Meet our awesome team member, Kenny Vu!
Kenny has been with ACTenviro for almost 3 years and is responsible for the waste program at a Facebook site in Redmond, Washington. His role encompasses investigating tools and determining waste applicability solutions for how to manage waste properly, managing waste at the facility, and transporting it offsite for treatment and disposal. He works full-time on-site with a team of six other ACTenviro employees to service and support Facebook’s waste management efforts for the company’s environmental compliance program.
Where are you from/where do you live?
I was born in Los Angeles, California, but I’ve spent the past 22 years up in the Seattle area, so I call it home.
Why did you join ACTenviro?
I was working at another environmental company prior to joining ACTenviro, and someone I had worked with there had joined ACTenviro and recruited me to come to the company. I got a sense ACTenviro was a company that took notice of its individual employees, and I really appreciated that. I also heard the CEO, Tim Smith, is very involved with projects and really hands on, and that was something pretty unheard of — I’ve never been at a company where the CEO was that involved on what I’ll call the ground floor.
Once I was here for a couple of months, I really came to appreciate the level of respect and autonomy I was provided to perform my job functions. That’s something that doesn’t happen everywhere — where there is true trust between management, where I’m in a position that my skills can be utilized to perform the job as I best see fit. That’s the difference I’ve definitely noticed with this company.
What’s the best thing about working at ACTenviro?
The manner in which I’m allowed to execute my roles and responsibilities. I appreciate that others are trusting of me, and they acknowledge my skill sets, and they allow me to do what I think is best. I don’t feel like I have a lot of restrictions to manage my team, and I find that very refreshing and very invigorating, because it’s almost like the sky’s the limit. I get tremendous support from management, but also support from the folks I work with day-to-day. It’s truly something special.
What do you like best about your day-to-day job?
Working with my team, my personnel. I really enjoy that we’re all working together to be the best versions of ourselves, however we can get to that point. I find it very challenging and very rewarding when we can get to a point where we can look back six months, 12 months, and say, “Wow, we did this together.”
I really enjoy personnel management and personnel development. Thankfully, I’m in an environment, both from the client side and from the ACTenviro side, where I’m able to focus on that, and that’s something I look forward to every day.
What’s the most unusual thing you’ve encountered on the job?
Nothing quite surprises me nowadays!
What does “sustainability” mean to you?
Sustainability to me is the ability for an individual, organization or party to keep trucking along in a manner that is beneficial to them and making changes to ensure we’re successful in the future in whatever manner.
What’s your favorite activity when you’re not working?
I enjoy taking my car to the racetrack. There are these track days, and I’ll take my car, prep it and run around the track and drive fast. That’s what I like to do.
What’s your favorite food?
I’m very passionate about tortillas, so anything in a tortilla — tortilla-based cuisine.
If you could go on vacation anywhere in the world, where would you go?
Australia is on my top-three bucket list right now. I love the warmth and the sun. Australia has plenty of beaches and a lot of great reef work — I’m really into snorkeling. They also have the Outback, and I enjoy that desert scene of just hiking in places that are very desolate, and I think Australia offers a lot of that.
What’s your passion?
Besides the tortilla-based cuisine, I just like tinkering with things. I tinker with my car, with electronics. I’m into general tech stuff. That carries over to tinkering with work, and I’m constantly looking to improve things. I look at all aspects of what I can tinker with in that department. I never kind of sit back and say, “This is done. I don’t need to do anything more with this.” I’m always messing around with things. Tinkering is what I call it.
Thank you for sharing more about you with us, Kenny! We appreciate you being on our team!
Join the team!
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