Amy Costello
Nominated for: 30 Over 30 Award
Title: Product Stewardship and Sustainability Manager
Company: Armstrong Ceilings
Years in Profession: 11
Nominator: Evelyn Ritter, Senior Solutions Engineer, 3E, colleague of Amy.
Tell us why this person deserves recognition for making a difference in the practice of EHS & Sustainability management. (500 words max.)*
Amy Costello is a hard-working sustainability advocate in her professional and her personal life. She works both within Armstrong and throughout the industry to advance sustainability initiatives. She ensures that Armstrong World Industries is part of key organizations that advance the sustainability efforts, such as the UN Global Compact for sustainability, and ensures Armstrong is walking the walk by establishing an internal global sustainability committee. This committee makes sure that sustainability is being enacted in all areas of the business, not just by the sustainability department. •Amy has conducted over 12 life cycle assessments in the past year to better understand the materials and products that Armstrong World Industries uses. The results of these studies have been used make decisions and prioritize projects to drive carbon reductions. In addition, she ensures that Armstrong publishes a high-quality sustainability report to industry standards of both SASB and GRI to establish clear data for investors and stakeholders to use in decision making. Armstrong is committed to transparency not just in their sustainability metrics, but also in their product chemistry. They have over 45 published Declare labels. To create the Declare labels, Amy regularly reaches out to suppliers to collect transparency data, and if suppliers are unwilling to share the hazard data about their products, they are removed as a supplier. She also recently established a new digital process within her company’s existing system that allows ensures all new raw materials go through a full review process by R&D, Operations, Engineering and Purchasing. Not only does she improve Armstrong’s sustainability, but she works to ensure sustainability is being encouraged across the industry by participating in various committees, including the ASTM E60 sustainability committee, WELL Material Advisory and the LEED Consensus Committee. She has helped transform the Armstrong team to be able to achieve multiple sustainability awards, including the being recognized for their 2021 Sustainability Report and as the 4th most responsible capital goods company in America’s Most Responsible Companies. With all her extra time, she is the leader of her local Girl Scout Troop and helps local girls feel empowered and motivated to give back to their community.
Describe a situation or initiative where the nominee was directly responsible for a significant achievement and/or advancement in the practice of EHS & Sustainability management. Include metrics and KPIs if available. (500 words max.)*
Amy ensures that all suppliers meet the stringent expectations of the transparency and hazardous substances requirements set by Armstrong. In some cases, she has even told her purchasing department that they can’t work with a specific supplier because they didn’t meet the requirements set by Armstrong. Because she has set up a process to work with suppliers right at the beginning of purchasing, the purchasing department is also bought in when that specific suppliers shouldn’t be used if they don’t meet the requirements. This process helps Armstrong identifies potential risks within their supply chain early and save time and effort in supplier outreach to collect the data needed for the product stewardship and reporting needs. Leveraging understanding of relevant industry standards such as Declare, Amy and her team are determined to ask the right questions and educate their supply chain. This is so that Armstrong has sufficient and accurate data, while ensuring that their suppliers feel secured and comfortable in sharing their own product information. Following up on Armstrong’s chemical review process, Amy also worked closely with different departments in her company to streamline data storage on their end so that information collected from suppliers can be easily indexed and searched for when needed. Thanks to this comprehensive process, Armstrong has been able to create more than 40 Declare labels, in addition to other product transparency documents such as Health Product Declarations and Environmental Product Declarations. Under Amy’s leadership, Armstrong is full steam ahead to work toward their 2030 goals for healthy and circular products, namely: 100% products free of chemicals of concern, 100% products to have verified transparency, and 100% material sourcing activities assessed for social, ethical, and environmental performance.
