BEMIDJI — As BSU’s first and only Sustainability Director, Erika Bailey-Johnson is just as dedicated to the environment at home as she is at work.

Sustainability does not end at work for Bailey-Johnson. For her, every day is Earth Day as she incorporates a healthy lifestyle in her home life, as well.

“We garden, we can, we hunt deer. A lot of our food is coming from local (areas). We also harvest wild rice,” she said. Bailey-Johnson has one of the only electric cars in Bemidji, a Nissan Leaf she has had for more than a year.

“We have things connected to power strips so we really turn it off like cell phone chargers and that kind of thing,” she said. “We turn off everything when we’re done with it.”

Bailey-Johnson was recently named to Midwest Energy News’ 40 Under 40 list, which highlights “emerging leaders throughout the region and their work to accelerate America’s transition to a clean energy economy,” according to the website.

From a young age, Bailey-Johnson had a passion for plants and animals. Her classmates in high school thought she would be a veterinarian because of her “way with animals and plants,” she said. As a child she was “always out in the ditches saving tadpoles.” After obtaining a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Minnesota-Morris, Bailey-Johnson and her husband taught students in Kuwait. It was then she realized her passion for the environment and decided to go back to school for a master’s degree in environmental studies at BSU. When “the sustainability director position became available and I thought that would be really awesome because I get to do all these things for all the year,” Bailey-Johnson said. “I love what I do and I love coming to work every day; every day is different. Every day is a unique experience of working with people and projects and trying to help out Mother Earth.”

In addition to turning off lights, unplugging cell phone chargers, and not wasting food, Bailey-Johnson and her husband strive to teach their two sons the value of conservation.

“We make sure that we teach them the habits that they will have for a long time,” she said. “For us, I think a big connection with our family is our traditional Ojibwe and Anishinaabe roots. It’s thinking about the earth first with everything you do and having gratitude. That’s a message we really try to instill in our kids, to be grateful.”

There are very few chemicals used in the Bailey-Johnson household. They prefer baking soda and vinegar to harsh bleach products. “Our family is pretty much ‘localvores’: we aren’t vegetarians but all the meat we eat is our own,” said Bailey-Johnson. “It’s all venison; my dad had buffalo; we had pheasant for a while. We hunt grouse (and) we fish.”

For information on some local Earth Day activities held Friday in Bemidji, click here. 

Pioneering change

BSU was one of the first schools in Minnesota to have a sustainability position, along with the University of Minnesota-Morris and Macalester College.

“We all work on trying to conserve resources and trying to educate people on being better to the earth, better to each other, thinking about economics,” she said. “At BSU, we have one kind of unique component to our sustainability values, called a wellness piece. We not only think about other people, economics and the earth, but we also think about ourselves.” An example, she said, is biking: it does not pollute, it saves money, it is fun to do with other people but it is good for the body as well.

BSU now gets one-quarter of its electricity through wind power. A large-scale solar project is also being investigated and a feasibility study on a biomass project — burning wood waste for heat — has been completed. In 2008, BSU signed the American College & Universities Presidents’ Climate Commitment along with about 700 other schools in the U.S.

“All of us commit to being carbon-neutral and we define our date and we define how we’re going to get there,” Bailey-Johnson said. “We have decided to try and reach that goal by 2050.”

There were interim goals set as well: a 2 percent reduction by 2015, however, BSU actually reduced by 3 percent. The next goal is to reduce carbon usage by 10 percent by 2020.

“When it comes to energy use…most of our infrastructure is based on fossil fuels,” Bailey-Johnson said.  “We know (with) fossil fuels as we use them, there is less of them so we have to think of something else for the future. The sooner we do that, the better because they’re really polluting.”

Making an impact

Bailey-Johnson advises starting small for those who are looking to live a more sustainable life.

“Just finally saying ‘I’m going to do this’ can make that happen and over time you’ll find other things are easy to change,” she said. “The message I always share with students is every little thing you do makes a difference.”

There has been a shift in the cultural norms around sustainability, Bailey-Johnson said.

“We have to make the conscious choice and culturally, it’s not such a fringe, crazy hippie kind of thing. Now it’s like, you’re not cool if you don’t do this stuff.”

While some people may still feel like their efforts are not making a difference, Bailey-Johnson disagrees.

“Everything we do impacts the earth in some way, positively or negatively,” she said. “There’s definitely still a feeling of ‘the little bit of what I do doesn’t matter’ but I think a lot of people realize that we all have to start somewhere and start with ourselves. It has to start with you.”