She worked for 25 years in private sector horticulture before joining the public sector. Her first business was trying to xeriscape in a region that had no clue what that meant and it failed hard, the same kind of contracting business I want to start on the side. While driving we both awkwardly danced around how much we both hate the specific lawns and ornamental beds we maintain for the same reasons. We both have the same biocentric waterwise landscaping philosophy.
I can just openly be an Eco-Marxist, openly call for the guillotining of the golfers we're surrounded by, and it's just whatever because everyone there intuitively gets it. Only good job I've ever had. 
Glad you've found a place that doesn't make you want to tear your hair out. That's rare these days.
I tear my hair out daily but over the things worth fixing and the processes inhibiting that. Removing the profit motive does so much for making workplaces collaborative toward those common goals. For all the pay cut you take in the public sector it feels human.
edit: like our conflicts today were the bureaucratic obstacles to making a demonstration garden based around handicap accessibility, but we both agree about handicap accessibility and would love to make our spaces as inclusive as possible. The most radical things the Americans with Disabilities Act lawyers suggest are the ones we'll both happily incorporate and expand on. That's Star Trek shit.
It really does make a huge difference. I think I've worked in exactly one place like that, and it was great. So much easier to just get shit done.
Especially with the natural sciences, I feel like a demon working for private companies. I'm poisoning everyone around that customer to make them feel some pathological need for control, enclosing the commons for a company to greenwash their destruction, or making some beautiful green space I can't visit the moment I get off work. When I take my dog to the parks I tend, I'm picking weeds because I'm proud of the things that get to enrich my community. That's the whole thing my degree avoided teaching.