Interview

Character Builder: Angela Costanzo

Director of Environmental Stewardship and Art & Design Faculty

Angela Costanzo’s abstract paintings reimagine the world and nature anew.

In 2019, inspired by her passion for the environment, Costanzo launched Riverdale’s formal sustainability efforts while continuing to teach art full time. Last year, she became the full-time Director of Environmental Stewardship. 

“Our students need the mindset to grapple with and to creatively think about solving environmental issues,” says Costanzo. “In the art room when things don’t go the right way, the question is, ‘How do I keep moving forward and not get stuck in that paralysis?’ It’s important that they learn that their current [environment] ideas have to change.” 

She works with Middle and Upper School students, advises faculty on weaving sustainability into coursework, collaborates with Lower School environmental educator Michael Schurr and partners with Jaimie Cloud of the Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education, to support faculty through curriculum coaching. But her true calling is helping students reimagine the School’s academics, facilities/operations, and culture pillars to drive change. “I want our students to dream big,” Costanzo says. “By integrating them into sustainability conversations, our students practice agency and learn to change things from within.” 

Last November, nearly 80 students sorted through a day’s worth of Riverdale trash during the 2025 annual 24-hour waste audit conducted by Think Zero. When Joel Grayson ’24, now at Stanford University, shared his passion for solar panels with Costanzo, she helped arrange an internship with one of the School’s energy consultants, and he created a proposal for a new large-scale solar initiative, which was then driven by the institution. Installation was completed in late 2025. 

Costanzo is excited about the Upper School Green Team’s student-initiated analysis of Riverdale’s scope one and two emissions (found on utility bills) and the harder-to-quantify scope three emissions from transportation, purchasing, and other systems data. “It’s not going to be perfect, but we need to start with small steps,” Costanzo adds. “Students learn perseverance, resilience, and doing the thing that’s going to allow us to thrive over time. That’s the definition of sustainability.”