The ClimateCAP summit for MBA students, now in its seventh year, prepares tomorrow’s business leaders to understand and respond to the climate challenge. This year’s conference, which focused on navigating tough conversations in the current landscape, was held April 17 & 18, 2026, at the MIT Sloan School of Management. The event brought together 380 MBA students from 47 different business schools. Scheller College of Business MBA students and staff who attended were welcomed into an energizing space for forward-looking conversations about the role of climate action in business. Kjersti Lukens, program manager at the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business and staff advisor for the Net Impact - MBA Chapter, noted, “Participants were pushed to move beyond surface-level dialogue and instead to engage with intention – both in speaking and listening. The keynote speakers consistently challenged students to reflect on their ‘why’ and to participate actively rather than passively absorb ideas. A central takeaway was that in a rapidly evolving and often uncertain landscape, a strong sense of purpose is essential.” Fourteen MBA students from Scheller’s Net Impact - MBA Chapter attended with support provided by the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business. In the testimonials that follow, students and staff reflect on their experiences at the summit.
Resilience, Purpose, and Actionable Strategies: Takeaways from the ClimateCAP Summit for MBAs
Scheller MBA students and staff attend ClimateCAP.
“Attending ClimateCAP equipped me with real-world, actionable strategies for driving sustainability forward in my post-MBA career. My biggest takeaway was a framework for systematically advancing sustainability within a company: decouple growth from emissions. When you can build a compelling business case for sustainability initiatives, executives have every reason to green-light them. Not every job description includes sustainability in the title, but each of us has a responsibility to think critically about it and to push our companies and governments to prioritize what is unquestionably the defining challenge of our lifetime.”
“From an educator’s perspective, the conference reinforced the importance of community. Bringing together more than 50 educators, ClimateCAP fostered a spirit of collaboration that felt both genuine and productive. Conversations were marked not by competition, but by a shared commitment to advancing climate education and supporting student growth. The opportunity to exchange ideas, compare approaches, and learn from peers facing similar challenges was invaluable. This collective energy serves as a reminder that progress in this field is strengthened through partnership, and that educators play a critical role in shaping not only knowledge, but also the resilience and purpose of the next generation of leaders.”
“ClimateCAP reminded me that sustainability is not about perfection but rather the consistent pursuit of progress. I particularly valued the session on financing the energy transition, which highlighted the role of private wealth and philanthropy in bridging the funding gap for new ventures. As I prepare to enter the private banking industry, I learned how private wealth is uniquely positioned to act as catalytic capital for a range of climate change mitigation, adaptation, and resilience solutions. I left the summit with a better understanding of the key role of my future career in supporting and scaling sustainability initiatives.”
“ClimateCAP was my first real exposure to sustainability in a business context, and it was an eye-opening experience. Many challenges, I discovered, are less about breakthrough innovation and more about infrastructure and decision-making. For example, clean energy transmission, rather than generation, is a key bottleneck in the U.S., which makes distributed generation an increasingly important solution. One of the most impactful parts of the experience for me was the wind turbine trek. Seeing the scale of the turbines firsthand and learning how companies simulate up to 20 years of usage within a single year through continuous stress testing was fascinating. Seeing how testing drives improvements in efficiency made the wind turbine technology feel much more tangible and impressive.”
“A highlight of ClimateCAP was visiting the Wind Technology Testing Center (WTTC) at Boston Harbor. Standing next to a 90-meter wind blade – roughly the length of a football field – you realize that sustainability isn’t just an abstract concept discussed in spreadsheets. It is a massive, industrial, and highly technical undertaking. Seeing the stress tests performed on these giants was a visceral reminder of the engineering and capital required to power our future. If this summit proved anything, it’s that the climate transition isn't a solo sport. It requires the collective brainpower of every school and every discipline. I left MIT not just with a notebook full of insights on capital market dynamics, but with a renewed sense of hope. When you see the sheer volume of talent and passion in this space, our uncertain environment starts to look less like a threat and more like the ultimate opportunity for our generation.”
Learn More: Giving to Scheller
Supporting Students: Philanthropic support for small grants (like the ones that supported MBA students' travel to ClimateCAP) makes it possible for Georgia Tech to recruit the brightest, most talented students from around our state and around the world. Support students today.