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Message from the President
An article in the news recently got me thinking about the link between the continued expectations of communities in regards to corporate sustainability in the current economic environment, and the necessity for the continuing evolution and development of biodiversity practices of corporations. According to a recent article in The Washington Post (Sunday, February 15, 2009) by Christopher Flavelle, there is some ambiguity as to why companies are pursuing more aggressive approaches to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). However, in his concluding statement he states that, “whatever these companies actually think about the norms entailed in CSR, they have decided they have no choice but to play along, recession or no recession.” I am not writing here to support Mr. Flavelle’s thesis, but I would like to echo his last point that even in the current downturn of the global economy, companies will be expected to give greater attention to how they manage their business activities to address concerns in social and environmental responsibilities. Throughout its first 20 years, WHC has helped corporations identify both social and environmental opportunities that they could pursue voluntarily at their facilities. We have found these efforts to be both substantive and economical. WHC has helped to define wildlife habitat enhancement projects and conservation learning programs at more than 2000 facilities worldwide. As of November 2008, 489 programs have achieved accreditation by WHC for Wildlife at Work and 97 are certified as Corporate Lands for Learning (CLL). As mentioned in the Winter 2009 newsletter, the WHC staff is diligently working with our members to help evaluate their current program efforts, prepare their application for recertification of their existing programs, and guide them in their efforts to get new programs registered. Again reflecting on the point raised by Mr. Flavelle, even in this difficult economy, WHC expects to see a steady increase in the number of accredited programs, helping us to reach our goals of accrediting more than 500 programs for habitat enhancement and certifying more than 110 CLL sites. We encourage all landowners to consider enrolling your programs in natural resource management and conservation education as part of this fabric of excellent achievement and recognition. On June 11 - 12, 2009, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Elsewhere in the Winter 2009 newsletter you will find information about other opportunities available in which you can participate in voluntary programs to assist you in meeting your social and environmental responsibility goals. I encourage you to evaluate those opportunities and pursue them. In the end, all that you do to improve performance in sustainability and corporate responsibility is for the common good. The Wildlife Habitat Council stands ready to assist you where possible to help you meet your corporate expectations. Sincerely,
Robert Johnson |
