Morgan Stanley Launches Broad-Based Commitment to Develop Systemic Solutions to Reduce Global Plastic Waste
April 16 2019 - 2:03PM
Business Wire
- The Morgan Stanley Plastic Waste
Resolution will drive and scale the investments, partnerships,
programs and research needed to tackle the growing challenge of
plastic waste.
- Through these efforts, Morgan Stanley
will prevent, reduce, and remove 50 million metric tons of plastic
waste from rivers, oceans, landscapes and landfills by 2030.
Today, the Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing
(the Institute) announced the Morgan Stanley Plastic Waste
Resolution to develop and scale systemic solutions to tackle the
global challenge of growing amounts of plastic waste.
Since plastic came into widespread use just over 50 years ago,
it has become an ubiquitous part of the modern economy and everyday
life, due to its versatility, portability, flexibility and
resulting convenience. However, the ensuing rapid accumulation of
plastic waste poses significant challenges. More than 75 percent of
the amount of plastic manufactured each year is thrown away, the
vast majority of it ending up in rivers, oceans, landscapes and
landfills where it slowly disintegrates, often eventually entering
the food chain and water supply.1
Addressing this problem in a meaningful way requires strategic
thinking and investments across the full value chain of how
plastics are engineered, manufactured, used, reused, recycled and
ultimately disposed of. The Plastic Waste Resolution is designed to
engage all relevant stakeholders to collaborate in designing,
innovating, financing and deploying effective, scalable solutions,
so as to retain the beneficial qualities of plastic while reducing
the negative effects of plastic waste.
“At Morgan Stanley, we are committed to leveraging our best
thinking; our broad capital markets reach; our relationships with
innovators, entrepreneurs, corporations and governments; and our
ongoing commitment to our communities to address this daunting
challenge at a systemic level,” said Tom Nides, Vice Chairman of
Morgan Stanley.
The Morgan Stanley Plastic Waste Resolution represents a
thematic focus by the Institute to catalyze, support and help scale
the innovations and business-based solutions to reduce plastic
waste. By 2030, these efforts will help prevent, reduce and remove
at least 50 million metric tons of plastic waste entering our
rivers, oceans, landscapes and landfills.
The Plastic Waste Resolution’s first major commitments
include:
- Morgan Stanley Global Capital Markets
will underwrite bonds to reduce plastic waste, such as the recently
launched bond for Sustainable Development with the World Bank. The
bond highlights to investors the critical work being done by the
World Bank to reduce plastic waste in oceans, and to support the
sustainable use of marine resources in developing countries.
- Morgan Stanley’s Institutional Equities
Division will explore the creation of structured and other products
that aim to consider and help address the plastic waste
challenge.
- Morgan Stanley Investment Management
will seek to develop products which consider the risks and
opportunities from plastic waste, across both public and private
market funds.
- Morgan Stanley Public Finance will work
with municipalities, public agencies, universities, hospital
systems and other public and not-for-profit entities to finance
improvements to collection, recycling and disposal systems for
plastic waste.
- Morgan Stanley’s Wealth Management will
offer a suite of low minimum portfolio strategies across the risk
spectrum that seek to positively influence the United Nations
Sustainable Development Goal on ocean conservation.
- Morgan Stanley Research continues to
invest in Sustainability Research and will pursue cutting-edge
analysis of the plastics economy, the investment opportunities
associated with plastic waste reduction, and plastic waste as a
material sustainability issue.
- The Morgan Stanley Institute for
Sustainable Investing will focus thought leadership efforts on how
investors can consider plastic waste reduction and the new plastics
economy into their strategies. Today, the Institute is releasing a
white paper on the intersection of plastic-waste reduction and
finance.
- Morgan Stanley’s Multicultural
Innovation Lab, which supports early stage technology and
technology-enabled startups led by women and multicultural
entrepreneurs, will include a call for proposals in next year’s
cohort for innovations focused on plastic waste reduction.
- Morgan Stanley will partner with the
University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability
(SEAS) to establish the Plastic Waste Reduction Fellowship for
graduate students at the University of Michigan that explores
systemic approaches and solutions that can reduce plastic waste, in
particular, ways the capital markets and investment opportunities
can accelerate and scale those solutions. The research will help
identify the constraints and opportunities associated with the
technology, policy and market drivers that influence plastics flows
in the global economy.
- The Kellogg-Morgan Stanley Sustainable
Investing Challenge, that each year calls on next-generation
innovators to develop their best ideas for scalable, sustainable
investing strategies, will add a new award in 2020 for an
innovative investment approach that aims to address plastic waste
reduction.
- In its own operations, Morgan Stanley
is removing all single-use plastics.
Audrey Choi, Chief Sustainability Officer and CEO of the
Institute for Sustainable Investing, added, “Over the last decade,
Morgan Stanley and the Institute for Sustainable Investing have
focused on harnessing the power of the capital markets to protect
the environment and strengthen communities as an integral part of
how we do business. The Plastic Waste Resolution continues that
commitment by supporting research and thought leadership to enable
us to better understand the challenges around plastic waste and the
potential solutions; creating sustainable investing strategies to
direct capital toward new solutions as they evolve; and encouraging
capacity building of the entrepreneurs, innovators and future
leaders of finance to help address this issue at a systemic
level.”
Clare Woodman, Chief Executive Officer of Morgan Stanley’s
operations across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, noted, “We’ve
seen a groundswell of interest and action from consumers,
corporates and policy makers here in the UK and across Europe and
the Middle East. This global commitment is an important signal to
our clients and stakeholders that we are here to help them meet
their plastic waste goals.”
Mindy Lubber, President of Ceres, said “This represents a bold
move by Morgan Stanley to focus on a pressing global issue where
innovation and creativity in the capital markets can play an
important role to bring systemic solutions to scale.”
Jonathan Overpeck, Dean of the School for Environment and
Sustainability (SEAS) at the University of Michigan, said, “We are
excited to partner with Morgan Stanley to further cutting-edge
scholarship to understand not only how plastic flows through our
economy, but what innovations, policy changes and business model
developments can be the most effective levers in harnessing the
benefits of plastic while reducing the negative impacts of plastic
waste. This research will help inform the field to make smarter
investments that matter and have real, lasting impact.”
Learn more about the Morgan Stanley Plastic Waste Resolution at
www.morganstanley.com/plasticwasteresolution.
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is a leading global financial services
firm providing investment banking, securities, wealth management
and investment management services. With offices in more than 41
countries, the Firm's employees serve clients worldwide including
corporations, governments, institutions and individuals. For more
information about Morgan Stanley, please visit
www.morganstanley.com.
1 Geyer, Roland, Jenna R. Jambeck, and Kara Lavender Law.
"Production, use, and fate of all plastics ever made." Science
advances 3.7 (2017): e1700782
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