Catherine Chertudi, environmental programs manager, Boise City Public Works Department

Catherine Chertudi says she’s lucky to be doing what she’s always wanted to do.

“I always knew that I wanted to work in helping protect and conserve and be a steward of the environment,” she says.

She started at age 12, volunteering at a recycling center in her hometown of Caldwell, and today, she oversees all the environmental efforts for the Boise Public Works Department. Chertudi manages the solid waste program, serving 73,000 households, and Curb It, the city’s curbside recycling and trash collection program. She is also proud of the household hazardous waste program, which was a small, once-yearly event when she came to the public works department and is now a year-round program, diverting more than 25 million pounds of hazardous waste in Ada County.

“When I drive down the streets of Boise and I see that we don’t have litter, I see people recycling, see the hazardous waste truck picking up thousands of waste products, it makes me feel good,” Chertudi says. “I know we’re making a difference.”

Another large project Chertudi is excited about is the cleanup of contaminated soil at the Esther Simplot Park site. When construction on the park began in April 2015, workers discovered contaminants in 130,000 yards of soil that needed to be excavated and tested. It’s been quite an ordeal, Chertudi says: the biggest dump truck available could only haul 20 yards of soil each trip to the testing site.

“It went on for weeks,” Chertudi says with a laugh. “But the park is going to be phenomenal.”

Chertudi grew up in a family who “lived to be outdoors.” Her father was the director of tourism for the state, so they spent significant time camping, hiking and fishing. Chertudi even learned to ice-skate on an Idaho lake. Her love of the Idaho outdoors is partly what inspires her teaching, as well. Chertudi helped develop the Idaho Water Awareness Week program, which teaches 8,000 elementary-age students across Idaho about the importance of water, and she regularly teaches classes on water, trash and recycling, and hazardous waste in local high schools and at Boise State University. She says she is “blown away” by how motivated today’s students are.

“I love giving back and promoting education,” Chertudi says. “I love seeing students connect with math, science and technology and how important protecting and conserving the environment is in their lives.”

Since 1990, Chertudi has also judged high school speech and interview competitions for the Idaho Academic Decathlon, something she became interested in when her daughter joined the program.

Just as she did when she was young, Chertudi says the first thing she does when she goes home at night is to go outside. As her son and daughter grew up, she coached both of them in soccer, and she and her husband, Jim, still enjoy gardening and hiking together. Jim is an assistant vice president at Washington Federal.

Professionally, Chertudi’s future goals include increasing opportunities for reducing waste and recycling in Boise. Her work, she hopes, will ensure that Boise is “truly a sustainable community.”