Want A Career In Climate? B-School Educators’ Best Advice On Making The Most Of Your Time As An MBA Student

Climate change is reshaping the global economy — introducing significant risks while creating unprecedented opportunities for innovation and growth. As climate considerations increasingly influence business operations, investment strategies, and boardroom decisions, future business leaders must be equipped to navigate these complexities.

Recognizing this urgent need, business schools across the U.S. and beyond are stepping up to equip their MBA students with the knowledge and skills necessary to address one of the most pressing challenges of our time: climate change.

The ClimateCAP initiative, a partnership of 49 business MBA programs working together to advance the climate conversation in business school, recently hosted a virtual learning event for incoming MBA students focused on “Integrating Climate into your MBA.” Business school educators from 12 top MBA programs came together to offer advice to MBA students about how to integrate their passion for climate action into their MBA and their careers. 

According to recent estimates, transitioning the global economy to a net-zero carbon footprint by 2050 will require approximately $110 trillion in capital investment. This translates to $3.5 trillion in additional expenditures every year. But while policy experts, engineers, and climate scientists are essential to this transition, so too are business leaders who are well-versed in climate issues. MBA students have opportunities to make a meaningful impact on climate solutions, regardless of the sector they choose to enter after graduation. 

Ready to work on climate? Below are tips from the educators at some of the world’s top B-schools.

TIP #1: CONNECT YOUR CURRENT SKILLS TO YOUR CLIMATE STORY

Jen Graham from MIT’s Sloan School of Management recommends that students start thinking about how they can connect the dots between their current experience and their future climate career interests. “Now is a great time to learn how your skills, whether in finance, operations, policy, or tech, can translate into the work being done to solve the climate crisis,” she says. “That could look like joining a volunteer project, helping with the startup’s business model, or even writing or researching about an issue that you care about… As you’re exploring, start thinking about your story, what connects your past experiences, your values, and the change that you want to make.” 

Joe Dieguez at Fordham’s Gabelli School of Business shares similar advice. “It’s important to integrate that passion you have for climate into your professional narrative,” he says, “because that will ultimately set you apart, especially in the interview process and conversations with employers.”  

Fernando Diaz-Lopez from HEC Paris cites a growing body of research that shows the transferability of climate skills and how important it is for career switchers to be able to tell their story. Adds Gregory Heller from University of Washington Foster School of Business: “Invest in how you show up online. You’re doing research, you’re meeting with people. Can you synthesize the ideas that you’re hearing and present them online, either on a blog or on LinkedIn, where you can build some social capital, a media presence?”

TIP #2: SEEK ADVICE FROM ALUMNI

Jillian Cener from University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School notes that climate knowledge is becoming increasingly important in many career paths and across different sectors. She recommended thinking about what kind of career you want and identifying the kind of impact you want to have. “You’ll have a number of options that you can choose from after your MBA… so talk to a lot of people, shadow people, try different opportunities so you can decide where you want to engage.”  

Gregory Heller adds: “This is not a career search that you can do simply from behind the keyboard. You have to get out there and pound the pavement and meet with people.” Other key networking tips includes leveraging alumni networks and exploring the local ecosystem of climate professional events. 

TIP #3: THERE ARE MANY WAYS TO WORK ON CLIMATE SOLUTIONS — DON’T WORRY ABOUT FINDING A ‘PERFECT’ ONE

Stu DeCew from Yale School of Management talks about the wide, and growing, variety of employers hiring for climate-impacting roles. There are the larger employers who consistently hire MBAs, but there are also an increasing number of smaller and more bespoke opportunities where students can really make their mark. He also recommends following the investments, to look at where industries are growing because they will need more talent to meet their growth demands.

Acknowledging the uncertainty that a lot of students are feeling right now with the federal ambiguity on many climate-related issues, Kat Baird from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business points out that many climate-related investment trends seem to be here to stay. “Managing climate risk in investments is not a space that is going away any time soon,” she says. “We’re also continuing to see a lot of companies that are hiring around technical skills… so having a general broad understanding of sustainability in a company is not sufficient.” Baird and many other educators echo that students should look to develop both their climate and functional expertise to be a compelling candidate.

TIP #4: BUILD EXPERTISE BEYOND YOUR BUSINESS SCHOOL WALLS

In addition to MBA classes, Lynn Schenk from Harvard Business School and Kia Coleman from Chicago Booth School of Business talk through their recommendations of where to build climate expertise outside of the classroom. Podcasts like Climate Rising, websites like Project Drawdown, and books like Speed & Scale were recommended to help students get up to speed. Coleman also recommends conferences like the ClimateCAP MBA Summit, GreenBiz, or any of the regional Climate Weeks. Schenk advises, “Take advantage of research opportunities, do independent projects in your second year, when possible, and attend as many events as you can.” 

Brian Goebel from Emory’s Goizueta Business School encourages MBAs to embrace learning opportunities outside the walls of their business school. “Think about all the amazing courses that are offered to you at your university, in the policy arena, environmental science arena, and more,” he says. “I think the best business leaders that we see in this space can understand complexity. They can hold tension really well and define it.”

TIP #5: BE A CLIMATE CHAMPION AT SCHOOL

Bringing it all together, Melissa Zaksek from the Erb Institute at the University of Michigan encourages students to be climate champions, no matter what school they attend or what career they pursue. “The first low-hanging fruit here is just to ask questions and to bring up climate in conversations in class,” Zaksek says. “This sends a really powerful signal to faculty that students want to understand how climate will play a role in their decision-making, their actions, their leadership.” 

---

Katie Kross is a sustainability educator, career expert, and speaker. She is Managing Director of the Center for Energy, Development and the Global Environment (EDGE) at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. Jessica Wingert leads EDGE’s innovative ClimateCAP Initiative, a partnership of 30+ business schools focused on educating MBA students about the business risks and opportunities of climate change.

DON’T MISS MEET THE 2025 CLIMATECAP FELLOWS: MOTIVATED TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE