Kathleen Wight joined RMI in 2012 and leads External Engagement for RMI’s Climate Intelligence Program (CIP), working on solutions to reduce emissions in industrial and business value chains. Partnering with ambitious industry leaders and climate NGOs, CIP is creating market mechanisms to meet the growing demand for emissions transparency and low-carbon products and services. Kathleen guides and facilitates funding, advisory, and partnership opportunities with corporations and organizations interested in looking deeply into the data and insights necessary to inform business decisions around sustainability. RMI’s CIP focuses on supply chain emissions transparency and attribution, the development of standards for differentiated low-emissions products and services and aggregating and amplifying customer demand signals that can accelerate the flow of capital toward new technologies and low-emissions products and services.
Since 2019, Kathleen has led RMI’s Clean Skies for Tomorrow Demand Signal work, aimed at stimulating and scaling the production of sustainable aviation fuel as the most viable near-term solution for decarbonization of the aviation industry.
Prior to moving to the Climate Intelligence program, Kathleen was RMI’s Manager of Executive Operations and managed the operational aspects of RMI’s leadership team and its CEO office, ensuring efficient and effective team results. Previous to that role, Kathleen served as the Executive Assistant to the CEO at RMI.
BA, Political Science, University of Maine, Orono
Boulder, CO
Aviation is essential. It connects cultures. And prior to 2020, it supported over 65 million jobs, generating almost $3 trillion in global economic activity each year. But by 2050, if the industry returns to pre-2020 levels, aviation industry emissions could grow to 20 percent of the 1.5° C carbon budget.