A Journey that Strengthened My Path Toward Climate and Sustainability Leadership

Insight: The journey through MIT’s CSO program has not only deepened my technical expertise in sustainability and climate strategy, but also challenged me to grow as a leader. Engaging with peers from around the world, exploring real-world sustainability problems, and co-creating solutions through collaborative learning allowed me to broaden my global perspective and strengthen my confidence as a changemaker. I leave this program with a renewed sense of purpose and the clarity that true sustainability leadership comes from action, systems thinking, and human connection.

Why I chose this program

When you work in sustainability long enough, you learn that technical knowledge is only one part of the equation. The bigger challenge, and the bigger opportunity, is leadership: aligning strategy with science, translating ambition into execution, and building the relationships that move systems.

That is why I chose the Blended Professional Certificate: Chief Sustainability Officer program at MIT. I was looking for three things. First, a truly global learning environment, where I could build an international network of peers shaping sustainability across industries, geographies, and roles. Second, a stronger strategic lens: not just “what is the right thing to do,” but “how do we make it real inside organizations with constraints, trade-offs, and competing priorities?” Third, a learning experience that would challenge my thinking, refine my leadership voice, and deepen my ability to design solutions that are both impactful and implementable.

From the very beginning, the program delivered on all three.

Overview of the courses: Five perspectives that expanded my toolkit

One of the strengths of this program is that it doesn’t treat sustainability as a single discipline.

Instead, it builds a multi-angle perspective across leadership, strategy, systems, measurement, and real-world application, so you can operate with confidence in complex decision environments.

1) Leadership and Innovation

This course was a reminder that sustainability leadership is not just about having the right answers; it is about creating the conditions for change. We explored what it means to lead through uncertainty, influence across functions, and build momentum when the path isn’t linear. For me, it reinforced that innovation isn’t always a breakthrough technology. Sometimes, it’s a new way of framing a problem, designing incentives, or unlocking collaboration.

2) Sustainability: Strategies and Opportunities for Industry

This module strengthened the strategic backbone of the program. It connected sustainability to competitive advantage, operational performance, stakeholder expectations, and long-term resilience. It also sharpened my ability to think in portfolio terms, where climate, nature, circularity, and social dimensions are not separate agendas, but interconnected drivers of risk and opportunity.

3) Circular Economy

Circular economy is often reduced to recycling. This course moved far beyond that. It challenged us to think in systems: product design, supply chains, reverse logistics, material flows, consumer behavior, and business models. I left with a clearer understanding of circularity as a strategic redesign of value, not an add-on initiative.

4) Sustainable Infrastructure Systems

This course grounded sustainability in the physical world: how infrastructure decisions shape emissions, resource use, equity, and resilience for decades. It reinforced something I’ve seen throughout my career. When we talk about transformation, we ultimately meet reality in infrastructure: energy systems, mobility, buildings, water, and industrial networks. Sustainable leadership requires the ability to navigate those systems with both technical rigor and long-term vision.

5) Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

LCA brought discipline to the question, “Where does impact really happen?” It strengthened my ability to quantify trade-offs, avoid unintended consequences, and communicate environmental performance with credibility. Beyond the methodology, it gave me a sharper decision-making lens, because in executive conversations, measurement is often what turns intention into accountability.

First Residential Week at MIT: Immersion, energy, and community

The first residential week felt like stepping into a place designed for problem-solving at scale. Being on MIT’s campus, surrounded by people who are curious, driven, and deeply committed to creating impact, was energizing in a way that’s hard to describe until you experience it.

That week was a powerful mix of workshops, masterclasses, and hands-on sessions that pushed us to connect ideas across disciplines. Just as valuable, though, were the conversations between sessions: learning how others were approaching similar challenges in different contexts, and realizing how much leadership growth happens in the space between formal learning through reflection, questions, and honest exchanges.

It was also the moment the cohort became real. The program was global, and that mattered. Over a short period of time, we moved from “professionals in the same room” to a community built on shared purpose, curiosity, and the understanding that sustainability leadership is a team sport.

Impact Project: AB InBev Chile Case

Throughout the year, the most transformative element for me was the impact project. My team worked on a real-world case with AB InBev Chile, an experience that made the learning tangible and challenged us to operate like sustainability leaders under real constraints.

The sustainability challenge

The case centered on the sustainability implications of evolving distribution and e-commerce logistics. Like many large companies, AB InBev was navigating the complexity of serving customers efficiently while managing environmental impacts across transportation, packaging, operations, and broader climate-related risks. The question wasn’t whether to act; it was how to design a solution that could be implemented, scaled, and measured.

Main analyses performed

Over the course of the program, we approached the case from multiple angles, integrating tools and frameworks from across the curriculum:

• Strategy: aligning sustainability with business priorities, implementation realities, and stakeholder expectations.

• Circular economy: identifying opportunities to reduce waste, redesign flows, and improve efficiency across the value chain.

• Climate risk: exploring how physical and transition risks could shape future operations and strategic decisions.

• Life Cycle Assessment (LCA): grounding the discussion in impact measurement and trade-offs, not assumptions.

  
  

Our proposed solution: a circular logistics model for e-commerce

Our proposal focused on a circular logistics model for e-commerce, designed to reduce environmental impact while improving operational efficiency. At its core, it aimed to optimize distribution in a way that could generate both environmental and economic value, because the solutions that last are the ones that can be sustained by the business itself.

Personal reflections: the learning behind the deliverable

This project shaped my mindset in a way that lectures alone never could. Technically, it strengthened my ability to integrate strategy, circularity, risk, and measurement into a cohesive storyline. The deeper learning, however, was leadership-based: managing ambiguity, aligning a team across different perspectives, and building a solution that was credible, structured, and actionable.

It also reminded me of something essential. Sustainability leadership is not about presenting perfect solutions; it is about making progress visible, measurable, and scalable, while bringing people with you.

Second Residential Week and Graduation: from analysis to pitch

The second residential week was the culmination of everything: learning, teamwork, iteration, and growth. By then, our team had lived with the case for months. We had debated assumptions, tested ideas, refined our logic, and shaped our recommendations into a narrative that could stand up to executive scrutiny.

Presenting the final pitch was a defining moment, not because it was the end, but because it required us to step fully into the role the program is designed to develop: thinking like CSOs, clear, grounded, strategic, and action-oriented.

Then came the closing ceremony, an emotional and proud moment. Graduation wasn’t just a milestone; it was a reminder that leadership is built through experiences that stretch you. I left with deep gratitude for the faculty, the environment, and especially the people in the cohort who made the journey richer.

What I carry forward

This program strengthened something I already believed, and made it more actionable: sustainability leadership is where strategy meets systems, and where ambition becomes execution. It is the ability to design solutions that are measurable and scalable, to engage stakeholders with clarity, and to keep the human dimension at the center of transformation.

Today, I carry this experience into my work with renewed confidence and sharper tools: a stronger leadership lens, a more integrated approach to climate and sustainability strategy, and a global network that continues to inspire how I think about impact.

If you’re a sustainability professional, a leader navigating transformation, or an organization looking for strategic sustainability leadership grounded in real-world delivery, I’d love to connect. I’m always open to conversations with people and teams aligned with sustainability, innovation, and meaningful impact.