Written by Shona Simkin
Like any new journey, starting as an MBA student at Harvard Business School (HBS) can be daunting. An unfamiliar campus. My classmates came from different backgrounds, careers, and cities around the world. A completely new pedagogy. Adjustment may take some time. This year, there are new and early opportunities to engage with meaningful topics and find community. Business and Climate Change is an HBS online course offered to all new and returning students during the summer, with tuition fully subsidized by the Business and Environment Initiative (BEI).
Created by Professors Mike Toffel and Forrest Reinhardt, the five-week self-paced online class covers science, economics, policy, and aspects of climate change mitigation and adaptation from a business perspective.
A total of 53 students enrolled in courses over the summer, approximately two-thirds of whom were in the new Required Curriculum (RC). In September, BEI hosted a dinner for online students to celebrate the completion of their courses, and Dean Srikant Datar also attended and gave remarks. We spoke to three students about their journey to HBS, how they aim to make a difference in the fight against climate change, and their experiences in the classroom.
Kwon Ik-seon (MBA 2026)
Born and raised in South Korea, Iksun Kwon joined a high-tech manufacturing company as an account manager right after graduating from university. After several years in supply chain management, she moved to building strategic deals, primarily investing in the company’s infrastructure to reduce carbon emissions. As one of the company’s largest customers, Kwon wanted to show customers he was serious about mitigating climate change, so he worked with engineers, lawyers, employees and carbon experts to , negotiated a contract that both companies were satisfied with. But she realized that the company could create even bigger changes across the industry if it started that change within itself.
“We thought if we could pitch these changes to our suppliers and customers, we could really amplify our impact. We also thought we could build a good brand image for the company,” Kwon said. “I was just starting to surface and wanted to become more of an expert, so I wanted to learn more about this field if I had the chance.”
Attending HBS and coming to the United States for the first time was a chance for Kwon to challenge himself and expand his worldview while gaining knowledge and experience that he could bring back to Korean business. She found the HBS online course to be a valuable introduction to both the field and HBS pedagogy.
“I come from a culture without cold calls or case methods, and even though this course was online, it really captured the feel of HBS’s teaching style. If I hadn’t done it, I would have been really surprised in the classroom.” said Kwon. “We all know that climate change and carbon emissions are important, but we don’t often have the opportunity to learn more about it, so this was a really good starting point for me. I started from the bottom of my heart, but I feel like my horizons and scope of work have expanded.”
Vasu Purohit (MBA 2026)
Vasu Purohit’s desire to work in the clean energy sector stems from his childhood in a multi-generational household in a tier-2 city in India. Unable to afford liquid petroleum, his grandmother cooked meals on a stove that burned cow dung. At the age of 18, he pursued petroleum engineering through a more traditional technical route, and after graduation he worked for a major oil company to gain experience in the field and improve access to resource-starved communities. I joined a gas company.
“Over the past few years, I have found myself working to support communities that won’t exist in decades if we don’t change the way we do things now,” Purohit said. . “We realized that this is not a one-dimensional problem. Energy access is one-dimensional, but clean energy is something we need to pivot to.”
To solve this dual problem of energy access and climate change, Purohit enrolled at HBS to gain an operational strategy lens with the finance, public policy and other skills needed to make an impact at scale. has been expanded. The Business and Climate Change course was a natural fit.
“I came to HBS to interact with people pursuing different avenues in clean energy, including private equity, starting their own ventures, and strategic roles,” Purohit said. “As I want to continue this work as a career in the long term, this is a great opportunity for me to review certain concepts and learn new ones, especially in the US and around the world, as my experience has been largely limited to India. I thought it would be a good start to understand the situation and I felt this was the right platform to find out what this course and the Business and Environment Initiative has to offer.”
Jack Senft (MBA 2026)
Jack Senft, who served as a helicopter pilot and flight officer in the U.S. Army for eight years, witnessed extreme climate change during his 2022 deployment to Iraq. Witnessing unprecedented heat, drought, power outages, and pollution sparked his belief in making a difference. Armed with his HBS MBA, Senft left the Army with the goal of greening the aviation industry. He credits the business and climate change course as a bridge to HBS, where he built an important foundation of knowledge and a community of classmates with similar career goals. One month into the class, he is excited to see that he is already using key concepts in many case discussions.
“There was a financial case about whether homeowners should invest in solar panels. And I understood the background of this course and realized that it’s not just about saving energy costs, it’s about helping others and the community. It also provides subsidies for future solar power expansion.” It was really interesting to get that deeper level of perspective and be able to apply it,” Senft said.
Mr. Senft hopes to balance his experience with a focus on the business and financial aspects of climate change and work for a start-up company involved in clean mobility solutions.
“I think the airline industry is ripe for growth,” he said. “The aviation community took 66 years from the Wright brothers to the moon landing, and it hasn’t evolved much since then. As we mark the 66th anniversary of the moon landing, there’s not much I can say about it. I truly believe that aviation is the future, and the next step is to make it fairer, more accessible, cleaner, and benefit society as a whole, and that’s what really excites me. It’s not easy, but I think with the right people and the right motivation, it’s possible.”
Why business and climate change?
Toffel reflected on why he and Reinhardt worked with the HBS Online team for several years to create the course. “Our aim has always been to help a wide range of individuals, whether they are current executives, MBA or undergraduate students, budding entrepreneurs, or potential career changers, understand how climate change impacts business in different sectors around the world. We wanted to better understand how businesses are adapting to the physical changes brought on by climate change, from more severe droughts to heatwaves and rising sea levels. , and focused on how companies are pursuing opportunities to decarbonize their products, operations and supply chains.”
“At HBS, I have the great opportunity to speak with many executives, scientists, and policy experts, and this course allows me to share their stories,” added Reinhardt.
For BEI Director Lynn Schenk, the course is about how climate change can be incorporated into case discussions and how climate change will impact businesses around the world during their careers. It was an important opportunity to support understanding of “We are pleased that all first-year sections include students who will take this course and help spread their knowledge to their classmates.”
Want to learn more about business and climate change at HBS? HBS online business and climate change courses are available to HBS students, including the HBS Climate Rising podcast hosted by Toffel, the student-run climate symposium on November 2, and other HBS It’s the latest addition to a growing number of related services that are also available to people outside of the world. Online courses such as Sustainable Investing developed by Professor Sean Cole and Professor Vikram Gandhi, Sustainable Business Strategies developed by Professor Rebecca Henderson, Business and Environment Initiatives Blog, and BiGS Fix by the Global Social Business Institute.
