Global Opportunities

Impact and Sustainable Ventures: Social, Conservation, and Agricultural Innovation: Indonesia and Malaysia 2026

Ulun Danu Beratan Temple in Bali, Indonesia

Course Description

The ways in which we design, fund, measure and scale ventures and initiatives with intentional social impact, conservation innovation, food & ag resilience, and climate change mitigation and adaptation are of critical importance in countries and communities with rich social, natural, and agriculture ecosystems, climate exposure, stark economic inequity, and/or hampered access to global markets.

 

In this course, we will learn from experts and innovators in sustainable ventures, human and community impact, food & ag, climate-focused innovation, and global development as we focus in on impact financing and measurement and management strategy for sustainable and impactful ventures. To gain our on-the-ground experience and exposure, this course will visit two countries and pay special attention to each one’s history, culture, market dynamics, community, and ecosystems.

 

Indonesia (Jakarta & Bali) and Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) will provide rich learning canvases for this course.

 

•Indonesia is a presidential republic and boasts the largest economy in Southeast Asia with key industries like agriculture, manufacturing, and mining. Indonesia also has a population of over 585 M and a national poverty rate of 8.57%.
•Malaysia, by contrast, is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary democracy. It has a population of only 36 M and boasts an upper-middle-income economy with key industries of services, manufacturing, and agriculture and a poverty rate of only 2.3%.

 

Visiting agricultural, corporate, manufacturing, and local leaders and innovators in each of these two countries will allow us to expand our exploration into areas of student interest and learn as we compare and contrast the two economies, cultures, and business landscapes through an impact and sustainability lens.

 

Learning Objectives:

•A grasp of the breadth and detail of a range of frameworks for strategy and scale towards impact, conservation, and sustainability targets
•A command of the spectrum of capital flows and array of players and influences in impact and sustainable ventures and food & ag ecosystems
•Practice on an in-depth analysis of the paths to managing, and achieving impact at scale

 

Faculty Bio

Professor Megan Kashner serves as the Director of Social Impact & Sustainability at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. In her leadership of Kellogg's Social Impact and Sustainability offerings, Kashner focuses on the areas of sustainable finance, social innovation, climate strategy, social sector leadership, policy, global development, corporate responsibility, values and ethics. Kashner leads up the global Impact & Sustainable Finance Faculty Consortium, the Kellogg-Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge, and more collaborative work at the intersection of markets and impact. Kashner is additionally the co-founder of Colorful Capital a VC firm focusing investment and opportunity on ventures led by LGBTQIA+ community members. Previously, Kashner held leadership roles as a CEO, social entrepreneur, and consultant. Kashner holds an MBA from Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, a Master's from the University of Chicago's School of Social Service Administration and a B.A. in Public Policy from Brown University.