The Alliance for Responsible Capitalism presents a new competition focused on
the challenges and opportunities around ESG in the banking sector
Fairness for Volunteers and Participants
All students who register for the ESG Dilemma Design Challenge will receive access to pre-recorded stakeholder interviews when the challenge brief is released on October 20.
Student volunteers who help prepare and perform these stakeholder interviews will necessarily have advance access to the interviews that they are involved with directly.
Therefore we have the following internal processes to ensure that volunteers who also want to participate in the Challenge do not have undue advantage:
Volunteers who plan to participate:
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May perform a maximum of 25% of the total completed interviews (or at least 1)
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May not have access to the full library of pre-recorded interviews until the Challenge brief is available to all registered participants on October 20
Volunteers who do not plan to participate:
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Are not subject to the above constraints
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Will not be eligible to participate once they have access to the library of interviews or competition brief, or if they perform more interviews than allowed in the above section
Participation Rules
The Challenge brief will be provided to all registered teams on October 20.
Teams are encouraged to perform independent research beyond the materials in the Challenge brief – see the Resources section for where to start.
Teams are asked not to contact the industry experts who have provided pre-recorded interviews – they have already given their time and their valuable perspective through the video!
Teams are allowed to seek advice from other industry experts and/or review by faculty. If input is provided from other people, please cite these sources.
Teams are allowed to use GenAI tools to support material creation. If GenAI tools are used, please provide an appendix showing the prompts you used to generate your results.
Scoring Rubric
Details on the scoring of submissions will be released with the Challenge brief directly to registered student teams.
FAQ Section
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What if I have fewer than 4 students in my team?You are encouraged to build a team of 4 to benefit from a variety of perspectives. For special circumstances, please contact info@alliance4rc.org.
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Who is eligible to participate?Please see the Eligibility section under the link to Register [with link]
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My team was a finalist from the initial round, but I can’t travel to Ann Arbor. What do we do?The final round will happen in-person in Ann Arbor, MI, on Saturday, February 1. This is an important part of the impact you will have: the proposal you present to a panel of industry experts and stakeholders will spark new ideas and discussion among practitioners who can then implement these ideas in the world. If you are unable to attend the final session, your team is allowed to make up to 2 substitutions from the original team. If fewer than 2 of the original team members can participate, then another team will be offered the opportunity to present for the final event.
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Are there any fees to participate?No, registration is free for all student teams!
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Are travel costs for finalist teams reimbursed?No, student teams are expected to cover the cost of travel. The event will provide a networking reception and dinner on the day of the final event, and the top 3 teams will take home prizes of $10,000, $5,000, and $2,500, respectively. Your program may offer reimbursement for your travel, and we encourage you to explore this option.
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Why is it called a design challenge?First, the idea of designing a “product” (your roadmap) for “customers” (the various stakeholders of the banking sector) is foundational to this Challenge. Listening to these voices is therefore critical to creating a successful proposal. Second, we go beyond a simple case analysis and instead challenge you to rethink the role that banks might play in accelerating a sustainable market transformation, which requires envisioning new rules for this ecosystem of players and a plan for how to built this new system.
For other questions, please contact:
