His research contributes to ecological economic theory and applied work on human health, sustainable development, land and biodiversity conservation, watershed planning, forest management,
climate change economics, and renewable energy. This work has been published in 6 books, over 70 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, and over 100 conference papers, research reports, and press articles. He is also Adjunct Professor at the
University of Iceland, was a
Fulbright Scholar at the
Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania,[2] and has been a visiting professor at the
Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra in the Dominican Republic and the
University of Agriculture in Nitra, Slovakia. He is past president of the U.S. Society for Ecological Economics and the Adirondack Research Consortium; past editor of the Adirondack Journal of Environmental Studies; has served on boards of the
International Society for Ecological Economics and Conservation and Research Foundation; was a member of the Technical Advisory Committee of the
Lake Champlain Basin Program and the Vermont Governor's Council on Energy and the Environment.[3]
Erickson is also a social entrepreneur, starting and incorporating a number of non-governmental organizations and working intently at the science to policy interface. He co-founded Bright Blue EcoMedia with documentary film producer Victor Guadagno and author Amy Siedl, the non-profit media company that produced the two-time New England Emmy-award-winning Bloom film series.[4][5] Bloom is a four-part
PBS series on the causes and solutions to water pollution and
eutrophication in America's rivers and lakes, narrated by Academy award-winning actor
Chris Cooper, and including interviews with environmental scholars
Bill McKibben,
Maude Barlow and
John Todd.[6] His latest film collaboration was writing and directing
Waking the Sleeping Giant with
Jacob Smith, an award-winning, feature-length documentary on the 2016 presidential campaign of
Senator Bernie Sanders.[7] He also co-founded the HIV/AIDS prevention education program Futbol para la Vida with Yanlico Munesi Dusdal in the Dominican Republic (DR), modeled after the international
Grassroot Soccer program and now with programs for at-risk youth throughout the DR and Haiti managed by the Dominican DREAM Project.[8] In Vermont policy development, his collaboration on the first state-level
Genuine Progress Indicator[9] led to a 2012 law to initiate the use of GPI in state policy and budget analysis,[10] and his crowd-sourced media project with Bright Blue led to the Vermont legislature's declaration of March 21, 2012, as Vermont Energy Independence Day.[11][12]
Costanza, R., Erickson, J.D., Farley, J. and I. Kubiszewski (Eds.), Sustainable Wellbeing Futures: a Research and Action Agenda for Ecological Economics, 26 chs., Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK, 2020.
Porter, W.F., Erickson, J.D. and
R.S. Whaley (Eds.), The Great Experiment in Conservation: Voices from the Adirondacks, Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, NY, 2009.[13][14][15]
Erickson, J.D. and J.M. Gowdy (Eds.), Frontiers in Ecological Economic Theory and Application, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK, 2007.[16][17]
Erickson, J.D., Messner, F. and I. Ring (Eds.), Ecological Economics of Sustainable Watershed Management, Elsevier, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 2007.
Farley, J., Erickson, J.D. and
H.E. Daly, Ecological Economics: a Workbook for Problem-Based Learning, Island Press, Washington, D.C., 2005.[18]
Executive Producer, The Resilient Ones, Broadcast Premiere on
Mountain Lake PBS, May 15, 2014.
Producer, Vermont Energy Independence Day, Broadcast Premiere on
Mountain Lake PBS, April 25, 2013.
Producer / Executive Producer, Lake Defenders, Broadcast Premiere on
Mountain Lake PBS, October 18, 2012.[21]
Executive Producer, Bloom PBS film series:
Bloom: the Plight of Lake Champlain, Broadcast Premiere on
Mountain Lake PBS, December 2, 2010.[22][23]
Bloom: the Emergence of Ecological Design, Broadcast Premiere on
Mountain Lake PBS, February 29, 2012.
Bloom: the Agricultural Renaissance, Broadcast Premiere on
Mountain Lake PBS, February 29, 2012.[24]
Bloom: a New Reverence for Water, Broadcast Premiere on
Mountain Lake PBS, February 29, 2012.
Executive Producer, Transparent Radiation: Rethinking the Future of Nuclear Power, Premiere at the Vermont International Film Festival, October 22, 2011.[25]
^Costanza, Erickson; et al. (2004). "Estimates of the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) for Vermont, Chittenden County, and Burlington, from 1950 to 2000". Ecological Economics. 51 (1–2): 139–155.
doi:
10.1016/j.ecolecon.2004.04.009.
^Donahue, Brian (2010). "Book Review: The Great Experiment in Conservation - Voices from the Adirondack Park". BioScience. 60 (6): 471–473.
doi:
10.1525/bio.2010.60.6.13.
S2CID198158050.
^Radzicki, Michael J. (Fall 2009). "Book Review: Frontiers in Ecological Economic Theory and Application". Eastern Economic Journal. 35 (4): 555–560.
doi:
10.1057/eej.2008.60.
S2CID155080681.
^Victor, Peter (2008). "Book Review: Frontiers in Ecological Economic Theory and Application". Ecological Economics. 66 (2–3): 552–553.
doi:
10.1016/j.ecolecon.2007.12.032.
^Aguilar‐González, Bernardo (Sep 2006). "Book Review: Ecological Economics: A Workbook for Problem‐Based Learning". The Quarterly Review of Biology. 81 (3): 301–302.
doi:
10.1086/509462.
JSTOR10.1086/509462.