Since ELGL is not a big fan of icebreakers and since we would rather not know what animal you want to be, this blog feature will serve as a means of introducing new members. While you won’t learn about their favorite animal, you will learn about their ideal Sunday morning, which dead people would they FaceTime with, and which song best describes their life.
For the second day we head to the City of Gresham to get the 4-1-1 from a new ELGL member, Dan Blue.
Dan Blue
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City of Gresham
Recycling and Solid Waste Division Manager
[email protected]
Most interesting project you’ve worked on in your current position:
Administering our City’s ARRA Energy Efficiency Conservation Block Grant funds to promote and provide Clean Energy Works residential home retrofits to 100 Gresham customers, to install a solar carport and LED lights in our City Hall parking, and to work on energy efficiency initiatives internally. Runner up… fully carting our residential solid waste collection system while reducing our collection rates (first time ever) and collapsing our rate table from 14 different residential rates down to 5.
What do you think about when you are driving to work/school?
“Crap, did I forget to pack the binky for my 9 month old again?” and “where are we going to send the region’s food waste for processing?”
Most recent concert you attended:
March 4th at the Crystal, family friendly show.
What sites are bookmarked on your internet browser?
Resource Recycling, Waste & Recycling News, EPA Standard Volume to Weight Conversion Factors, NPR, The Onion, Craigslist, Redfin.
Proudest career/school accomplishment:
A decade of sustaining 100% external funding for a PSU research and service unit specializing in waste reduction, recycling, and solid waste issues at a level that provided up to 5 graduate research assistants with almost livable wages and full tuition remission for their entire graduate programs, plus an additional 10-15 hourly wage positions. And, the KSA’s that they gained catapulted many into local government positions post-graduation.
What song best describes your life?
That’s too hard of a question!
Editor’s Note: This is what happens when you don’t answer the question.
Suggest two or three topics for the ELGL Annual Conference at the Kennedy School on October 4.
- Silo busting, strategies for successful cross departmental sustainability initiatives.
- Moving away from paper in the public sector (including the true costs of printing).
If you could FaceTime or Skype with three people either dead or alive, who would they be?
- My uncle James Barkley Blue who died young after a short but productive life making documentary films.
- Frederick Janss, my ancestor who first arrived in New Amsterdam via Brazil around 1651 and started the Dutch Blue lineage in the US
- DaVinci
Your work/school mentors:
Larry Foltz, the Urban League, taught me how to manage compassionately. Del Langbauer, Asian Studies/Religions Professor at University of Puget Sound, History of Indian Civilization was the best class ever and taught me how to fully appreciate the beautiful complexity of life and all that shakes out of the human condition.
Favorite thing to do on a Sunday morning:
Brunch with my family and friends… coffee and bacon.
(Fill in the blank) Government is…..
not what I thought it was before I actually started working for one directly 5 years ago (reality check in progress)
(Fill in the blank) ELGL is….
I’m still exploring this relationship, check back with me later.
Is there any question I should have asked you?
Where do you want to be in 10 years?
Development consulting in my field of expertise, internationally, back in Asia or maybe somewhere in South America.
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