Wild profits: how multinational corporations are restoring habitat and saving money.

When Frank Lloyd Wright was designing the famed Johnson Wax building in Racine, Wisconsin, in the early 1930s, he abruptly halted work on the project to fix a problem. A dam had broken on a pond on his Spring Green, Wisconsin estate. The resulting view outside the window upset him so much that he couldn't continue with the project until it was fixed.

Wright's green leanings were decades ahead of his time, but heralded a trend in multinational facility management. Companies are now finding that it's beneficial to employees and the bottom line to restore corporate lands as wildlife habitats. The phenomenon known as biophilia (literally, love of life), is increasingly being applied to corporate habitat philosophy.

Natural surroundings such as prairies, meadows, mountains and wetlands can be more comforting to employees - and enhance their productivity. Corporate habitat restorations can also save companies money.

Corporate managers are restoring habitats on their properties in a number of innovative ways. At Dupont's Asturias, Spain facility, for example, a natural wetland drainage system was installed instead of a conventional pipe system. According to Bill Walker of Dupont, some $1 million was saved per month based on the costs involved in permitting and installing a conventional system. The project worked so well for Walker and Dupont that the company promoted him.

The Dupont project was encouraged and later certified by a Silver Spring, Maryland-based group called the Wildlife Habitat Council (WHC). Born out of a discussion of leading environmentalists affiliated with the National Wildlife Federation, the Izaak Walton League, The Business Roundtable and others, WHC is a unique partnership that works with multi-nationals to restore and improve habitat on their properties.

According to WHC President Joyce Kelly, "You can do what's right for the environment and it doesn't cost very much." WHC's certification program provides a third-party independent auditing of a company's efforts to improve habitat. The program awards a one-year certification after stringent criteria are met. Companies must document their efforts and allow WHC biologists to inspect the property to monitor habitat management plans and employee education.

If the program meets WHC's standards, it's listed in an internal registry and is eligible to win the council's "Corporate Habitat of the Year" award. In 1994, Amoco won for its Cooper River refinery restoration program in South Carolina. In developing and implementing five-and 50-year site management plans, the company improved habitat for whitetail deer, bluebirds, osprey, terns and bats. To improve flora habitat, the company planted more than 3,000 sweetgrass plants and 120,000 longleaf pines.

Certified programs must resubmit documentation every two years. To date, WHC has certified more than 163,000 acres of corporate-owned lands, up from 16,000 acres at its inception in 1988.

When a company partners with the WHC, the nonprofit group's biologists review the site being considered and make recommendations on ecosystem-based wildlife management, native plants, endangered species and hands-on programs that employees can run on a continuing basis.

Could the habitat program be mistaken for the corporate back-slapping known as "greenwashing"? Fortunately, it's not that superficial. WHC's program places emphasis on an entire organization's commitment to education and improvement. "We tell companies from the beginning that if they're in it for greenwashing, they'll lose," Kelly notes, adding that employees "know the difference between action and rhetoric."

Companies that restore and improve habitats are reaping a host of corollary benefits. The foremost gain is that they reduce their maintenance costs. Properties restored to prairies, meadows or wetlands don't need mowing and fertilization. That cuts grounds maintenance expenses.

But costs savings don't always materialize. When Sears Roebuck relocated 4,000 employees from its merchandise group in the Sears Tower in downtown Chicago to suburban Hoffman Estates, it nestled its new corporate campus in a prairie surrounded by wetlands.

The most intangible benefit of corporate wildlife enhancement is improved community relations and productivity. Employee teams often work with community groups such as conservationists or Boy Scouts to set up and maintain the programs. As Amoco noted in its 1993 Environment, Health & Safety report; "Employee morale is often improved at industrial locations with habitat management areas."

CONTACT: Wildlife Habitat Council, 1010 Wayne Avenue, Suite 920, Silver Spring, MD 20912/[phone].