Kevin Sani

“There’s a very timely focus on technology as a solution to climate change, but I would also love to see more thought around how business can help solve the intractable challenges we need to confront as a society in an inclusive, sustainable, and just way.”

Kevin Sani (MBA 2022) grew up with an awareness of how food gets from field to table. His parents, both from poor farming families, emigrated to the United States from the rural Kisii area of Kenya, where the rhythms of planting, cultivating, and harvesting were an inextricable part of daily life. Sani was born in Jersey City, New Jersey and attended high school in North Plainfield, with a majority-minority student body from lower-income, working class families. “Those factors do color my own lens when I think about climate-related issues,” says Sani. “How do we ensure that communities of color are included in the jobs that will be created from the transition to clean energy—especially when you consider that those same communities have a disproportionate proximity to heavily polluting industries?”

At HBS, Sani has served as his section’s Student Sustainability Associate (SSA), acting as a conduit between the School’s sustainability efforts and the student body at large, in addition to advocating for climate change and sustainability issues. For his SSA project, Sani and two fellow SSAs organized a campaign to raise awareness of issues relating to environmental justice. “There’s a very timely focus on technology as a solution to climate change,” he says, “but I would also love to see more thought around how business can help solve the intractable challenges we need to confront as a society in an inclusive, sustainable, and just way. How can we broaden our perspective to think more holistically about social justice and climate change as something that is happening right now, with some of the most severe effects of anthropogenic climate change already becoming a reality in countries close to the equator?”

For those just beginning their MBA journey, Sani counsels prospective students to be intentional with their time: “HBS has so many resources and so many extracurricular activities, from the Energy & Environment Club to the Food, Agriculture, & Water Club,” he says. “Limit what you do so you can go a little bit deeper. And talk to as many second years as you can—they’ve been through the experience, to some extent, and can give you some good advice.”

Sani, who studied chemistry and economics as an undergrad at Harvard, has a long-term interest in technologies being developed to stem climate change and the role the private sector can play in commercializing those technologies, particularly for issues that disproportionately impact poor people. Before returning to Bain, where he worked as a consultant before coming to HBS, Sani will spend the summer at Mori, a startup that uses a patented, silk-based technology to create a natural protective layer for food, slowing down spoilage and reducing waste.

“I’m excited to work with this company because food systems affect all of us,” says Sani. “As the global population continues to grow and the amount of arable land shrinks, we’ll need to do much more with our current permaculture systems, in addition to improving our efficiency overall when it comes to food.” In the future, Sani says he will continue to advocate for diverse hiring practices in the clean tech industry. “The transition to greener energy and developments in climate technology overall will bring increased capital flows—and with those capital flows come jobs,” he observes. “It’s important for industry leaders to think carefully about where those jobs will go to ensure that disadvantaged communities can participate in the economic upside stemming from a green revolution.”