Investment data and research provider MSCI announced today the launch of the MSCI Sustainability Institute, a new initiative aimed at enabling collaboration across the capital markets ecosystem on the creation of sustainable value and addressing global challenges such as climate change.

Henry Fernandez, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MSCI, said:

“Global challenges such as climate change cannot be solved by governments, corporations, NGOs or multilateral organizations alone. The most meaningful solutions all require some type of cross-sector collaboration. Through the MSCI Sustainability Institute, we will bring together a wide range of thinkers with complementary strengths and expertise, and help them turn data-driven ideas into real-world influence and action.”

According to MSCI, the new Sustainability Institute will spur collaboration across the ecosystem, including finance, academia, government, NGOs, think tanks and companies, in addition aligning data, analysis, policy and action. Initiatives will include equipping academic researchers and policymakers with sustainability data, metrics and models used by investors and collaborating with academic institutions, including Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business on training researchers and students to apply these metrics for capital allocation, encouraging innovations on new data and approaches for measurement to provide insights for sustainable finance and capital allocation decision applications, providing curated sustainability-related research for investors and companies, and offering a forum for debate on sustainability risk and opportunity topics for leaders from across the capital markets ecosystem.

The new institute will be led by Linda-Eling Lee, who has been appointed as Founding Director and Head of MSCI Sustainability Institute. Lee joined MSCI in 2010 following its acquisition of RiskMetrics Group, where she served as Head of Consumer Sector Research, ESG. She has been most recently serving as Managing Director, Global Head of ESG and Climate Research at MSCI, overseeing all ESG and climate-related content and methodology, and as a member of MSCI’s Executive Committee.

The institute will also be advised by Hiromichi Mizuno, who recently joined the firm as Special Advisor to the CEO, with a particular focus on climate and sustainable investing issues.

Lee said:

“We are incredibly excited to work with investors, academics, policymakers, NGOs and companies across industries, leveraging MSCI’s experience in developing new ways to measure both financial and non-financial value. Together, we will deepen knowledge of how capital markets can help drive sustainable value.”