Past Collaborative Winners

Gayatri Datar (00:08):

Over a billion people live and sleep on a dirt floor. Dirt floors harbor pathogens, parasites, bacteria. Because they can't be cleaned, it means that there's a lot of fecal contamination, mold, parasitic infections, also respiratory illness. There are billions of people that are currently facing these challenges.

Gayatri Datar (00:38):

Is it therefore better, I guess from your purposes too, and it's better to have ....

Gayatri Datar (00:41):

Earth Enable is a social enterprise based in Rwanda, and our mission is to make living conditions healthier for rural families across the continent of Africa.

(00:50):

This one has more varnish than this one. So you can see that this one scratches, actually.

(00:55):

A study has actually shown that replacing a dirt floor with a clean floor can reduce diarrhea by 49% and reduce parasitic infections by 78%. Our flagship product is an earthen floor. It's made of compressed earthen materials, sand, rocks, clays, things you can find really in people's backyards.

(01:18):

From there, we figured out how to manufacture flax oil here in Rwanda that can seal the floor so it becomes a waterproof, sustainable, beautiful, abrasion-resistant surface. It's extremely affordable to do, about half to a third of the price of a concrete floor. Everything is from one little area, which means that the carbon emissions of transportation are significantly reduced and means that a lot of income can continue to regenerate within that local community.

Speaker 3 (01:51):

On the level of T, clay and varnish on the level of T.

Gayatri Datar (01:55):

Over 80% of the houses in 2050 will be built between now and then. Because of this, it's even more important that we make sure that all of the homes are really built in a way that is also friendly to the planet. In addition to that, I think the business model is also really important. We always are training local masons, so people are actually building products for their own neighbors. The goal of our model is to find ways to really decentralize so that a local mason can be building a business and really increasing their income as well through our products and services that we're able to offer. We find that a lot of people are continuing to innovate and figure out new ways of building that's better.

(02:45):

Housing really touches basically every aspect of social justice. From health of communities to planetary health, to economic health, what we're trying to do is basically create a really ultra-affordable house through financing mechanisms, through the products, through the business model. Everyone can live in a home that they're really proud of and really keeps them and their families safe and secure. Where people live and how people live is one of the most important aspects of all of our experiences. To be able to provide that pride and that joy is really an honor.

Carbon fiber, it’s very light and very strong.

Most of us use carbon fiber in our lives.

It’s in cars, airplanes, sports gear.

But, no matter how efficient you are, normal production of components in carbon fiber, usually 30% of the whole amount of material used is considered waste.

Growing every year, the waste situation can have a global environmental impact.

RECARBON, we are a novelty startup.

We produce intermediate products made of recycled carbon fiber.

We were very worried about throwing away a material that has a lot of value in itself.

It made sense to find a way to reuse it.

After a few years, we found out there is actually a sustainable way to recycle where it’s up to 30% cheaper and has the same performances as virgin fiber.

Our panels can be pressed into any form or shape, and also can be joined together to create larger surfaces.

It’s used where you need very high performances, in electric vehicles, buses, trains, planes.

We can do basically anything with our product.

We are seeing that carbon fiber is growing as a market.

And we are still seeing that kind of growth for the next many, many years.

If you think about recycling all the carbon fiber waste produced in a year, then you can lower the total CO2 emissions by 400,000 tons, which means like, what? 18 million trees absorbed in one year.

So it has a ripple effect on consumers. It makes sustainability more affordable and it’s a win-win situation.

We can grow as a company and be part of something bigger than us.

We know that there’s an amazing future ahead of us.

We like to be surrounded with beautiful colors, whether it's in the way we dress, what we eat, or even the thing that we buy.

To make colors we often use synthetic products from petroleum, dyes, plastic, metals and minerals that are mined with a large amount of greenhouse gas emission.

At the end of life, those products are not designed to biodegrade and they may also end up in the environment.

We have the opportunity to  eliminate these impacts,  and really rethink the way we’ve been making colors for hundreds of years.

Our innovative approach is the fact that we use the same principle that nature uses to make vibrant colors, and we are the first ones to do so using a plant based ingredient.

So when you think about vibrant colors in nature, we can think about butterfly wings or beetle scale or peacock feathers and all of those elements contain very tiny structures that will interact with light to reflect a color.

And so we replicate those structures using plant based cellulose, extracted from trees, but also agricultural waste or even urban waste like spent coffee or recycled cotton.

The way we can control the color is by simply altering the height of our structures within our sheets of cellulose.

And using this process, we can make all the colors of the rainbow.

Our team is very excited about the impact that this technology can have on multiple sectors and be able to bring our solution to markets that are massive.

By crushing these sheets into particles and powders, we can make paints, cosmetic products, textiles, fashion, or even foods.

We can make our cars sparkly or our packaging bright and colorful.

So what our technology enables is to be able to deliver this vibrancy, this brightness, this luster consumers have been used to, but we deliver that performance using plant based materials.

Our mission is to eliminate toxic chemicals from coloration and the products will ultimately biodegrade and be used as foods by microorganisms at the end of life.

It is crucial to look at minimizing the environmental impact of our processes.

I think always going back to taking inspiration from nature kind of allows us to make sure we’re aligned to those goals that we set to ourselves.

When you look at mycelium movement, it’s becoming huge.

Growing mushrooms has been known for over years that it captures carbon.

As an architect, I've always believed that solutions to all our design is very local, and if they are affordable and good for the continent, then why not?

Mycotile is an alternative building manufacturer that manufactures wall and roof insulation made using sugarcane bagasse that is bond organically using mushroom mycelium.

The projections now show that Africa's population by 2050 is going to be maybe 2.5 billion.

The infrastructure that will be required to meet that population is unprecedented.

If you go brick and mortar, there is no way we are going to meet that demand.

In the building industry, we work with a lot of materials that are imported, which are very expensive and made from fossil fuel extract or their compounds, and they aren’t compostable at the end of building life.

Sugarcane factories produce mountains and I mean mountains of waste. These will either rot just near the factory or in a landfill nearby, releasing a lot of carbon.

