Dive Brief:
- The Science Based Targets initiative announced Monday that it has appointed sustainability executive McKenna Smith to lead SBTi Services, a subsidiary which assesses and validates science-based climate targets set by corporations and financial institutions.
- Smith will become SBTi Services’ managing director, after serving as its interim managing director, according to a May 11 post from SBTi. She was tapped to be the deputy director of the target validation unit in December.
- Smith originally joined the standard-setting organization in 2021 as a target analyst, according to her LinkedIn profile. SBTi said Smith has “played a key role in strengthening the Services function, supporting its growth and helping to enhance the experience of companies and stakeholders engaging with the SBTi.”
Dive Insight:
While serving as deputy director of SBTi Services, Smith oversaw strategy and the technical delivery of target validation, with a goal to accelerate the pace of global decarbonizations. During her tenure as deputy, she processed a large volume of corporate science-based climate targets annually, helping scale SBTi’s target validation pipeline, according to the organization’s website.
“[Smith] combines deep technical carbon expertise with strong operational delivery and strategic leadership — a combination that has been central to the transformation of Services in recent years,” SBTi said Monday. “As SBTi continues to scale its work with companies globally, McKenna’s leadership will be instrumental in strengthening and evolving Services for the future.”
Prior to joining the standard-setter, and in between stints at SBTi, Smith held several sustainability-focused roles. These include working as a carbon auditor at global climate consultancy The Carbon Trust and serving as a sustainability consultant at environmental consultancy Beyond Green, per her LinkedIn profile. Additionally, she was in charge of overseeing and validating science-based targets of the World Wide Fund — in line with SBTi criteria — during the three years she spent at the wildlife conservation and environmental protection organization.
SBTi said Smith has overseen and approved over 9,000 corporate and financial institution greenhouse gas inventories and targets in her leadership capacity at the standard-setter.
