Jonah Smith - Vice President, Environmental Social Governance Strategy and Programs at IBM

Jonah Smith joined IBM in 2023 as Vice President, Environmental Social Governance Strategy and Programs.  In addition to leading global ESG strategy, goals, stakeholder engagement, reporting and governance, Jonah’s responsibilities also entail the development and implementation of environmental social innovation programs such as the IBM Sustainability Accelerator.  Prior to IBM, Jonah led ESG at Kraft Heinz as its Global Head of Environmental Social Governance & President of the Kraft Heinz Foundation.  Prior to Kraft Heinz Jonah held similar roles at Grainger and MillerCoors, has done stints in socially responsible investing, teaching sustainability at the university level, and served as the Sustainable Business Director at a non-profit, the Alliance for the Great Lakes.  Jonah’s career spans about two decades in sustainability, CSR/ESG.

Jonah holds an MBA in Sustainable Business from Pinchot University (formerly Bainbridge Graduate Institute).  In addition, Jonah holds a MS in Conservation Biology & Ecosystem Management, as well as a Graduate Certificate in Latin American & Caribbean Studies, and finally a BA in English Literature, all from the University of Michigan.  While in graduate school at what is now SEAS (formerly SNRE), Jonah’s 1.5 years Master’s opus researched and prescribed proper valuation of water resources and sustainability in Brazil.  

Jonah Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss:

• IBM’s study: Beyond Checking the Box
• Key characteristics of companies that effectively embed sustainability across the organization 
• Data useability as a key challenge to sustainable business value
• IBM’s Sustainability Accelerator Program
• Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals

Jonah’s Final Five Questions Responses:

What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? 

Figure out what your sweet spot is in terms of what's meaningful to you. What are your passions? What are you most passionate about? Really be honest with yourself about that. Don’t just look at what’s the biggest paycheck or whatever else it may be, but look at what you're most passionate about and what your day-to-day life will be like doing that work. We're all the most effective when we're doing things that are really meaningful to us, right? I love, love, love the work that I do. We're all gonna have challenges every day in our work, but if you really love and feel passionate about that work, it's easier to get over those challenges. Have an honest self-reflection with yourself on that. And then envision yourself how you're going to retire and build a pathway backwards from that retirement space. Talk to people who are in a similar role at a similar company that you'd like to be at, or a nonprofit, if it's a nonprofit or if it's with the government, whatever it may be. Do that networking. Then walk yourself all the way back and then take a stair step ladder in order to achieve what you just walked out of. 

What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? 

I'm really excited about the potential of AI to really help accelerate our ability to mitigate the impacts of climate change, both in terms of tracking, reporting it, as well as actually helping through initiatives like I just mentioned with our Sustainability Accelerator Program, for example. We're past the tipping point. The time is yesterday in terms of how we need to act on this stuff. We all need to do our part. So it really excites me. That's why I'm at IBM. It really excites me when I think about IBM's ability to really help the world achieve this. If everyone can get as excited as I am about that, and we start acting on that excitement, I think we will be in a much better space. 

What is one book you'd recommend Sustainability Leaders Read? 

If I had to just pick out one, I might go back to my roots a little bit on this one. The Ecology of Commerce by Paul Hawkin was a book when I was in grad school that was often referred to. There's so many different books we're always learning new things and it's always good to keep your finger on the pulse of whatever's going on and present time. But also sometimes it's good to look back at where we were. That book does a great job of making connections in a way that I think takes us back to the roots of our planet's ecosystem services, the connection between biodiversity and nature and ecosystem. I think it really would help build a foundation for folks to then really be able to apply with better intention in today's modern world, what's going on and all the impacts and where we need to get back to or where we need to go to. 

What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? 

Our IBM Envizi tool. It’s super powerful, super comprehensive. I wish I had it throughout my career at other companies that I've worked at as we struggled with data and on all sorts of different automating and definition parameters and transparency and scope, and being able to connect to different platforms and disclosure reporting and so forth. So I would say our Envizi software.

Where can our listeners go to learn more about you, Jonah, and the work being done at IBM? 

You could go to my LinkedIn profile, Jonah Smith. For IBM, it’s really simple: ibm.com/impact. There’s so much great information on our website. You can find our most recent impact report as well as previous impact reports. You can find ESG policies and links to other parts of our website if you want to do a deep dive into our environmental goals, or our upskilling and technology. IBM has goals to skill 30 million people by 2030. All of our different areas that we're operating in, that's a great initial place to scope it out.