Ethan Nelson

Fulcrum Fellows

2017 - 2018

Focus Area:
Climate
EthanNelson
City of Eugene
Intergovernmental Relations and Sustainability Manager
Eugene, Oregon

Ethan Nelson is the Intergovernmental Relations Manager for the City of Eugene, OR, managing local, state, and federal relationships with governmental and non-governmental entities. He also works on policy development, lobbying, and implementation for the city’s priorities. Prior to his current role, he spent seven years as the city’s Waste Prevention and Green Building Manager, where he led the development and implementation of a variety of community sustainability programs including: commercial composting, green building incentives, business conservation assistance, and a plastic bag ban. Ethan has served on many regional work groups, including as the Sustainability Chair for the 2012 and 2016 US Olympic Trials Track and Field and the 2014 IAAF World Junior Championships. Ethan served on the Oregon Global Warming Commission’s Subcommittee on Materials Management, instructed at the University of Oregon on land development, and is the past Chairman of the Board for the Council for Responsible Sport—an international sport event certification non-profit. Before joining the City of Eugene, Ethan worked as Planning Manager for a regional assisted living developer and spent eight years as the Director for the largest private youth conservation corps in the west. Ethan received two degrees from the University of Oregon—a BA in Political Science with honors in 1994 and a Master of Regional Planning in 2006, completing his research in community bio-energy systems at the University of Oslo, Norway.

During the Fellowship

Ethan focused on developing strategies to increase the effectiveness and social equity impacts of Eugene’s Community Climate and Energy Action Plan update, the main vehicle for implementing their Climate Recovery Ordinance, one of the most aggressive community based greenhouse gas reduction ordinances in the U.S., which has been slow to implement since its approval in 2014.