Mycelium gives us a very huge opportunity in bonding a lot of this agriculture waste.

The production of a Mycotile panel happens mostly in two parts.

We prepare the seeds of mushrooms that we will use to seed the larger waste and then bond it together.

In terms of waste, we need to basically pasteurize it to remove any pathogens. That is done simply by running steam through it. We let it cool down then we seed with the spawn.  

The roots of the mushroom grow through this waste and compact it into a composite.

Our alternative is not only a carbon negative process, but also at the end of the building life it’s compostable.

You can plant food crops again, which you can harvest and use the agriculture waste to make more products, so it’s completely circular.

For us to have impact and change what we are seeing, we have to be disruptive.

At the moment, temperatures globally are getting very high, and with the high densities happening in the continent, the houses are quite compact and gets really, really hot when you are in these spaces.

If you don't have any budget to do air conditioning, you can do an affordable insulation, and that's where we come in.

We add a layer of insulation, which helps to regulate the temperatures in the building. So it makes the space more habitable, irrespective of the weather outside.

We think Mycotile is a bit-by-bit solution. It’s bite sized, but it impacts the larger community. 

If you're creating opportunities for people to work, and there is money circulating, then you can work within, use local resources and the economy then thrives.

If we start as a small company doing the right thing, and everybody else does the right thing, there's a very high opportunity that Earth will regenerate.

I think we've just scratched the surface, and I believe that there's more to learn.

A lot of other people can join the bandwagon, and we can move the mushroom way.

00:03.086 --> 00:07.424

PFAS is a class of more than 

4,700 human-made chemicals

 

00:07.424 --> 00:09.884

that allows us to do amazing things:

 

00:10.593 --> 00:12.137

go to space,

 

00:12.137 --> 00:13.847

make vaccines,

 

00:13.847 --> 00:16.349

make electrical vehicles

 

00:16.349 --> 00:19.352

and semiconductors that fit in our phones.

 

00:20.478 --> 00:23.314

But PFAS comes with a drawback.

 

00:24.357 --> 00:29.070

They're often called forever chemicals

because they're really hard to degrade.

 

00:29.070 --> 00:33.700

They end up in our water where 

they last for a very long time.

 

00:33.700 --> 00:36.411

And we found that they've 

had negative health effects

 

00:36.411 --> 00:38.413

even at lower concentrations.

 

00:44.335 --> 00:46.046

Puraffinity set out on a mission 

 

00:46.046 --> 00:50.216

to try and tackle these small,

 hidden pollutants in water.

 

00:52.010 --> 00:53.720

They can be tricky to capture

 

00:53.720 --> 00:57.932

without using lots of energy

or huge amounts of chemicals.

 

00:59.976 --> 01:03.354

The way our technology 

works is really like a little box

 

01:03.354 --> 01:06.608

that gets covered by little 

branches on the surface.

 

01:08.234 --> 01:10.487

It allows us to take filtration tanks

 

01:10.487 --> 01:12.030

that work by gravity flow,

 

01:12.447 --> 01:14.532

so water flows from the top to the bottom.

 

01:15.158 --> 01:17.786

And while they flow inside that tank,

 

01:17.786 --> 01:20.497

the PFAS sticks to these 

branches on the surface,

 

01:20.705 --> 01:23.750

which we can then unbind at the end of it.

 

01:24.876 --> 01:27.295

This can then operate at small scale,

 

01:27.295 --> 01:30.507

so like a water pitcher on the kitchen sink,

 

01:30.507 --> 01:31.716

or very large scale

 

01:31.716 --> 01:35.261

that are operating at an 

industrial manufacturing site.

 

01:37.889 --> 01:40.225

The impact for an area like water treatment

 

01:40.225 --> 01:43.895

and these toxic chemicals is threefold.

 

01:43.895 --> 01:48.191

One, you reduce exposure to 

toxic elements for human health.

 

01:48.191 --> 01:52.987

The second one is you reduce

the volume of toxic waste in the planet.

 

01:53.404 --> 01:56.616

And then the third element

is actually the carbon footprint.

 

01:57.534 --> 02:02.288

We develop materials that last longer

and are non-petrochemical derived.

 

02:03.123 --> 02:06.251

It's a way to have an outsized 

impact without necessarily

 

02:06.251 --> 02:09.462

going out to every 

single individual person.

 

02:10.380 --> 02:14.259

There may still be some pockets 

where PFAS concentrations are low,

 

02:14.259 --> 02:16.427

but they are unlikely to remain that way.

 

02:17.303 --> 02:21.099

We think of protecting against PFAS as a way of

 

02:21.099 --> 02:24.811

being responsible stewards 

for generations to come.

 

02:25.854 --> 02:29.774

So we have that as a way of 

trying to move the field forward,

 

02:29.774 --> 02:31.693

not just us as a company.

 

02:32.861 --> 02:34.612

And what success looks like to me

 

02:34.612 --> 02:37.657

is other companies coming 

in with a similar approach, saying

 

02:37.657 --> 02:40.577

let's make sustainability

a strong business case,

 

02:41.244 --> 02:44.539

and then let's get the whole field

moving towards that direction.

Mtamu Kililo (00:01):

The projections now show Africa population by 2050 is going to be maybe 2.5 billion. In Kenya, the housing deficit is at 80%.

Benjamin Droguet (00:10):

Most people don't realize that colors are fossil based and extracted from petroleum. None of those products are being designed with circularity in mind.

Henrik Hagemann (00:18):

The name for PFAS is forever chemicals because they end up in our water where they last for a very long time.

Gayatri Datar (00:26):

Over a billion people live and sleep on a dirt floor. Dirt floors harbor pathogens, parasites, bacteria.

Luca Grati (00:35):

Carbon fiber it's very light and very strong, but 30% of that goes to waste basically.

Jessica Alsford (00:44):

We decided to create the Sustainable Solutions Collaborative because we really saw a need for innovative solutions to some of the world's biggest challenges, whether that be climate change or inequality. We chose the five members of this year's collaborative after a six-month global search to really find those organizations with fantastic ideas that could also benefit from working with Morgan Stanley to create more impact and scalability.

