Joe Beckmann

Consultant to the Somerville Schools, Hispanic Office of Planning & Evaluation, My-Turn, and other agencies

I live blue™ because…
I’m cheap and appreciate the efficiency of doing many things with a few simple changes. Among those things are saving lots of time and money by avoiding capital intensive projects, most of which are also energy intensive and cash intensive. Much done with less work is my motto.

Why do you care about the environment?
I always appreciate getting much done with few steps, few resources, and little time, and think we spend entirely too much money and energy (in all its forms) generating work when we ought to generate the freedom work should provide. I like that “efficiency” in politics, economics, and daily living: build friends like we build neighborhoods.

How has your environment affected your career/education decisions?
These old cities – like Somerville – have a density that can’t be matched. They require that we acknowledge and accommodate people very unlike us, and they reward that accommodation with friends as varied as the world can make. That is glorious. My career – in education – is to make that happen more, more easily, for more people, in more places.

What are some things you do in your life to protect the environment?
Reuse as much as we can as long as we can, and then put it gently to rest while it recovers: Whether that’s blue, green or a house, a car, a train, or a fish.

See Joe’s plot of ocean here.