The moment Kate Kleiber stepped onto the Georgia Tech campus for a tour in high school, she knew she was home. Now just weeks away from graduating with a B.S. in Business Administration with a concentration in strategy and innovation, Kate reflects on the past four years. Sustainability is one of the core values that has largely informed her personal, academic, and professional journey. In recognition of her achievements in this area, the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business (Center) at the Scheller College of Business has selected Kate as the 2025 recipient of the Vivian Nora Lukens Memorial Scholarship, which supports students pursuing the certificate in sustainable business.
Kate says receiving the scholarship is an incredible honor as well as “a full circle moment.” She actually wrote her Georgia Tech admissions essay about the negative environmental impact of fast fashion and how she wanted to learn how to educate consumers on sustainability.
Fashion has been one of Kate’s passions since she was young. Growing up in Athens, Georgia, she discovered a way to make fashion sustainable – by scouting for unique vintage items in the city’s many second-hand shops. “I was always in those shops, and my grandma would even give me her old clothes – which I still wear!” To this day, instead of going online to buy clothes at fast-fashion retailers like Shein, she will scour the racks at Goodwill or Salvation Army.
With her established interest in making choices that are good for the planet and the purse, Kate started working towards the certificate in sustainable business in her second-year of college. She had discovered the Center’s many offerings, including the certificate, when she was researching where to go to college. The breadth of academic opportunities to focus on sustainability was, she says, “one of the big things that drew me to Tech.”
Kate says she has thoroughly enjoyed all of her courses that count towards the certificate – from Business Ethics to Business Decisions for Sustainability and Shared Value. The class in which she feels she made the biggest real-world impact was the Sustainable Business Consulting Practicum, which she took in Fall 2024. She credits the course, taught by Michael Oxman and Bob Lax, with giving her the experience of being hired as a consultant – with responsibilities ranging from site visits to weekly client meetings. “It was definitely a bit stressful at times, but it taught me a lot!” she says. She also learned how to pitch sustainability initiatives, which may have upfront expenses but can have powerful returns on investment over time. Matched with Drawdown Georgia Business Compact member Better Earth – a local B Corp that provides compostable packaging solutions and sustainability services to the foodservice industry – Kate’s team worked on a project tackling how to economically decarbonize one of the company’s largest product offerings.
In addition to giving her all in classes that count towards the certificate, Kate has also made it her mission to weave sustainability into other classes, as well. For instance, in the Strategy Consulting Practicum, taught by Anne Fuller, Kate pitched a project to her class focused on a nonprofit that has personal significance to her: Goodwill. She and her team worked with the vice president of sustainability on a waste reduction initiative related to unsuitable donations. When donations are made to Goodwill that are not a good fit for its stores, the nonprofit ships those items to be sold in tertiary markets in other countries. The team proposed recommendations that would encourage more high-quality donations, thus avoiding the need to ship waste to other countries. Kate calls Fuller “a role model” for being open-minded and encouraging throughout the Goodwill project. She also helped Kate and her classmates ponder the personal impact of work. “At the end of the semester, we were asked to write a reflection about how we think we will achieve happiness in our careers,” she recalls.
In June, Kate will be moving to New York to work for Ross, the nation’s largest off-price retail chain. She interned last year in their buying office, working on data related to planning and inventory demand. She says, “I want to apply everything I’ve learned to make a positive impact. We can’t lose sight of the fact that we also have a lot of sustainability opportunities in retail.”
“I’m really passionate about educating consumers to make thoughtful decisions,” Kate says. She has already had lots of practice by introducing her friends to websites like ThredUp, an online thrift store. “Little actions can add up to making a big change,” she reflects.
In her personal time, Kate is involved in her sorority, Alpha Delta Pi. She loves yoga, hiking, traveling, running, spending time with her friends, and being in the great outdoors. She was able to combine several of her interests on a recent trip to Joshua Tree National Park.
Kate feels grateful for her family’s support for her Georgia Tech journey. Her family has deep ties to the University of Georgia: her grandfather and grandmother taught there, her parents are alumni, and her brothers are currently enrolled as students. However, she says, “Seeing my excitement about Georgia Tech, they knew this was where I needed to be – so that made them happy.”
Written by Jennifer Holley Lux
Photos by Ben McDonald or courtesy of Kate Kleiber.
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