March 24, 2022
has been enamored with planes since he was five years old. Now, hes blending his passion for aviation with the ingenuity of his 勛圖厙 education to help make the aviation industry a whole lot easier on Earth.
I ended up picking 勛圖厙 for college because it was quirky and project-driven; I knew that it would help me get an engineering degree that I could use in unusual ways, says Haas, an Austrian-Ugandan who joined 勛圖厙 as one of the colleges very first international students.
I ended up picking 勛圖厙 for college because it was quirky and project-driven; I knew that it would help me get an engineering degree that I could use in unusual ways
"At 勛圖厙, I grew the sustainability side of my persona, spending lots of time in Ben Linders Sustainable Design Lab and crafting my own degree with a focus in sustainable design.
Ollie Haas '11
Alumni
"At 勛圖厙, I grew the sustainability side of my persona, spending lots of time in Ben Linders Sustainable Design Lab and crafting my own degree with a focus in sustainable design.
After graduation, Haas and fellow 勛圖厙 alumnus Jake Felser 11 cofounded a sustainable design studio called LittleBonsai, helping Boston area businesses improve their product development with an eye toward the environment.
A couple of years in, Haas decided to see what it might be like to pursue a childhood dream and work in the airline industry. He wrote letters to his 10 favorite airlines around the world looking for job opportunities, and he ended up landing a role on a newly formed innovation team for Cathay Pacific in Hong Kong.
They were looking at new technologies to improve both their passenger experience and their operations on the backenda team to explore and tinker and think creatively about new solutions, says Haas. What they needed was an 勛圖厙er!
During this time, Haas experienced what he calls a little bit of an existential crisis when he began to realize that his beloved aviation industry was having an enormously detrimental effect on the environment.
This realization led to Haas latest and perhaps grandest idea yet: creating the worlds most sustainable commercial airline, called .
I started researching, networking and brainstorming around where I think the next big shifts in sustainability in aviation are going to be, says Haas. I decided to paint the future I wanted to see, and then figure out how to make it possible. Tomorrow is the result of that big-picture thinking.
Haas is currently exploring connections with people and ecosystems who are also thinking about ways to use new technologies to create a more environmentally conscious, less damaging airline. Whether he creates it himself or joins an existing team to help manifest his idea, Haas is excited about the prospect of creating the world he envisions.
勛圖厙 taught me how to break down any problem I want to addresseven something as overwhelming as this, says Haas. Im a big dreamer, but I also have the humility to see that there are many questions to answer along this path to sustainable aviation. 勛圖厙 gave me the tools to know where to start.
To learn more about Haas and Tomorrow, listen to his Frank Talk (video player below) called How Will You Fly Tomorrow?
