In 2018, the Kingston youth transit model Dan helped build received national recognition at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities Sustainable Communities Conference — earning the Sustainable Communities Award in Transportation and the inaugural Inspire Award, selected by live delegate vote. He went on to co-develop a national guidebook with FCM sharing Kingston's approach with communities across Canada.

Over six years as Faculty Advisor for Enactus at St. Lawrence College, Dan helped students transform early-stage social innovation ideas into confident, community-facing work. He supported script development, presentation preparation, and travel logistics for regional and national competitions — and was named a John Dobson Enactus Fellow in 2016.

For several years, Dan helped organize Kingston Unplugged — an annual Earth Hour event that went beyond turning off the lights. A live concert powered entirely by solar and wind energy ran behind a darkened City Hall, drawing hundreds of community members and making sustainability visible, engaging, and worth celebrating.

For nearly a decade, Dan served as a Disaster Management Volunteer with the Canadian Red Cross in Kingston — supporting individuals and families in the first hours after a fire or emergency displaced them from home. He contributed over 300 volunteer hours and took on a supervisory role, including during the 2013 Princess Street fire.

For several years, Dan helped coordinate Kingston's Commuter Challenge — running the initiative both internally across City staff and externally through community partnerships. Kingston consistently performed well, demonstrating how clear communication and municipal leadership can shift commuting culture when the right support is in place.

E-waste, batteries, and textiles don't belong in the regular waste stream — but without a clear and accessible alternative, they often end up there. Dan supported the planning and delivery of community waste diversion drives in Loyalist Township, coordinating partners, communications, and logistics to give residents a practical path forward.

Tree planting is one of the most tangible things a community can do for its long-term climate resilience — but access matters. Dan supported Loyalist Township's Community Tree Initiative, coordinating grant funding, wholesale purchasing, and cross-departmental logistics to make tree planting affordable and straightforward for residents.

For more than a decade, Dan worked as a community host and producer with YourTV Kingston — writing scripts, building storyboards, appearing on air, and translating local climate and sustainability stories into accessible community television. His work earned a YourTV Star Award and included a 30-minute documentary on the circular economy.

In 2020, with in-person gatherings off the table, Dan helped coordinate and host a virtual climate emergency discussion with author and activist Seth Klein for Kingston Frontenac Public Library — keeping community climate dialogue alive when it mattered most, and drawing over 100 participants online.

Representing the Limestone District School Board on a City of Kingston Working Group on Climate Action, Dan worked alongside representatives from across the city's public institutions to develop a coordinated approach — and presented the group's findings directly to Kingston City Council.

When a community member wanted to bring the national Butterflyway movement to Loyalist Township, Dan helped turn the idea into a visible, public pollinator garden — coordinating across municipal departments to make it happen on public land and connect it to the Township's broader climate action goals.

Serving on the Board of Directors of the Kingston Community Credit Union is one of the ways Dan contributes to governance structures that put community values first. This role reflects his ongoing interest in cooperative models as a viable, values-driven alternative within the financial sector.

When Dan arrived, the Innovation Hub at St. Lawrence College was four walls and a mandate. Over five years, it became a campus-wide platform for social innovation -- hosting student-led programs, community partnerships, and experiential learning initiatives that extended well beyond the college's walls.

A group of elementary students in Odessa identified a local park that could be better. With coordination across the school, a community organization, and multiple municipal departments, their sketches became a real, built outcome -- a Reading Garden that still stands today.

In 2012, a question about whether students actually knew how to ride the bus sparked a program. Today that program is a national model that has grown ridership from 28,000 to 600,000 annual trips -- and inspired communities across Canada to rethink how they invest in the next generation of transit riders.

It All Be Rather than assuming residents would reduce food waste with the right tool, this pilot put countertop food waste units into 200 homes across two rounds, collected real data, and let the community's own experience shape what came next. It was climate action designed around listening first.

For five years, Lake Ontario Park became a living classroom where Indigenous elders, conservation scientists, university researchers, and community organizations taught students what water means and why protecting it matters. Over 1,000 students participated before the pandemic brought the festival to a pause.