Morgan Stanley Chairman and CEO James Gorman today announced the
establishment of the Morgan
Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing. The Institute will
build on Morgan Stanley’s ongoing work to advance market-based solutions
to economic, social and environmental challenges, operating from the
foundational principle that sustainable investment can only achieve
significant scale by attracting a broad range of private sector capital.
Through product innovation, thought leadership and scholarship aimed at
expanding opportunities for sustainable investing, the Institute will
seek to drive capital toward investments promoting sustainable economic
growth.
The Institute for Sustainable Investing will pursue three focus areas:
financial products and solutions that enable clients to invest in
sustainability-focused strategies seeking risk-adjusted financial
returns; groundbreaking thought leadership that will help mobilize
capital toward sustainable investing opportunities; and strategic
partnerships with the public, private and nonprofit sectors designed to
build capacity and best practices within the field of scalable
sustainable investing.
The Institute’s first major commitments include:
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Setting a goal of $10 billion in total client assets through
Morgan Stanley’s Investing
with Impact Platform in the next five years. By developing new
products, innovative thematic portfolios and sustainable investing
thought leadership, this platform will meet rapidly increasing
client demand for opportunities to invest for positive
environmental and social impact in addition to the goal of
achieving risk-adjusted financial returns.
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Creating new products − in coordination with Morgan Stanley
Investment Management’s Long-Only and Alternative Investment
Partners businesses − in which positive social and/or environmental
impact is a core part of the underlying investment strategy.
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Establishing an annual Sustainable
Investing Fellowship program at Columbia Business School that
will enable a select group of graduate students to pursue thought
leadership in sustainable investing, coupled with an internship at
Morgan Stanley to gain hands-on experience in product innovation,
thought leadership and investment strategy.
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Investing $1 billion in a sustainable
communities initiative to provide rapid access to capital for
the preservation and enhancement of quality affordable housing
units that are at risk of deteriorating into uninhabitable
conditions or becoming unaffordable to low- and moderate-income
households. The initiative will also seek to drive the integration
of affordable housing with access to health care, healthy foods
and other vital services. Morgan Stanley is partnering with
leading community groups, including the Local Initiatives Support
Corporation (LISC) and NCB Capital Impact, on the sustainable
communities initiative.
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“This program takes our long partnership with Morgan Stanley to a
new level,” said Michael Rubinger, LISC President and CEO. “It
doesn’t just finance buildings; it fuels opportunity and focuses on
quality of life. Together, we will be able to help low-income
families live better and make their communities stronger and
healthier.”
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Terry Simonette, President and CEO of NCB Capital Impact, said, “The
sustainable communities initiative is the type of transformative
investment that will help ensure the financing so desperately needed
to provide access to healthy foods and other critical resources in
our poorest communities. We are proud to partner with Morgan Stanley
on this effort.”
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Through these and future initiatives, the Institute for Sustainable
Investing will further Morgan Stanley’s commitment to providing
individual and institutional investors with products and strategies that
address sustainability challenges at scale.
Morgan Stanley Chairman and CEO James Gorman launched the Institute in a
speech at Columbia Business School today. Mr. Gorman said: “Morgan
Stanley is in a unique position to harness the capital markets to help
address the most pressing challenges facing society today, connecting
governments, investors and businesses with the capital to execute at
scale. Our philosophy is clear – the most effective solutions to
sustainability challenges are those that can be brought to scale. Our
clients are increasingly turning their attention to what it takes to
secure the lasting and safe supplies of food, energy, water and shelter
necessary for sustainable prosperity.”
Mr. Gorman will chair the Institute’s Advisory
Board, which will include individuals from the private and
nonprofit sectors with expertise in various aspects of sustainable
investing including finance, policy and management (for a list of
members, see the note to editors below).
Audrey
Choi, who leads Morgan Stanley’s Global Sustainable Finance
group, will be CEO of the Institute for Sustainable Investing. “As the
world’s population grows toward 9 billion and beyond, meeting the
exponentially growing needs for quality education, healthcare, housing
and security will far outstrip current models of business, government or
philanthropy,” said Ms. Choi. “The Morgan Stanley Institute for
Sustainable Investing is committed to playing a catalytic role in
forging innovative cross-sector partnerships that develop solutions to
mobilize capital efficiently and effectively to meet these challenges at
scale.”
Learn more about the Institute at www.morganstanley.com/sustainableinvesting.
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is a leading global financial services firm
providing a wide range of investment banking, securities, investment
management and wealth management services. The Firm's employees serve
clients worldwide including corporations, governments, institutions and
individuals from more than 1,200 offices in 43 countries. Since 2006,
Morgan Stanley has committed more than $7.8 billion to strengthen
underserved communities. For further information about Morgan Stanley,
please visit www.morganstanley.com.
Note to Editors:
Advisory Board
The Institute for Sustainable Investing’s Advisory Board, comprised of
prominent leaders from business, academia and leading NGOs, guides the
Institute’s work and strategic priorities.
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James Gorman (Chairman), Chairman and CEO, Morgan Stanley
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Bob Aiken, CEO, Feeding America
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Laurence Belfer, CEO, Belfer Management
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Dr. Steven Corwin, CEO, New York Presbyterian Hospital
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David Gergen, Director, Center for Public Leadership, John F.
Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
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Dr. Harish Hande, Managing Director, SELCO-India
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Jeffrey Hollender, Co-founder, Seventh Generation and Hollender
Sustainable Brands
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Karen Elliott House, Former Publisher, The Wall Street
Journal
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Mindy Lubber, President, Ceres
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Eric Mindich, Founder, Eton Park Capital Management
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Luther Ragin, Jr., President and CEO, Global Impact Investing
Network
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Rey Ramsey, Former President and CEO, TechNet and One Economy
Corporation
Copyright Business Wire 2013