Turning Sustainability Expertise Into Strategic Impact: A CBS MBA Journey

Author: Caroline Flibbert, Copenhagen Business School

When U.S. national Caroline Flibbert began exploring MBA programmes, she wasn’t looking to leave her career in sustainability behind. She was looking for a way to deepen her impact. 

After earning her degree in environmental biology from Georgetown University, Caroline Flibbert took on a role as a sustainability consultant specialising in circularity and zero-waste initiatives. She built a career exactly where she wanted to be, at the intersection of science and business. But as Caroline advanced professionally, she began to recognise a gap in her skill set. 

“It became clear to me that, to continue to progress in my career, I needed to learn marketing, economics and finance. All topics I was already using, but I had never had the formal training in. So an MBA really made sense.” 

TO LEARN AND TO TRAVEL 

At the same time, Caroline was looking beyond the United States. “I studied abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2019, so I lived there for about five months. I really enjoyed that time. I felt very safe and very welcome. It seemed like a wonderful place, with a nice work-life balance, and one I could really see myself living in for the future. I talked about it with my partner, and we thought, yeah, that sounds like a good area. So I incorporated it into my MBA search.” 

And as she evaluated programmes across Europe, Copenhagen Business School (CBS) quickly emerged as a strong contender. 

GOVERNANCE, SUSTAINABILITY, LEADERSHIP… AND FAMILY 

Several factors drew her to the Full-Time MBA programme at CBS. Its focus on governance and sustainability closely aligned with her professional interests. Caroline was “at a point in my career where I wanted to focus more heavily on developing myself as a future leader” – and CBS’s Leadership Discovery Process offered a structured opportunity to do so. But there was also something more personal. 

“The deciding factor was actually the accompanying family member visa for my partner,” she says. “This is something that’s not offered in other countries, and it made the world of difference, enabling me to take the next step in my career and in our lives as a full family unit.” 

Having her support system alongside her throughout the year made the transition to life in Denmark significantly easier and, she believes, helped her return to the workforce after graduation. 

A WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE 

Once on the programme, Caroline found herself surrounded by classmates with a wide range of experiences and perspectives. At 25, she was the youngest in her cohort, which she saw as an advantage rather than a challenge. 

“It was a wonderful experience because I got to learn from a lot of my colleagues and a lot of my peers,” she says. “I’ve made a lot of my closest friends through that programme.” 

The international nature of the cohort also proved particularly valuable. 

“I think they were another main highlight of the programme,” she says. “It’s a lot of bright people, many of whom generally want to make a positive impact in the world. It has been incredibly rewarding to have not only a support system of intelligent, well-versed folks around you throughout the year, but also a group of people who will be your friends for life.” 

LESSONS THAT LAST 

Alongside the relationships she built, several aspects of the curriculum left a lasting impression. “Professor Julia Bodner’s class in strategic human resource management really taught me to think about personal and team incentive structures and organisational set-up in a very cool and unique way,” she says. “I feel my mind was really broadened in that class.” 

While classroom learning was important, one of the most formative experiences came outside it. 

During her MBA, Caroline completed an internship with Ramboll Management Consulting, working within the firm’s sustainability and ESG team. The experience gave her her first opportunity to work within the Danish business environment and helped bridge the gap between study and employment. 

“I really felt that during that period, wow, I’m so glad I did this programme,” she says. “That first hands-on experience in the Danish job market is invaluable. It teaches you so much, not just about Danish working life, but also how you yourself would work in those cultural conditions post-grad. You cannot teach that. You have to experience it for yourself.” 

A FULFILLING CAREER 

Today, Caroline works at Unconventional Ventures, a Copenhagen-based impact-investment firm that backs pre-seed and seed-stage companies led by underrepresented founders. The role allows her to continue working at the intersection of business and sustainability while exposing her to a new side of the business world. 

“I’m quite lucky,” she says. “I’ve found a role that not only fulfils me, allows me to progress in my career, and helps me learn new and interesting skills within a field I believe strongly in, which is impact. And because this role touches on so many different aspects of the fund’s daily operations, from communications to marketing to reporting to portfolio management, I do find myself using insights from almost all the MBA classes. Marketing, accounting, economics, governance and sustainability, strategy, innovation – I would say all of this shows up almost daily – and I can read cap tables and understand accounting deliverables in a way I could not before.” 

NEW HORIZONS, MORE OPPORTUNITIES 

Looking back, Caroline believes the programme arrived at the right moment in her career. 

Before enrolling at CBS, she expected to continue progressing along a relatively specialised sustainability consulting path. Instead, the Full-Time MBA broadened her horizons and opened doors she had not previously considered. 

“I was very much in a niche career and on a path to continue it,” she says. “The MBA allowed me to apply for a much broader range of positions and actually pivot more successfully.” 

Today? “I would honestly love to continue working at the intersection of business and sustainability,” she says. “That’s what I set out to do when I joined this programme, and I’m very happy to be continuing to do so.” The difference is that she now has many more ways to do it. 

Find out more about Copenhagen Business School on our dedicated school profile