Home > Grassroots > Faces > Erica Langenbahn

Erica Langenbahn

Columbia, South Carolina
Membership Chair
John Bachman Group

On its release in the summer of 2006, An Inconvenient Truth did surprisingly well in red states. Some credit for that should go to Erica Langenbahn, who urged her younger brother to see the film, and he liked it. So did her mother, her sister, her sister's boyfriend, and a friend of her brother.

Langenbahn works hard to engage people in environmental issues. To keep members involved and attract new ones, she helps organize Sierra Club & Beer get-togethers and has started a Sierra Club & Bowling program. "I wish more people would get involved," she says. "Either enjoying outings or contributing whatever special talents they have to help the Club and the environment." She joined the Club in the spring of 2006; six months later, she was on the group excom. Now she's group membership chair, outings chair, newsletter editor, and the chapter's vice-chair for membership.

Langenbahn works as a field chemist with hazardous chemical waste, and wants to get a master’s in environmental science and a juris doctorate in environmental law; her goal is to reduce what goes into landfills and promote better chemical recovery and recycling. She's even gotten her office to recycle, pointing out, "We take care of chemical waste, why don't we recycle?"

She believes the Club can educate people in many ways, such as taking them on hikes into forests that might be sold off for development. "Open their eyes," she says, "If you can get that education out there, then hopefully we have a better chance." Langenbahn is still working on her father. While they are both Republicans, she says her father is "hard-core" and likes Rush Limbaugh. "I try to say little tiny things to make him think." For years, when changing the oil in their cars, her father dumped the oil right onto the ground. But after some convincing, he now takes the oil to a recycling center.

Published: January 22, 2007