Gayatri Datar (01:20):

Housing really touches basically every aspect of social justice, everything from health of communities to planetary health to economic health.

Luca Grati (01:44):

Making high performance material cheaper has a ripple effect on consumers, is going to make sustainability cheaper to achieve.

Henrik Hagemann (02:01):

This old view that doing sustainability comes at a high cost and it's really cumbersome is actually no longer as relevant. Let's make sustainability a strong business case, and then let's get the whole field moving towards that direction.

Mtamu Kililo (02:23):

As an architect I've always believed that the solutions to all our design is very local, and if they're affordable and good for the continent, then why not?

Benjamin Droguet (02:39):

We have an opportunity here to rethink the way we have been making colors for hundreds of years.

Jessica Alsford (02:48):

We feel really lucky at Morgan Stanley that we get to work with these incredible companies and really witness their development as they take an early stage idea and drive it forward to global impact for many sustainability challenges today. Our collaborative members are visionaries, problem solvers, forward thinkers. Since we first launched the collaborative back in 2020, we have been able to make impact in 51 countries globally. The members of our collaborative have between them, raised over 120 million worth of incremental capital and created over 900 new jobs. By working together, we can address environmental and social challenges with innovative, sustainable solutions.

RODRIGO GARCÍA

00:01 - 00:24

By 2050, there's going to be more plastic than fish in terms of weight in the ocean.

We consume up to five grams of microplastics every month, which is quite scary. Like a credit card of plastic every month. 

Seaweed is this amazing material. One of the solutions we have for many different applications, we really believe that it could be a really good resource for the future.

00:36 - 01:12

I’m Rodrigo Garcia, I'm originally from Spain, but I live and work in London. I'm the co-founder and co-CEO of Notpla, a company with the mission of making plastic packaging disappear. 

We are a combination of entrepreneurs, scientists, designers, researchers, all with the same mission. We just wanted to have a product with impact.

It’s a seaweed-based membrane that can contain water or any liquid. You can drink the content and then you can eat the membrane. 

01:15 - 01:40

It has been used in things like the London Marathon, Roland-Garros, or music festivals. 

We have some vending machines as well across London where you can get hydration without plastic. 

Then we started to work with coatings. So basically we apply a seaweed-based coating into paper and cardboard in order to provide greaseproof or waterproof for certain applications, as takeaway boxes.

01:44 - 01:54

So seaweed is a really sustainable resource because you don't need fertilizer, you don't need fresh water, and you don't compete with other food crops. You can grow it really fast.

02:00 - 02:04

So we have invested for example in a local farm in Wales for some research purposes. 

FRANCOIS BEYERS 

02:10 - 02:44

We grow various species on the farms: sugar kelp, wing kelp and allweed. They are normally the ones that’s quite high in demand and it's quite versatile in various products that you can make with them. 

The relationship with Notpla started very close to two years ago. For a company that's so futuristic in their thinking and the product that they're developing. For them to have invested in us in the very early stages was humbling, motivating and inspiring.

02:45 - 02:55

So within the next six months we'll be harvesting nearly 50 tons worth of seaweed and we will be able to provide them with hopefully all the seaweed that they would possibly need.

RODRIGO GARCÍA

03:00 - 03:25

We measure our impact by the number of plastic items that we are able to replace. At the moment, we passed the million mark, which is quite exciting. 

We hope that we can increase this number by going deeper in terms of the applications that we currently have and expanding geographically and in terms of different types of plastic packaging that we can replace.

JULIA KUMARI

00:01 - 00:31

Climate change, when it's changing everything in the environment, it's inevitably going to be changing us.

We see incredible flooding events from average rainstorms. We're seeing sea level rise on our coasts. We're seeing extreme urban heat and humidity.

Top down, well-intentioned solutions are failing to meet and keep pace with local needs, local climate needs.

This is a human moment, in which we're all saying: “we have to do something”.

SAGE MICHAEL

“Got it”.

JULIA KUMARI

00:31 - 00:38

If you were going to say something about ISeeChange, it's: “I'm seeing it. I'm pointing to it. I'm going to change it”.

00:42 - 01:10

Hi, I am Julia Kumari Drapkin. I'm the CEO and founder of ISeeChange.

We are a community engagement and data platform to help cities combat climate change.

When ISeeChange started, we were at a point in time when scientists didn't want to talk about how climate change was playing out at a very hyper local level and that's because global amounts of time and space and drilling down into individual experiences is a real technical challenge of scale.

01:11 - 01:28

So ISeeChange looks and feels like a traditional social media. We leverage technology and resident-generated information and stories and data alongside AI and modeling to generate more efficient, more effective, better targeted climate solutions.

01:30 - 01:37

I see bags of trash that Sage Michael collected over the last year in Lincoln Beach.

SAGE MICHAEL

01:38 - 01:56

We are on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain. It’s a place that we connect community and people. It’s giving our children a future.

We have 70 acres right here. We could do so much stormwater mitigation right here. We could store thousands and thousands of gallons of water so that flooding water doesn't flood our communities.

01:57 - 02:09

People like ISeeChange come to the community, it gives people like my community a voice, because we go to tell a story, but when we go to advocate for solutions, they say, “where's the data?”

JULIA KUMARI

02:10 - 02:17

I see drainage and issues potentially in Little Havana.

ALEJANDRO DÍAZ (Translated from Spanish):

02:18 - 02:52

We are in the heart of Little Havana, an area which suffers terrible flooding. This has severe consequences, especially economically. Many of the ducts of the drainage system are blocked.

ALEJANDRO with CLAUDIA SEBASTIANI

“It was a serious problem here, because cars could not pass and the water reached up to here. Thanks to the ISeeChange report, they came to fix it three months ago.”

JULIA KUMARI

02:54 - 03:10

Community data, community stories can actually help guide critical investments in our neighborhoods to mitigate risk.

