Finding a true north in climate leadership

The Kellogg Climate Conference brings together more than 300 attendees to spark conversations around sustainability, energy and the climate economy. Centered on ideas at the intersection of business and climate action, this year’s theme was True North: Navigating Climate Leadership in a Time of Transition.  

Dylan Goodwin ’26 MBA and Nick Laning ’27 Two-Year MBA, two conference student organizers, and Shubha Ganesan ’26 MBA, a conference attendee, share how the experience has influenced their thinking on climate leadership, career paths and the ever-evolving role of business in driving climate action.  

What inspired the theme, and in what ways did being in direct contact with leaders in the climate space further define your career outlook? 

Goodwin: As Erica Ng ’25 MBA and I worked on the theme a year ago, we wanted to make sure that it reflected the current context that business leaders are facing. Many companies are reassessing their net zero goals and 2030 climate targets, as the U.S. government steps back from climate initiatives while other countries continue to press ahead. So, we wanted to know climate leaders’ guiding principles — their Truth North — across industries and what is keeping their companies on track to climate progress despite the shifting landscape.   

Throughout the process of talking with leaders in the climate space, the themes that continued to emerge were that climate work is hard but that it is worth doing. It requires the ability to bridge gaps and understand how to connect with people. The passion, perseverance and insight of these leaders have only inspired me more, confirming my passion for pursuing a career in sustainability. 

The Climate Conference is entirely student-led — which means passion walks hand-in-hand with your daily responsibilities as an MBA student. Can you share a moment when the stakes felt real — beyond “just an extracurricular” and into a formative leadership steppingstone? 

Laning: While networking to find speakers for my panel on voluntary carbon markets (VCMs), I had a fascinating conversation about a reporter who had written multiple articles bashing VCMs before visiting a carbon credit project. During that visit, he realized that even though the project wasn’t perfect, it was bringing critical jobs and income to the underprivileged community it was built in, and his attitude towards VCMs completely shifted. That story not only opened my eyes to real-world significance of my panel’s topic but taught me the broader lesson that it is critical to understand the nuances of a situation before passing judgement — just because something is flawed doesn’t mean it isn’t creating real value.  

Across panels, from decarbonization to climate finance, the conference highlights how climate work is no longer a niche of interest but a core business imperative. After engaging with this year’s speakers and conversations, what feels most urgent to you personally? And how has your Kellogg experience equipped you to better understand and address that? 

Ganesan: One theme that resonated with me is the importance of making sustainability actionable, not just aspirational, as Rohini Sengupta, director of decarbonization at United shared, “Transformation is a series of transitions.” It was energizing to hear leaders discuss how to navigate these transitions in practice: by scaling existing solutions, investing in new technologies and building cross-functional collaboration to ensure that sustainability strategy is in lockstep with business strategy.  

I am grateful that the classes I’ve taken at Kellogg, from core operations to marketing and strategy electives and experiential courses, have given me the chance to expand my business toolkit and learn how to apply it to complex sustainability and impact-focused challenges. 

Dylan, as one of this year’s conference co-chairs, what did this experience teach you about mobilizing people around climate work?  

Goodwin: To sum it up in one word: authenticity. When you see someone fully commit to a cause — ready to jump in to help with any task no matter how small while bringing their own unique passion to a team every day — it becomes almost impossible not to do the same. The Climate Conference team this year was full of special people that emanated authenticity and exuberance. Putting a conference together takes a lot of time and energy, but with a team that brings enthusiasm as well as support for one another it very rarely feels like work. 

Shubha, given your background in innovation strategy and sustainability-focused roles, what was one of the most impactful moments or conversations from the conference for you?  

Ganesan: I appreciated hearing Beth Hart, chief sustainability and social impact officer at McDonald’s, and Erin Augustine, vice president of global sustainability at Oatly, share how they approach sustainable innovation. As someone with an innovation background, it was helpful to understand how major companies are working to embed sustainability across their products without compromising the consumer experience or product value.  

I especially appreciated Hart and Augustine’s candor around the need for organizations to meet consumers and markets where they are. Sustainability on its own may not always be enough to justify paying a premium, but taking a thoughtful, design-led approach can drive business value, make sustainable choices easier and more accessible — ultimately helping scale new solutions.  

Nick, as a former athlete with an engineering background, you have an efficiency-driven mindset. You likely think a lot about what makes solutions scalable. Through your involvement with this conference, what did you learn from speakers or other partners that challenged your assumptions about what it takes to move from idea to lasting impact? 

Laning: A moment in Hart’s fireside chat really stuck with me. She was talking about how her team had been trying to get McDonald’s to source more of its energy from renewable sources but had been largely unsuccessful. It was only after they incorporated their findings into the overall energy strategy rather than standalone recommendations that they finally got traction. I often think that big ideas can be most impactful when they stand out and capture stakeholders’ attention, but her example showed me that sometimes the best way to get people to accept change is to couch it in familiarity. 

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The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Kellogg School of Management or Northwestern University.