Meet Jerrod Bley, UNMC’s new sustainability manager

Jerrod Bley brings technical expertise and great passion to his role as the new sustainability manager at UNMC and Nebraska Medicine.

Bley holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in environmental studies, with minors in energy science and business. He earned a master’s degree in engineering management from Montana State University, as well as several renewable energy certifications. He has worked on energy conservation and efficiency initiatives, including installing units for grid-tied photovoltaic, off-grid solar, solar thermal and small wind projects.

Jerrod Bley

As a member of a Marine Corps engineering unit, Bley worked in numerous settings within the renewable energy sector. At the Montana Weatherization Training Center in Bozeman, he served as clean energy project manager and worked up to facility director. Through this work, he provided training and education in weatherization and building science as well as health and safety throughout the Intermountain Region.

Most recently, Bley was clean energy program director for the Adirondack North Country Association (ANCA) — a mission-driven economic development in the heart of the Adirondacks. Through the Adirondack Diversity Initiative, his team received the tools to design and develop programs framed by cultural consciousness and centered on racial equity. Those efforts aimed to support an economy that worked for all. Bley also was appointed to New York State’s climate justice working group, an advisory body to the climate action council.

Bley looks forward to contributing to UNMC’s campus goals to become carbon neutral and zero waste by 2030 and supporting efforts toward equitable access to multimodal transit and mobility. He is eager to expand his understanding of the socio-psychological underpinnings of sustainable behavior change.

“It’s exciting to challenge conventional thinking about how we can operationalize strategies that are both proof of concept and cutting edge to achieve our ambitious goals,” Bley said. “In my line of work, I’m humbled on a daily basis by the amount of effort and diligence that still remains to truly effect change at the societal level to achieve a meaningful and permanent paradigm shift with respect to a sustainable future.”

Bley loves spending time with his wife and two young children. He welcomes anything that brings him outdoors, including backpacking, bowhunting, paddling and fly-fishing. Bley is an avid fermenter and can be spotted reading Sandor Katz and perfecting his lacto-fermenting craft – anything from kimchi to sourdough.