Working with the city of Miami with our flood reporting tool generated over $20 million dollars in stormwater infrastructure investments in Miami.

03:12 - 03:33

We're just a tool for people like Sage Michael, Alejandro, residents all across the country who are generating the stories and the data that can really and truly improve their neighborhoods, make them more resilient to climate change, and even reduce emissions.

And seeing that happen across 118 countries on ISeeChange is so inspiring.

RAHUL SHENDURE

00:02 - 00:24

Concrete is the most voluminous building material used by mankind. It's hard to imagine modern society without concrete. 

Concrete has a huge carbon footprint. The built environment is responsible for anywhere between 35, even maybe 50% of overall emissions. 

CarbonBuilt’s mission is to decarbonize the cement and concrete industry. 

00:33 - 01:13

My name is Rahul Shendure, I'm the CEO of CarbonBuilt.

I was born and raised in northeast Ohio. I'm an environmentalist, an entrepreneur. CarbonBuilt is a startup company based in Los Angeles, commercializing technology developed at UCLA. 

So having spent more than 20 years working on low carbon technologies and their commercializations, one of the things that really attracted me to UCLA's technology and to forming this company was that CarbonBuilt’s product is the first alternative to conventional concrete production that improves profitability for producers, while substantially decarbonizing their products.

CAMLY TRAN

01:13 - 01:37

These cores use our innovative mix design that has reduced or eliminated cement from its mixture. And cement is a very carbon intensive ingredient. It contributes roughly 8% of the global CO2 emissions. And now we produce full-scale concrete blocks and this concrete block actually has captured one pound of CO2.

RAHUL SHENDURE

01:40 - 01:55

So as a company based in Los Angeles, you wouldn't necessarily think that our first partner would be in rural Alabama. We were fortunate to work with a small, family-run concrete producer. 

MATT BLAIR

01:55 - 02:11

I think that the CarbonBuilt technology is definitely an innovation that's been coming for several decades. 

The idea of having a cement-free formulation, reduces the amount of CO2 that we're putting into the atmosphere. It's going to make our operation more profitable.

RAHUL SHENDURE

02:15 - 02:29

Blair Block is CarbonBuilt’s first retrofit site. What that means is we're adding equipment to their plant so that they can cure the concrete blocks using carbon dioxide that's unlocked from waste biomass. 

MARK SCANTLEBURY

02:30 - 02:47

Our process is we load the samples in and we sequester the samples with waste CO2. 

After everything is done here, it will now be piped in to the back of the chamber so this is where we reintroduce the CO2. 

RAHUL SHENDURE

02:48 - 03:19

The technology requires very little changes to the way these plants are operated today. 

The technology delivers a very substantial change in the carbon footprint. It's not 5 or 10%, but 70-80-90, even 100% reduction. 

The future we envision at CarbonBuilt is one where the world's most impactful and best building material, concrete, no longer brings with it the substantial environmental penalty that it has today.

OSAYI IZEDONMWEN

00:03 - 00:26

Innovation for me is how we transform Africa. 

What Africa needs is targeted support in key areas, chief of which is education. 

Our vision is to reach every child that does not have access to quality education and bring them along in this learning journey.

00:36 - 01:00

My name is Osayi Izedonmwen, I'm the CEO and founder of Teesas. I'm located in Lagos, Nigeria. 

I'm an engineer, studied mechanical engineering. All my life I've always been curious about the impact of technology and what it could do to transform the livelihood and the economic well-being of Africans. 

OSA WITH TEACHERS

I'm excited to see how the students are reacting when they use the app. 

01:02 - 01:32

For children in underserved communities education remains a significant challenge and ultimately affects lifelong outcomes. 

So Teesas is a learning platform that delivers groundbreaking educational content to young children in English and local African languages. The idea behind Teesas is to give children a platform that enables them to continue their learning journey in and out of the physical structures of a school.

01:36 - 02:14

What we've done is to build our own in-house studios, a full facility with about 103 people.

OSA WITH TECHNICIANS

Hello, people. How are we doing? 

This is the boiler room, this is where all the action takes place. 

And we've gone around the country to look for the very best cinematographers, animators and tutors to come in here to deliver their content, which we've now infused with indigenous adaptations, animate them to make them truly engaging for children and curate them onto the app.

02:17 - 02:35

The way we've priced our application is to deploy a freemium strategy where users can come on the platform and enjoy our content for free until they need to subscribe.

And based on that, we've been able to drive up subscription rates significantly over the last couple of months.

02:39 - 02:59

So today, as we mature our business, hundreds of thousands of children are using the Teesas platform and they are getting access to quality tutors at a fraction of the cost they would otherwise have to spend. 

OSA IN CLASS

-I see you have a Teesas tutor here helping out. Awesome.

Have you been enjoying these classes? Are you sure? 

-Yes... 

03:00-03:12

Our vision is to reach 10 million children across underserved communities within the next five years, and every one of us must be committed to that transformation.

NICK WISE

00:01 - 00:18

The ocean is crucial to our survival, but we're degrading that ocean at an astounding rate. Over 60% of marine ecosystems are now declined or degraded, and 90% of all fish stocks are either fished to the limits of sustainability or overfished.

00:22 - 00:45

Enforcing regulations on the vast ocean is extremely challenging. So what is needed is visibility on human activity.

OceanMind combines technology with human expertise, and we help enforcement, authorities and the seafood industry to understand the problems and what actions they can take to solve them.

TREVOR THOMAS

00:50 - 01:14

This is where a lot of OceanMind’s work takes place. We have fishing analysts who can analyze data that would be automatically generated by our algorithms, and some of it is provided by our partners, and some of it comes in from satellites. 

We are tracking many, many thousands of vessels on a daily basis. Processing large amounts of data for humans is very difficult, whereas the computer can process thousands and thousands of hours of data.

01:15 - 01:30

We've been able to provide very nearly real-time data to our partners, such that they can see the results of the analysis within a few minutes and can act upon our recommendations fairly quickly. This has never been done before, the real-time approach it's very exciting. 

