Center for Sustainable Business | 2024 NYU Stern Sustainable Business Pitch Competition

About the 2024 Competition

The annual NYU Stern Sustainable Business Pitch Competition focuses on developing practical business proposals that create positive environmental and social impact in tandem with competitive financial and economic value.

In partnership with Empire State Realty Trust and Eddie Stern, the Spring 2024 Sustainable Business Pitch Competition tasked teams with leveraging CSB’s Return on Sustainability Investment (ROSI) methodology to build a framework to help real estate leaders track and understand the financial benefits (tangible and intangible) of decarbonization strategies.

Worldwide, buildings are responsible for around 40% of energy and process-related CO2 emissions, 50% of all extracted materials, 33% of water consumption and 35% of generated waste. Just 15% of real estate assets worldwide currently align with the Paris Agreement’s goal of net-zero emissions to limit global warming to no more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels by 2050. Transitioning to a lower-carbon built environment is essential to adapt and mitigate the impacts of climate change.

This was a very competitive year with 17 teams competing throughout the spring semester. 

Congratulations to this year's winners!

Read about their experience and proposal here. 

First Place - Team Plot Twisters

• Sangitha Mohan ('24)
• Vignesh Sayeesundar ('24)

Second Place - Team WELLness

• Wilson Henry ('25)
• Lena Renshaw ('25) 
• Lee Silverglate ('24)
• Emily Villasenor ('25)

Third Place - Concrete Jun-Girls!

• Marcia Hu ('25)
• Denisse Rebolledo ('25)
• Daniela Alvarez ('25)
• Lynn Petrella ('25)

Competition overview: 

• Teams were tasked with proposing a framework for real estate decarbonization using the ROSI methodology.
• Students identified the benefits of the various practices of decarbonization strategies by value chain partner. For selected practices that have material value drivers, students developed monetization approaches and provided data from research to ground recommendations. Students calculated the incremental cost of these performance optimization improvements versus the full cost as most of the cost is incremental to BAU which drastically improves payback.
• Teams had the opportunity to attend educational sessions led by experts in relevant fields and receive coaching from Stern faculty, CSB scholars, and industry practitioners during both rounds. 
  • Coaches Included:
    • Cynthia Curtis, SVP, Head of Portfolio ESG at Revantage 
    • Jaime del Álamo, CFA, Vice President – ESG Value & Risk Lead, JLL
    • Elyse Douglas,Senior Scholar, NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business
    • Chisara Ehiemere, Senior Research Lead of Return on Sustainability Investment, NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business 
    • Linda Lindman, Senior Vice President & Assistant General Counsel, CBRE; Adjunct Professor, NYU Stern School of Business
    • George Miroshnikov, Decarbonization Advisory Lead, JLL
  • Judging Panel included:
    • Christina Chiu, President, Empire State Realty Trust
    • Elyse Douglas,Senior Scholar, NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business
    • Adam Fisher, Vice President, North America ESG Advisory Practice Co-Lead, JLL
    • Jessica Long, Senior Vice President of Environmental Stewardship & Sustainability, NAREIT
    • Dana Robbins Schneider, Senior Vice President, Director of Energy, Sustainability & ESG, Empire State Realty Trust
    • Eddie Stern, Founder and President, Hartz Capital
    • Tensie Whelan, Distinguished Professor of Practice, NYU Stern School of Business, Founding Director, Center for Sustainable Business
       
• The Competition entailed two rounds:
  1. A proposal deck
  2. A live proposal presentation 

The Sustainable Business Pitch Competition is organized by the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business with sponsorship by Eddie Stern. In the Spring 2023 NYU Stern Sustainable Business Pitch Competition, students developed business pitches for Dollar General to implement retail strategies that expand the range of healthy and sustainable food products offered in its New York stores that will help address food insecurity in surrounding communities.  Read about the 2023 challenge here.