Why This Wharton MBA Professor Is Running For The U.S. Senate

‘I see an increasing interest in the MBA students. I also see an increasing interest in undergraduates where students are really motivated to pay their bills and want to find a good job, but also don’t want to take a job where they feel complicit in destroying the planet,’ Orts says. (Courtesy photo)

Do you think business schools are doing a good job talking about climate change? What do you think they should be teaching? 

I think some progress is being made in the business schools, but business schools basically have to take their signals from the general market. As long as the economic incentives for consulting, investment banking and private equity jobs are favorable to destroying the planet, then I think it’s going to be hard for business schools to shift. They depend on what the market is for who’s hiring their students. 

Having said that, and I see this at Wharton, there are several schools moving in this direction. Increasingly, schools are establishing centers devoted to business and climate. There’s a lot of opportunity for business schools to move in this direction, but there’s a lot of inertia as well. 

But, let me give one example: Increasingly, investment banks and banks in general are looking at climate as a really key question. They don’t want to give loans to coal fired plants and to environmentally bad investments. Then you have to ask, what are the skills that you need for the jobs at these types of companies? You have to not only have the traditional finance, marketing, management and operation skills, but also someone who understands sustainability, who can do lifecycle analysis and who can calculate a carbon footprint. Increasingly, I think there’s a market for those courses and those skills at business schools. 

‘One thing I say often to students who ask me for advice about finding a good job and providing for their families but also doing good for society, is that you need to be willing to take a risk,’ Orts says. (Courtesy photo)

Have you noticed an increase in Wharton business students interested in the relationship between climate and business?

Yes. I see an increasing interest in the MBA students. I also see an increasing interest in undergraduates where students are really motivated to pay their bills and want to find a good job, but also don’t want to take a job where they feel complicit in destroying the planet.

I’ve seen a sea change of interest in the last 20 years I’ve been teaching this area.When I first taught my course on environmental management, law and policy, I had a dozen students or maybe up to 20. I think the course is now fully subscribed. We now have an environment and energy based major at Wharton for MBAs, and enrollments are increasing for that. 

What would you like business students, and maybe decision makers at business schools, take from your campaign?

One thing I say often to students who ask me for advice about finding a good job and providing for their families but also doing good for society, is that you need to be willing to take a risk. One of the lessons I’ve learned, and from some of my colleagues who do risk analysis and study decision making theory, is that most people are too risk averse. Particularly students who might be at Wharton or other pretty good business schools, they may really be in a position where they can take a risk in their lives. They can probably afford to work for a company that they really believe in. Or start up a company not only for the financial return, but that they think is a social good or doing something good for the planet. I know a lot of people who have done that and are really much more satisfied, even if they might not have made as much money as somebody else who follows a more traditional route.

What else would you like MBA students and Poets&Quants readers to know?

One thing I’ve appreciated through this campaign is just the beauty of democracy. We do live in a country where somebody can decide, ‘I’m going to try to do this,’ and then sometimes they win. And I think that’s the beauty of the American system: Everyday citizens can step up and say, ‘Hey, I think I can do this,’ and then make their case.

I have two primary issues: One is, we are living in a world where there is a climate emergency. We are dealing with a climate emergency that’s equivalent to a world war situation. We need a mobilization to deal with this emergency that is burning our forests, causing massive droughts and floods, and intensifying hurricanes. We have to make that the top priority for the government to deal with it. 

And the second priority is we need Senate reform, including the elimination of the filibuster which is a ridiculous rule that is locking up the Senate. We’re seeing it happen right now with the threat to default on the government debt. The reason we have that is because of this ridiculous foil called the filibuster that could destroy our whole reputation as a country. 

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