NICK WISE

01:35 - 01:42

OceanMind’s scope is global, but we have concentrated activities at the moment in Southeast Asia and also in Central America.

01:44 - 01:55

We've had a partnership with Conservation International in Costa Rica, so we were brought in to help support the government providing intelligence on the activities of fishing in their waters. 

ANA GUZMÁN

01:57 - 02:23

Every single person that interacts with the ocean has a responsibility, and the challenges that we face globally requires to work in collaboration. 

What we're trying to do is implement a model for coastal fisheries that actually links to social, economic and environmental sustainability, bringing opportunities for local communities.

02:27 - 02:47

The projects that we are currently developing with OceanMind are linked to an update of the National Marine Control and Surveillance Strategy. The data that we generate actually allows for the institutions to understand what is happening in the ocean. If we know what is happening, there is better ways to address it and better ways to manage it.

NICK WISE

02:49 - 03:15

We've helped reduce overfishing in various countries, in some cases by up to 20%. The main impact of our work is, as we reduce human activity on the oceans, we give the ocean space to recover and to thrive. 

And so the restoration of ecosystems, when you stop putting pressure on the ocean is the key outcome that we're looking to achieve.

00:01 - 00:35

RAHUL SHENDURE

It's hard to imagine modern society without concrete. 

Concrete has a huge carbon footprint. 

RODRIGO GARCÍA

Everyone understands the problem of plastic. We need to come up with a different type of solution. 

JULIA KUMARI

More than 60%1 of Americans believe climate change is happening, but only a fraction of them actually say that climate change is directly impacting them.

NICK WISE

The ocean is crucial to our survival, but we're degrading that ocean at an astounding rate.

OSAYI IZEDONMWEN

Access to quality education can be truly transformative, particularly in developing economies. 

TITLES: Proudly presenting the second cohort of the Morgan Stanley Sustainable Solutions Collaborative

00:48 - 01:31

JULIA

Morgan Stanley is unique in the accelerator space in embracing systems change and coaching companies as systems change companies. 

TITLES: Five breakthrough innovations, each highly scalable focused on tackling complex global sustainability challenges.

Each organization receives a grant, and support and guidance from across Morgan Stanley.

OSAYI

Innovation for me is how we transform Africa. 

So today, hundreds of thousands of children are using the Teesas platform and they are getting access to quality tutors at a fraction of the cost they would otherwise have to spend. 

01:32 - 02:05

TEESAS TEACHER

Okay, so here's something I'm going to teach you.

Something in Tiv language, okay? 

NICK

Over 80% of all life on earth dwells in the ocean. It feeds over 3 billion people. 

OceanMind combines technology with human expertise to protect the ocean's ability to provide for human well-being. 

RAHUL

Morgan Stanley's collaborative is a great fit for us because they're very interested in supporting early stage companies that make products that have a big impact on sustainability.

02:06 - 02:29

MARK SCANTLEBURY

After everything is done here, it will now be piped into the back of the chamber. So this is where we reintroduce the CO2. 

RAHUL

The technology delivers a very substantial change in the carbon footprint. It's not five or 10%, but 70, 80, 90, even 100% reduction. 

02:29 - 03:30

RODRIGO

We measure our impact by the number of plastic items that we are able to replace.

At the moment, we have passed the million mark, which is quite exciting. 

I think it's a beautiful power that human beings have, to challenge some of the problems that we have as a society. 

JULIA

That is a lot of trash. 

SAGE MICHAEL

Got it. 

JULIA

The whole ecosystem that they've created around this program is really tailored to some wicked problems that we are trying to solve for and how we approach our markets differently than the traditional accelerators that I've worked in.

Samir Ibrahim:  00:52 SMALL FARMERS MAKE UP THE MAJORITY OF PEOPLE LIVING IN POVERTY. ABOUT A QUARTER OF THE WORLD’S POPULATION FALLS IN THESE SMALL FARMING HOUSEHOLDS.

Samir Ibrahim:  08:29 THEY LIVE ON BETWEEN ONE AND THREE ACRES OF LAND.  AND IN ORDER TO GET WATER THEY USUALLY TAKE A BUCKET AND THEY LOWER IT DOWN INTO THEIR WELL AND THEY USE A PULLEY SYSTEM TO PHYSICALLY MOVE WATER FROM THE WELL TO THEIR SURFACE. AND THEY FILL THESE BUCKETS WITH FORTY-FIVE POUNDS OF WATER. 

Samir Ibrahim:  09:10 SO, THE WOMAN OF THE HOUSEHOLD SPENDS THREE TO FOUR HOURS EVERY SINGLE DAY PHYSICALLY MOVING WATER FIRST TO MEET HER DOMESTIC NEEDS AND THEN HER FARMING NEEDS. SO, WHAT WE DO IS INSTALL A SOLAR PANEL ON HER ROOF. IT GETS PLUGGED IN TO A VERY STRONG BATTERY AND THAT BATTERY IS THEN USED TO POWER APPLIANCES. THAT WATER PUMP THEN PUMPS WATER USING THE POWER OF THE SUN AND THEN WE INSTALL IRRIGATION. SO, SPRINKLERS OR DRIP IRRIGATION TO HER FARM SO THAT SHE EFFECTIVELY IRRIGATES HER FARM.

Samir Ibrahim:  10:35 OUR FARMERS ARE INCREASING THEIR INCOMES BY OVER FIVE TIMES. 

Samir Ibrahim:  04:41 WHAT WE’RE DOING SITS IN THE CENTER OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND FOOD SECURITY AND RURAL POVERTY REDUCTION. 

Samir Ibrahim:  03:39 ONE OF THE MOST INTERESTING THINGS FOR ME ABOUT BEING PART OF THIS SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS PRIZE IS THE THINKING THAT WILL GO INTO HOW DO WE DO THIS NOT TEN TIMES BIGGER BUT A THOUSAND TIMES BIGGER? AND THAT NEEDS INTERACTIONS WITH GOVERNMENTS. WE NEED BANKS TO BE INVOLVED, LIKE MORGAN STANLEY. WE NEED A LOT MORE MONEY AND WE NEED A COMPLETE PARADIGM SHIFT IN HOW CAPITAL IS ALLOCATED. 

