From classroom to climate action: Journey to sustainability leadership

Abbey Schmitt ’24 Two-Year MBA Program has experience driving sustainability strategy and climate risk analysis across public equity, debt, venture capital and private equity. Her work in the sustainability field has shaped her leadership of the Kellogg Energy and Sustainability Club’s (KESC) 6th annual MBA Case Competition. The competition took place February 2024 and focused on integrating climate risks and opportunities in private investing. 

Here, Schmitt shares more about the internships and experiential learning opportunities she’s pursued to further her career ambitions to support a more sustainable future including her leadership role during this year’s competition. 

By Abbey Schmitt 

Before and during my MBA at Kellogg, I have deeply explored how sustainability can drive profitability and value creation, since making the business case for sustainability facilitates adoption. I arrived at Kellogg with seven years of work experience across wealth management, investing and sustainability consulting. At J.P. Morgan Private Bank, I advised ultra-high net worth executives on investing their personal wealth across asset classes and spearheaded sustainable investing education initiatives for financial advisors and clients. While at MSCI, I consulted for some of the largest asset and wealth managers nationally on integrating ESG Ratings, carbon data, climate risk and scenario analysis data, temperature alignment scores and impact data into investment strategy creation and reporting. 

I came to Kellogg to figure out my next steps in my sustainability career and boost my business acumen. I wanted to continue to explore my passion for driving profitability alongside sustainability by utilizing the plethora of experiential learning opportunities at Kellogg. Specifically, I took advantage of hands-on experiences in private investing and sustainability strategy creation. Kellogg has also been a perfect arena to explore my passion for driving more sustainable, better-for-you food and agriculture solutions.

Here are some ways I’ve applied the school’s experiential learning opportunities to grow my career in sustainability:  

Leveraging in-quarter and summer internships to expand my skill set and network 

I spearheaded efforts to incorporate sustainability from a financial return perspective and advance innovative sustainable agrifood solutions across three venture capital and private equity internships: 

1. Bluestein Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm transforming the food system: I developed an investment thesis on food waste prevention and sustainable packaging solutions and helped update the firm’s ESG and Impact Policy.  
2. Tilia, a private equity firm investing across the food supply chain: I partnered with portfolio companies to implement sustainability-driven process improvements, marketing, and product development. In addition, I created the firm’s first-ever framework to integrate climate risks and opportunities in the due diligence process and prepare for sustainable finance regulatory requirements.
3. Growth Catalyst Partners, a private equity firm investing in tech-enabled services businesses: I helped build novel business models and develop investment theses around supply chain transparency services.  

These internships were pivotal in providing me with real experience in addressing sustainability challenges and opportunities. I learned how to create strategies that can enhance the private investing process while also positioning portfolio companies and investment firms to be more climate resilient and improve their environmental impact.

Participating in case competitions to gain sustainable investing and strategy experience   

In my first year at Kellogg, I participated in three sustainability case competitions to supplement my classroom learning. During the MBA Impact Investing Network & Training Program (MIINT), my team and I sourced and did extensive due diligence on a regenerative agriculture and carbon markets startup called Carbon Yield. We ultimately pitched Carbon Yield to a panel of venture capital investors, competing with global business schools to help with the company’s pre-seed fundraise.

I also participated in the Kellogg Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge (KMSSIC) which invites MBA students from around the world to develop and pitch creative financial approaches to tackle pressing social and environmental challenges. My Kellogg team members and I created an innovative investment fund structure to bridge the gap between existing financing solutions and scale first-of-a-kind climate tech hardware solutions.

To explore ESG and biodiversity protection in public market investing, I participated in the Neuberger Berman ESG Investing Challenge. My team and I analyzed and performed financial analysis on a public wastewater management company, ultimately pitching the stock to Neuberger for potential investment.

Securing funding to pursue experiential learning opportunities — domestically and globally   

After exploring sustainable food and agriculture solutions through the MIINT competition and at Bluestein Ventures, I was excited to explore how to grow a business that combats global warming while improving human health through improved diets and increased access to healthy food. Specifically, I hypothesized that a winning startup solution would combine food waste measurement and prevention with taste and nutrition assessment and improvement. Simultaneously, this solution would also enhance profitability, transparency, and food quality across the supply chain.

I decided to explore starting a business at this nexus through the Levy Inspiration Grant program, which enabled me to travel to Norway and the Netherlands to meet with and learn from global sustainable investing and sustainable agrifood leaders. It was helpful to meet with startup founders, large corporations, investors, and government entities in this space to more deeply explore food waste and nutrition enhancement problems first-hand, validate my business idea, and build a global network of potential partners and customers.

To further examine sustainable food trends, connect with cutting-edge startups and network with CEOs of major North American food companies, I utilized Kellogg Social Impact funding to travel to Natural Products Expo West, a premier food industry conference. Expo West helped me to expand my network of peers passionate about scaling sustainable food products and connect with future internship and job contacts.

Leading the 6th annual Energy and Sustainability Club (KESC) Case Competition 

My work building a climate risk and opportunity integration process at Tilia inspired me to dive deeper into strategies for climate risk and opportunity integration in private investment due diligence for this year’s competition. While KESC’s competitions have historically focused on the energy sector, this year my team and I sought to focus on financial analysis to align with the MBA finance curriculum and analyze the food sector to engage on sustainability integration across sectors. 

The organizing team — which included me, Courtney Stobbie ’25 Two-Year MBA and Tanish Pratap ’24 One-Year MBA — crafted competition materials, secured corporate sponsors and judges, raised $10,000 in prize funds and marketed the competition to business schools. We drafted a confidential information memorandum (CIM) detailing a hypothetical food and agriculture company’s operations and strategy, crafted financials for analysis, built a financial model framework and created educational materials including sustainable investing trends and industry standards. Case competition sponsors and Kellogg faculty were excellent sounding boards as we crafted the case materials — in particular Professor Meghan Busse, Professor Dave Chen and Professor Jose Liberti.

The competition drew seven corporate partners across private equity, real asset investing, consulting, venture capital, accounting, and data firms as well as 125 MBA student participants from top schools globally including Kellogg, INSEAD, Cambridge, Wharton, Oxford, Ross, Fuqua, Booth, Haas, UNC and Columbia.

Competition participants performed due diligence and constructed an investment case as if they were presenting to a private investment firm investment committee. In addition to conducting fundamental financial analysis and diligence, contestants determined the most financially material climate risks and opportunities and linked them to financial model line items (e.g. revenue, cost of goods sold, SG&A). They also forecasted financials, performed a returns analysis, and presented their overall investment recommendation to our panel of judges. 

It was great to see the diversity of innovative frameworks students created to integrate climate into private investing since best practices are nascent and standards are evolving. I hope this competition encourages students to integrate this type of strategic and financial analysis of both fundamental and sustainability factors in their post-MBA careers. 

Over my two years at Kellogg, I thoroughly engaged across diverse, invaluable experiential learning opportunities that expanded my sustainable investing and strategy skillset and network while helping me refine my specific interests in the sustainability field. I’m excited to leverage these experiences to continue my sustainability leadership in my post-Kellogg career.  

Read next: How B-school shaped my climate journey