Shenoy, presented a plan to transform Egypt’s demolition and rice straw waste into low-carbon bricks.
Dave Chen, Professor of Finance at Kellogg Management School and founder of the Sustainable Investing Challenge, commented, “Each year, this competition reaffirms what we already know—the talent, drive and fresh thinking of today’s graduate students will be the key to tackling our most challenging global problems. This year’s winners and finalists aren’t just developing solutions for tomorrow; they’re demonstrating what is possible today.”
A panel of sustainable finance experts and industry practitioners selected the winning teams during a final round conducted at Morgan Stanley in London on April 25, 2025. The participants presented a diverse array of projects with the potential for significant social and environmental impact.
Information on the participating teams and their projects is available for further exploration.