In your opinion, what are the predominant skills and attributes that directly contribute to the nominee’s effectiveness and success? (500 words max.)*
Amy’s leadership skills and expertise in life cycle assessments (LCA) are two of the main drivers behind her successes. As the Product Stewardship and Sustainability Manager at Armstrong World Industries, Amy spearheaded the collaboration among multiple departments and manufacturing plants at Armstrong to improve and create documentation for their Chemical Review Process to eliminate duplication. This process enables data and supporting documents for different teams and plants under Armstrong to be harmonized under one system where they can easily be searchable. As a result, Amy’s teams can collaborate on supplier data collection and review of chemicals used in their products, which further supports Armstrong’s product management and transparency. Amy also utilizes her leadership skills in developing and implementing strategies to bring Armstrong closer to their emissions reduction targets, such as having 100% renewable electricity by 2030. Last but not least, Amy is the current chair of the ASTM E60 Sustainability Committee, coordinating more than 500 members and three technical subcommittees with a focus on supporting and promoting research and development of standards that are relevant to the different facets of sustainability, ranging from environmental to socioeconomic topics.
In addition to leadership skills, Amy’s expertise in life cycle assessments helps drive successes in her works with promoting product transparency. Amy earned her Life Cycle Assessment Certified Professional credential by ACLCA in 2008 and has been leveraging this skillset at her workplaces. In her first tenure at Armstrong World Industries between 2007 and 2012, as the Senior Research Scientist, Amy completed LCA and EPDs for all their key products. Throughout her career, Amy has remained consistent in her LCA-related work, creating EPDs, white papers, and other tools to support sales and corporate emission reduction initiatives. Since re-joining Armstrong World Industries in 2021, Amy has completed life cycle impact assessments for 10 products and prepared their corresponding Environmental Product Declarations (EPD). Amy even went as far as redoing the LCA of an existing product to make sure the product data was accurate, and that Armstrong can be confident in their product management and transparency.
Share the ways this nominee has positively influenced you, both personally and professionally. You may also include reflections and quotes from others including executives, direct reports, colleagues, suppliers, and clients. (500 words max.)*
Amy’s determination and passion for sustainability are contagious. As a part of Armstrong’s Chemical Review Process, Amy and her team reach out to their supply chain to collect confirmations around the chemicals used in their products and materials and their associated hazards and compliance information. Supply chain outreach could be challenging due to multiple factors such as technological limitations, lack of available data, or education around the data collection topics in questions. However, Amy is always excited and ready to learn about potential new tools to assist this process. Amy has been leading her team in using supply chain outreach software and educating suppliers to optimize the data collection process. In cases where suppliers are unresponsive or uncooperative, Amy and her team would come up with appropriate workarounds to incentivize data submission. For example, Armstrong has ceased business relationships with certain suppliers if they do not provide sufficient information. By taking these steps, Amy ensures that Armstrong has accurate data to promote transparency and can maintain their stance on safe use of chemicals throughout their value chain.
As Amy’s partner platform for data collection, we at 3E Toxnot are inspired by her resilience and drive for more transparency and efficient data sharing across the supply chain. We constantly gather feedback from our users and observe industry trends to explore further improvements within our platform and enable seamless data collection and review. Within Armstrong’s usage of our platform, Amy constantly seeks ways to further optimize her team’s activities in the system. Amy is always eager to learn and brainstorm with us different workflows that can help minimize duplication of data or enhance their data organization. Amy remains one of our valued customers who provide helpful suggestions for us as we strive to continue being a trusted resource for product data sharing and transparency.
Provide one or more examples of nominee’s commitment to environmental stewardship within their organization and/or the community. (500 words max.)*
Beyond her tireless work to reduce Armstrong’s environmental and sustainability impacts, Amy works within her local Lancaster community to encourage sustainability and community service. Amy has enthusiastically led Girl Scout Troop #70446 for over eight (8) years and her impacts are reflected in the development and lives of the ten 15–16-year girls who eagerly participate in meetings twice a month. Many of these girls have been in the troop since kindergarten and their impacts on the community are many. Amy has overseen numerous bronze and silver award projects which have led to the construction of little libraries, community picnic tables, a butterfly garden, and a hiking trail. In addition, Amy has helped coordinate field trips, take-action projects, and volunteer opportunities to educate and help girls become responsible citizens. They meet weekly for dinner and establish initiatives and projects. For example, they recently carried out a Take Action project to plant 100 trees in the local area. Amy is a clear EHS&S leader both within her Armstrong community and more broadly within her community.