Carl Otto

Carl has a decade of experience in climate and sustainability, spanning multiple industries including ecological research science, federal climate policy, sustainable aviation, and financial services. He is currently a Corporate Sustainability & ESG Manager at American Express, where he oversees critical carbon accounting efforts and decarbonization strategies across AmEx’s global operations and business. His oversight of key environmental data enables annual ESG reporting activities, and progress monitoring towards the company’s goal of advancing climate solutions. Carl also manages the execution of decarbonization strategies across multiple lines of business, ensuring the alignment of climate initiatives across diverse global business units. 

His previous experience at JetBlue Airways included oversight of ESG reporting and implementation of sustainability and environmental health and safety strategies. He developed the airlines Sustainable Travel Partnership program granting corporate client’s access to sustainability insights on their travel data and sold the company’s first Sustainable Aviation Fuel certificate. He was also key in overseeing the growth of JetBlue’s ESG reporting program, carbon neutral certification, and development and implementation of a health and safety response during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Carl began his career at the Natural Resource Ecology Lab (NREL) at Colorado State University, working in a walk-in freezer or hunched behind a mass spectrometer studying Arctic soil samples. As a research assistant at NREL, he aided several studies observing the effects of climate change on the Artic carbon stock. It was through studying the problem, that Carl developed his passion for solving it, that drives him in his work today. 

Carl has his Bachelors Degree in Ecosystem Science and Sustainability from Colorado State University, and Master’s Degree in Sustainability Management from Columbia University