Samir Ibrahim:  11:51 WHAT’S EXCITING ABOUT THIS PRIZE IS THAT IT SHOWS THAT THERE IS A COMMITMENT TO SUSTAINABILITY FROM SOME OF THE WORLD’S BIGGEST PLAYERS. AND IT SHOWS THAT THERE IS MONEY TO BE MADE IN INVESTING IN SUSTAINABILITY. 

Samir Ibrahim:  18:01 MY BIGGEST SOURCE OF INSPIRATION COMES FROM MY FAMILY. MY FAMILY WERE IMMIGRANTS TO NORTH AMERICA AND THEY ALWAYS REMINDED ME THAT I HAD OPPORTUNITIES THAT OTHER PEOPLE DIDN’T. AND AT THE END OF THE DAY, I FEEL LIKE IF WE DON’T USE OUR RESPONSIBILITIES TO HELP LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD, THEN IT WAS A WASTE. SO THAT’S WHAT DRIVES ME EVERYDAY.

WHEN I OFTEN TALK TO FARMERS ABOUT CARBON MARKETS AND THEY REALIZE THAT THEY’RE SITTING POTENTIALLY ON A GOLD MINE AND THEY JUST DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT IT. 

MySOC IS A DISTRIBUTED NATIONAL SCALE SOIL CARBON INVENTORY SYSTEM. IT'S A WAY FOR US TO GET INFORMATION ABOUT WHAT'S BELOW GROUND AT A SCALE THAT WE'VE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO GET THAT INFORMATION BEFORE.

KRIS KOVEY: THERE'S A LOT OF EVIDENCE THAT WE CAN CHANGE THE WAY THAT OUR AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM WORKS BY ADOPTING PRACTICES LIKE COVER CROPS AND NO-TILL AND THAT THE RESULT WILL BE THAT WE'LL PULL A WHOLE BUNCH OF CARBON OUT OF THE ATMOSPHERE AND PUT IT INTO OUR SOILS. AND AT THE SAME TIME THAT WE'RE HAVING THAT CLIMATE IMPACT, IT LOOKS LIKE WE MIGHT BE ABLE TO PRODUCE MORE FOOD AND PRODUCE IT MORE STABILY AND THAT NOT ONLY CAN THE AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM BE PART OF A CLIMATE SOLUTION, BUT THAT ALSO IN ENACTING THAT SOLUTION WE CAN MAKE OUR AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM MORE RESILIENT.

WE CAN QUANTIFY HOW MUCH CARBON IS STORED IN THE SOIL. ESPECIALLY IN RESPONSE TO CHANGES FROM CONVENTIONAL PRACTICES MORE TO REGENERATIVE PRACTICES.  BUT THEN THESE NUMBERS ALONE DON’T NECESSARILY MEAN MUCH UNLESS THEY’RE PUT IN TO CONTEXT OF WHERE ARE YOU GOING AND WHAT IS THE TRAJECTORY OF THIS BEHAVIOR IN THE SOIL?

AND THAT GOES INTO THE PLATFORM OF MYSOC WHICH IS BASICALLY AN INTEGRATED REMOTELY SENSED TECHNOLOGY TO BE ABLE TO SEE CROPS AND VARIATION WITHIN THE FIELDS, WITHIN THE SEASON, AS WELL AS A COMPUTER SIMULATION MODEL, A BIOGEOCHEMICAL AND CROP AND SOIL MODEL THAT IS ABLE TO PREDICT THE IMPACT OF REGENERATIVE PRACTICES ON THE ANNUAL CHANGES OF SOIL CARBON.

KRIS K  I THINK IT WILL HELP INCREASE CARBON CAPTURE BY SHOWING EVIDENCE OF THE BENEFITS AND BY THE POSSIBILITY OF SIMULATING SCENARIOS THAT LIKE ANYTHING THAT CAN BE QUANTIFIED BEFOREHAND, PEOPLE HAVE A BETTER FEEL OF UNDERSTANDING THE RISK AND THE POTENTIAL. 

WINNING THE MORGAN STANLEY SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS PRIZE IS A DREAM COME TRUE. WE ARE TWO ACADEMICS WHO ARE TRYING TO BUILD AN ORGANIZATION THAT’S MORE THAN JUST AN ACADEMIC LAB PROJECT. WE ARE TRYING TO BUILD SOMETHING THAT CAN BE ADOPTED AT SCALE AND THAT CAN HAVE A TRANSFORMATIONAL IMPACT ON SOMETHING AS BIG AS AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES. IT’S HUGELY EXCITING.

JANE (CEO & Co-Founder, SIKLUS): IN INDONESIA, LESS THAN 45% OF THE PLASTIC OF TRASH ACTUALLY GETS COLLECTED. 

AND IN SOME AREAS, IT'S 0%. 

ALIF (Head of Operations, SIKLUS): THERE IS NO REALLY GOOD WASTE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM HERE IN INDONESIA.

JANE: SO, INDONESIA IS THE SECOND-LARGEST OCEAN PLASTIC POLLUTER IN THE WORLD. 

SACHETS AND POUCHES ARE MADE FROM MULTI-LAYER PLASTIC. THEY'RE NOT RECYCLABLE.  

AND SO ACTUALLY ONE IN FIVE ITEMS FOUND AT INDONESIAN BEACHES ARE SACHETS AND WRAPPERS.

ALIF: SO, WHAT WE TRY TO COME UP WITH IS ACTUALLY ON HOW WE CAN REALLY SOLVE THE PROBLEMS FROM THE SOURCE OR THE RETAIL ITSELF.

JANE: SIKLUS DELIVERS REFILLS OF CONSUMER PRODUCTS TO DOOR WITHOUT PLASTIC WASTE.

