Adam Costanza

Location

Headquarters – Cary, NC

Background

Adam has worked in the forest products industry for over 18 years. During his more than five years at International Paper, Adam held three corporate-level positions, where his priorities included sustainability and climate reporting, environmental regulations, and stakeholder dialogue. Adam then served the Institute of Forest Biosciences (IFB) as President for 11 years and launched large-scale efforts to improve the quality and productivity of the world’s forests. He has been a proud member of the Sustainable Manufacturing and Climate group at NCASI since 2018 – a perfect fit, since Adam especially enjoys greenhouse gas minimization efforts, improving the sustainability of working forests, and optimizing societal benefit from the use of renewable forest products.

Qualifications

• Master of Environmental Management: Resource Economics & Policy, Duke University (Durham, NC)
• Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering: Energy & Environment, University of Rochester (Rochester, NY)
• FAA-licensed UAS Commercial Operator in the U.S.
• Microsoft certifications in Python Programming and SQL Server

Research capabilities and/or focus areas

• Greenhouse gas accounting (i.e. GHG Protocol)
• Sustainability metrics and reporting
• Distilling and communicating complexity

Awards and Career Highlights

• Leading the Forest Health Initiative in sequencing the Chinese chestnut genome, develop a blight-resistant biotech American chestnut, and getting it regulated and planted.
• Served on the Board of two international non-profit organizations.