Tag Archives: national

Genesis of The National Environmental Professional

When I started my first environmental professional job in the late 90s, I had never met or even heard of anyone else who did this kind of work. I routinely thought to myself, “Who else works in this field?” From my vantage point at the time I figured environmental companies were either activists groups or engineering firms looking for new avenues of work. That was often the case. I wished there was a publication where I could learn about the people in the field and their work, beyond my small circle of coworkers and associates. There were groups and associations, but even the national ones were regionalized unless you could go to the conferences. Since then, the size and number of organizations has grown and the environmental community is more connected, but there is still room to learn about the people doing the work.

I’ve continued to work in this field; living the environmental professional lifestyle. This has included working for 6 different environmental companies as well as 3-other non-environmental, science positions. (Ah, the life of a consultant/contractor.) I’ve seen the good and bad, the interesting and the boring, and the science and art of the work and lifestyle.

With this website I have created what I was looking for years ago. It’s not just a place for someone starting out to learn about the field. It’s for all environmental professionals interested in the lifestyle outside of their desk, office, or job site across the nation. Lastly, it’s also for me. I am curious to meet all the interesting people doing great work. I hope to see you soon.

Welcome to The National Environmental Professional

Welcome to The National Environmental Professional, a site dedicated to highlighting the people, projects, and places that make up the environmental professional lifestyle.

The “environmental professional lifestyle”? What does that mean?

We are all asked what we do for a living from time to time, usually by new acquaintances. If you’re a teacher or a doctor or a photographer, everyone has an idea of what you do. They probably also have an idea of your lifestyle. For an environmental professional, it’s not always an easy answer. I’ve had several colleagues tell me stories about trying to answer that question without boring or confusing people. The answers I’ve given include environment consultant, environment scientist, environmental, health & safety instructor, and more. And even those don’t mean much to someone outside the field. My favorite answer is to say I’m an environmental Winston Wolf. (If you don’t know The Wolf, it’s worth your time to look him up. See: Fiction, Pulp).

Even within the environmental field, saying consultant isn’t specific enough. Are you a RCRA- or DOT-ologist, a hydrogeologist, a researcher developing green technologies, a natural resource manager, a sustainability manager, an activist, a lawyer? Are you starting to see why I’m creating a place to tell our stories? Although there is no one clear definition of an environmental professional, we’ve all made a career in the environmental field a part of our life. Just as those who are journalists see the world through journalistic-eyes, environmental professionals see the world and live their life with their own tinted eyes, which incidentally are not always “green.”

I hope to introduce you the interesting people I’ve met and plan to meet, open your eyes to some amazing work, and share some great stories. This will span the nation because although we all have a home office and/or a region, so many people I’ve met have spread their expertise across the country. I myself have covered 49 states. Who knows? Maybe this will give me an opportunity to see #50.