A DBF team made a victorious podium finish for the CDL-GCNS Young SDG Leaders Award 2022, finishing 2nd Runner’s Up. For the win, the team was awarded $2,000 of prize money and each member granted the GCNS Youth Alliance memberships.

Jointly organised by City Developments Limited (CDL) and Global Compact Network Singapore (GCNS), this annual case competition offers young people a platform to champion sustainable development and SDG integration into business for positive change. After an intensive Phase 1 of the competition comprising a virtual hackathon centred around the theme of the SG Green Plan 2030 and its five pillars, 10 teams were selected into Phase 2. From there they worked with assigned organisations to learn and devise implementable sustainability solutions.

Partnering with Singapore Stock Exchange to tackle the problem of mobilising senior management of listed companies to take climate action, the team’s proposed sustainability finance solution of executing local and regional multi-asset ESG exchange traded funds (ETFs), and bond ETFs impressed the judging panel with their intensive analysis of market gaps and comprehensive solution coverage.

The team won excellent reviews from a panel of notable judges : (i) Esther An, Chief Sustainability Officer of City Developments Limited; (ii) Esther Chang, Executive Director, Global Compact Network Singapore; (iii) Wang Weixiang, Director (Environment Policy), Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment (MSE); (iv) Rajeev Peshwaria, CEO, Stewardship Asia Centre; (v) Shai Ganu, MD, Global Leader of Executive Compensation & Board Advisory business at WTW; and (vi)  Ian Wilson, Principal Consultant, Millenium Hotels and CEO, Wilson Innovation Labs.