SO INSTEAD OF GOING TO THE SUPERMARKET OR THE MOM-AND-POP STORE TO BUY EVERYDAY NEEDS, THEY SIMPLY ORDER VIA OUR APP OR WHATSAPP, AND THEN WE COME TO THEIR DOORSTEP.

AND THEY CAN USE THEIR OWN CONTAINERS TO BUY REFILLS OF DETERGENT, SHAMPOO, DISHWASHING LIQUID, AND OTHER HOUSEHOLD NEEDS AT A LOWER COST.

ALIF: WE ARE NOW ALREADY PARTNERED WITH FIRST NESTLÉ, P&G, LOCAL ONES LIKE WINGS, AS WELL AS TOTAL CHEMINDO.

AND THEY'RE VERY EXCITED ABOUT US BECAUSE THEY SEE US AS AN ENABLER TO REALLY HELP THEM TO REACH THEIR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS ACTUALLY.

JANE: WE'RE SERVING, I THINK, AROUND 7,000 HOUSEHOLDS RIGHT NOW IN JAKARTA AREA. WE AIM TO HAVE 250 REFILL STATIONS BY THE END OF THE YEAR.

AND SINCE WE LAUNCHED THAT IN JANUARY, WE ACTUALLY HAVE 15% WEEK-ON-WEEK GROWTH IN SALES, AND IT'S BEEN SUPER EXCITING.

SO, AT THIS POINT, WE HONESTLY, WE'RE JUST TRYING TO KEEP UP WITH THE HIRING AND SORT OF OPERATIONAL EXPANSION BECAUSE WE'RE PRETTY MUCH OVERCAPACITY. 

ALIF: WE APPLIED FOR MORGAN STANLEY SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS BECAUSE WE KNOW THAT THIS IS THE BIG OPPORTUNITY FOR US TO CONNECT WITH A GLOBAL PLAYER BECAUSE OUR VISION IS TO REALLY ERADICATE PLASTIC FROM ITS SOURCE, AND WE KNOW THAT WE CANNOT DO IT ALONE. 

JANE: THANKS TO THE PARTNERSHIP WITH MORGAN STANLEY, WE CAN NOW REALLY IMPROVE OUR TECH, AND SO JUST HIRE MORE TECH TALENT, REALLY BUILD OUT OUR INFRASTRUCTURE AND REACH THOUSANDS MORE CUSTOMERS. 

I ALSO FEEL THAT THEY CAN ACTUALLY ADD VALUE. WE ARE STILL VERY SMALL. WE ARE IMPROVING OUR PROCESSES AND REALLY MAKING OUR PRODUCT MORE SCALABLE. 

AND SO, I THINK THAT HAVING THEIR INPUT ON SCALING COMPANIES, ON FINANCING, ON HOW DO WE PRIORITIZE AND REALLY POSITION OURSELVES, I THINK THAT WOULD BE INVALUABLE.

NAA AKWETEY: mPHARMA IS A HEALTHCARE DISRUPTOR. WE FOCUS ON MAKING SURE THAT PATIENTS IN AFRICA SPECIFICALLY HAVE ACCESS TO AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE. 

OUR WHOLE VISION IS TO MAKE SURE THAT PATIENTS CAN WALK INTO A PHARMACY WITH A PRESCRIPTION AND WALK OUT WITH THE DRUG THEY NEED AS OPPOSED TO WITHOUT THE DRUG BECAUSE THEY DON'T HAVE ENOUGH MONEY. AND SO WE HAVE BUILT A SUPPLY CHAIN NETWORK AND A VALUE CHAIN AROUND MAKING HEALTHCARE MORE AFFORDABLE TO PATIENTS.

WE PARTNER WITH COMMUNITY PHARMACIES AND ARE KNOWN AS A TRUSTED PHARMACY. AND WE GIVE YOU AN INTEREST-FREE LOAN TO REFURBISH YOUR PHARMACY AT NO UPFRONT COST. AND THEN AFTER WE REFURBISH AND REBRAND IT, WE ALSO STOCK WITH THE, WITH THE DRUGS OR HELP YOU TO STOCK THE DRUGS THAT YOU NEED FOR THE PHARMACY.

mPHARMA ACTUALLY  STARTED, UH, A DIAGNOSTICS BUSINESS UNIT LAST YEAR. AND SO WE WERE ABLE TO ACTUALLY PARTNER WITH A COMPANY IN CHINA TO PROVIDE TEST KITS AND TESTING EQUIPMENT FOR COVID. WE WERE ABLE TO SUPPORT, UH, ABOUT HALF A DOZEN COUNTRIES OR MORE TO SECURE COVID TESTING AND TEST KITS.

THE 60% OF ALL COVID TESTING DONE IN GHANA WAS DONE IN ONE OF THE PARTNER LABS THAT WE HELPED TO SET UP.

AND THAT'S WHERE WE SEE VALUE. THESE ARE THE THINGS THAT YOU CAN'T REALLY QUANTIFY THE LIFE THAT WAS SAVED, UM, THROUGH THE WORK THAT WE'RE DOING.

SO AS WE'RE EXPANDING, A KEY THING FOR US IS MAKING SURE THAT WE'RE BUILDING AND HAVING THE RIGHT STRUCTURE IN PLACE AS WE SCALE WITH SPEED. SO THAT EVEN WHEN COVID HITS, WE'RE STILL ABLE TO OFFER VALUE TO OUR PATIENTS.

WE ARE SO DELIGHTED TO BE PART OF THE FIRST COHORT, UH, FOR THE AWARD. WE ARE GOING TO BE ABLE TO LEARN FROM, UH, AS WELL AS SHARE OUR EXPERIENCES WITH AN EXTREMELY TALENTED COHORT OF INNOVATORS ACROSS THE WORLD WHILE ALSO HELPING TO IMPROVE THE HEALTHCARE NEEDS OF PATIENTS IN AFRICA.  AND SO DEFINITELY THE PATIENTS ARE GOING TO BE THE FINAL BENEFICIARY OF THIS AWARD.

