Summit energizes hundreds of MBA students to lead climate innovation

A total of 500 attendees, including 359 MBA students from 43 schools, brought infectious energy and fresh perspectives to Berkeley Haas last week, learning from each other and industry experts at the 2025 ClimateCAP Summit.

Students dove into the complexities of slowing climate change with optimism and determination. “You represent the next generation of climate leaders,” Interim Dean Jennifer Chatman told the group during her keynote. “In fact, our collective future is in your capable and ingenious hands.”

Launched at Duke Fuqua in 2016, the ClimateCAP Initiative includes the ClimateCap Fellowship Program, a virtual learning series, and the annual ClimateCAP Summit, held at a different business school each year. This year’s ClimateCAP theme was “Leading with Resilience.”

Sessions covered topics ranging from food to climate science to energy to finance to environmental justice and policy, with panelists from companies including GM, Meta, PG&E, Franklin Templeton, Once Upon a Farm, GoodEggs, hyperlocal air quality mapping platform Aclima, and many more. Students also networked and participated in class sessions with Haas faculty.

Urvi Parekh, MBA 09, head of global energy for Meta Global Platforms, spoke on a panel on the Energy Transformation with Carla Peterman, executive vice president and chief sustainability officer of PG&E, and Ana Martinez, cofounder at Xploration Partners and associate director of Cleantech to Market (C2M) at Haas.

Parekh, who discussed the diversification challenges that accompany Meta’s growing energy needs, advised students to figure out what they do well and apply it to climate. “You should realize that the number of MBAs and the number of people who are going to be needed in this sector is immense and even if every single one of you and you brought a friend along it would still not be enough.”

Amy Chan, Berkeley Haas chief sustainability officer, called out the incredible attention to detail that went into the summit, including keepsake name badges designed by student artist Kelcey Christen and made from cardboard and recycled bottles, plant-based meals served with compostable or reusable utensils, containers, and cups; and the donations of leftover prepared food to Dorothy Day House.

Among the MBA student attendees were Chidera Osuji, Esa Tilija, and John Wells, all MBA 26 and all named 2025 ClimateCAP Fellows. They joined a cohort of 16 ClimateCAP Fellows from across the country. In addition to access to various workshops and networking events, each fellow receives a $3,000 stipend. As a ClimateCAP Fellow, Osuji said she was looking forward to being part of a community of people who share similar interests and goals.

Ian Moor, a first-year student in the inaugural class of students in the dual MBA/Master of Climate Solutions degree program with Haas and the Rausser College of Natural Resources, shared scenes from throughout the day on Instagram. Among his highlights were Plant Futures founder Samantha Derrick’s comments on the the pros of eating a plant-based diet, and General Motors’ Sustainability Communications Director Chris Gaither’s advice to students: “If you love this work, let people know….People want to be around people who love what they do.”

Berkeley lecturer and City of Berkeley Poet Laureate Aya de Leon received a wave of applause for a climate poem she wrote for the summit called “Alchemy.” The powerful poem urged students to fight for what they know is right “in an economic context where all humans can prosper.”

“Market-driven solutions are preoccupied with the appearance of alternatives, but they get implemented because they’ll make money and they’ll make money because they utilize existing infrastructure and get green-lighted because they don’t interrupt the rich and powerful making themselves richer and more powerful,” she said. “So the very thing that turns them into money makers is the thing that makes them fail to address the climate crisis at scale and my challenge to you is to interrupt that cycle to do the thing that generations of business people have refused to do: put the greater good before your financial interests.”

The conference closed with a sunset reception at Cal Memorial Stadium. 

Chan called the two days of ClimateCAP an incredible experience. “Let’s take this energy forward and continue to push for real, meaningful change,” Chan wrote on her LinkedIn page.