ADAM DAVIS is a co-founder and Managing Partner at EIP, and is involved in all aspects of the business, from investor relations to project implementation and customer satisfaction. Over the past 35 years, he has worked in various roles that help to align business interests with environmental outcomes, and he is particularly interested in new types of public-private partnerships that support ecological restoration. He believes that practical experience and policy support each other, and strives to help environmental laws and regulations achieve their intended outcomes.

Adam developed his expertise in aligning economic incentives with environmental outcomes in the recycling and composting business, and worked for the world’s largest solid waste and recycling company during the 1990’s. His experience structuring contracts to reward environmental performance there led to involvement with ecosystem services, and how to get real people in real places paid for the protection and restoration of the natural systems that provide those services.

Adam and his wife Sara live in San Rafael, California. Adam has a BA in Africana Studies from Cornell University. He has served on the Board of the national industry trade association, the Ecological Restoration Business Association (ERBA), and helped to create the new California affiliate, CalERBA.

Q&A with Adam Davis

Tell us about your path to EIP. What interested you about this work?

I grew up in Baltimore in the 1960’s. My mother was a nature photographer who introduced me and my brother to the splendor and scale of America on a road trip in 1971. We drove some 7,000 miles and camped for an entire summer in a 1963 Buick station wagon (with no A/C and two dogs). My first job in the environmental field was with a composting company where I gained firsthand experience in using business to improve the environment.

What excites you about EIP’s impact in the world?

By developing a model that delivers a fair ROI for institutional investors through environmental restoration activity, we are creating more capacity to help solve important regional and environmental problems. The model can be really powerful anywhere, because when the incentives are aligned right, the more good we can do—and the better our investors do. Today we have the capacity to do some really good work, and I think this kind of capacity will be even more important as the effects of climate change become more evident in the coming years.