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

 

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TreesAI is an

open-source platform

 

00:00:05.510 --> 00:00:08.690 align:middle line:84%

that has been set up to

support multiple city

 

00:00:08.690 --> 00:00:11.720 align:middle line:84%

stakeholders to

collectively value

 

00:00:11.720 --> 00:00:15.680 align:middle line:90%

and invest in urban nature.

 

00:00:15.680 --> 00:00:19.700 align:middle line:84%

The initiative is

establishing trees

 

00:00:19.700 --> 00:00:22.580 align:middle line:84%

as a critical part of

urban infrastructure,

 

00:00:22.580 --> 00:00:25.680 align:middle line:84%

alongside bridges,

roads, and rails,

 

00:00:25.680 --> 00:00:28.220 align:middle line:84%

enabling investment,

affordability,

 

00:00:28.220 --> 00:00:30.920 align:middle line:90%

and sustainability.

 

00:00:30.920 --> 00:00:35.070 align:middle line:84%

We've all recognized,

especially during COVID,

 

00:00:35.070 --> 00:00:38.940 align:middle line:84%

how we so strongly rely on

our green infrastructure.

 

00:00:38.940 --> 00:00:41.930 align:middle line:84%

And we're talking about

the fact that urban trees

 

00:00:41.930 --> 00:00:44.790 align:middle line:90%

can clean the air around us.

 

00:00:44.790 --> 00:00:47.490 align:middle line:90%

They can reduce the temperature.

 

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And I haven't mentioned social

benefits, neighborhood cohesion

 

00:00:51.800 --> 00:00:55.590 align:middle line:84%

benefits, health care

benefits, which are massive.

 

00:00:55.590 --> 00:00:56.400 align:middle line:90%

How much?

 

00:00:56.400 --> 00:01:00.620 align:middle line:84%

We all know that actually being

five minutes away from a park

 

00:01:00.620 --> 00:01:04.879 align:middle line:84%

can drastically reduce

your probability of illness

 

00:01:04.879 --> 00:01:07.110 align:middle line:84%

when you get old, and

so on and so forth.

 

00:01:07.110 --> 00:01:11.200 align:middle line:84%

If your house is located in

front of a tree-lined street,

 

00:01:11.200 --> 00:01:15.450 align:middle line:84%

on average, the land value

uplift, so the amount of money

 

00:01:15.450 --> 00:01:20.470 align:middle line:84%

that would be captured by your

property, can rise by 18%.

 

00:01:20.470 --> 00:01:25.140 align:middle line:84%

So this is on average in

most cities around the world.

 

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However, it's the

local municipality

 

00:01:28.410 --> 00:01:31.470 align:middle line:84%

or the local organization

that is actually

 

00:01:31.470 --> 00:01:33.780 align:middle line:84%

investing and

having to take care

 

00:01:33.780 --> 00:01:35.410 align:middle line:90%

of this green infrastructure.

 

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And so we think that

this is fundamental

 

00:01:37.390 --> 00:01:41.320 align:middle line:84%

that we try and address the fact

that all these benefits coexist,

 

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but not just acknowledge it

but actually start to code this

 

00:01:45.840 --> 00:01:47.500 align:middle line:90%

within our financial system.

 

00:01:47.500 --> 00:01:51.330 align:middle line:84%

And so what we're trying to

offer here is a new crediting

 

00:01:51.330 --> 00:01:55.630 align:middle line:84%

system, one that we

call Carbon+ Credit,

 

00:01:55.630 --> 00:01:59.370 align:middle line:84%

which really addresses and

recognizes the fact that green

 

00:01:59.370 --> 00:02:02.910 align:middle line:84%

infrastructure and nature-based

solutions are not only carbon

 

00:02:02.910 --> 00:02:05.620 align:middle line:84%

storage facilities,

but they are much more.

 

00:02:05.620 --> 00:02:08.430 align:middle line:84%

And so we are

essentially creating

 

00:02:08.430 --> 00:02:12.180 align:middle line:90%

a multi-benefit portfolio.

 

00:02:12.180 --> 00:02:15.330 align:middle line:84%

And so by creating

the portfolio,

 

00:02:15.330 --> 00:02:19.140 align:middle line:84%

companies are able to not

only say the amount of carbon

 

00:02:19.140 --> 00:02:22.680 align:middle line:84%

that they want to a offset,

but also to say and to tell us

 

00:02:22.680 --> 00:02:25.600 align:middle line:84%

more about the other co-benefits

that they want to hit.

 

00:02:25.600 --> 00:02:29.610 align:middle line:84%

And they will be directly

linked with local projects that

 

00:02:29.610 --> 00:02:33.000 align:middle line:84%

are backed by the municipality

or by other partner related

 

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to the municipality.

 

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Our roadmap is one

where you're essentially

 

00:02:37.920 --> 00:02:41.190 align:middle line:84%

moving from a carbon

crediting system, where

 

00:02:41.190 --> 00:02:43.380 align:middle line:84%

anyone from corporates

to individual

 

00:02:43.380 --> 00:02:47.910 align:middle line:84%

can actually offset carbon

through a municipality green

 

00:02:47.910 --> 00:02:50.400 align:middle line:84%

infrastructure

portfolio, all the way

 

00:02:50.400 --> 00:02:53.070 align:middle line:84%

to a couple of years'

time, where we're actually

 

00:02:53.070 --> 00:02:57.570 align:middle line:84%

looking to moving into an

outcome-based finance model.

 

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I mean, being part of

the Sustainable Solution

 

00:03:00.510 --> 00:03:03.580 align:middle line:84%

Collaborative of Morgan

Stanley, it's massive.

 

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Honestly, when we

recognized that we're

 

00:03:05.340 --> 00:03:07.590 align:middle line:84%

going to be one of the

winners, this really

 

00:03:07.590 --> 00:03:09.930 align:middle line:84%

made a massive change

for us because it

 

00:03:09.930 --> 00:03:13.500 align:middle line:84%

meant that our

ideas started being

 

00:03:13.500 --> 00:03:17.460 align:middle line:84%

recognized by such an important

financial institution.

 

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

 

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