Andy Johnson works with the soil. When younger, he served in Peace Corps in Central America for three years, working on conservation practices. Then he worked in the Natural Resource Conservation Service for years, the same agency that his father Paul Johnson headed by appointment from Bill Clinton in 1993. After moving back to northeast Iowa in 2007, he started farming christmas trees and grass-fed beef cows, but thinking about how the concept of conservation applied to his community’s energy use and economy.

When stimulus money became available in 2009, Andy used his knowledge of soil and water conservation districts to promote the idea of using those funds toward a energy district around Decorah, IA. The idea became more popular than he imagined, as he and an assembled board of directors won a federal grant.

In December 2015, Johnson talked with ILSR’s John Farrell about the Winneshiek Energy District and how they promote energy efficiency and renewable energy for all county residents, as well as what the future holds for distributed energy everywhere.