2023 WHC Awards Announced at WHC Conservation Conference

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BETHESDA, MD, JUNE 21, 2023 – Wildlife Habitat Council (WHC) announced the winners of its 2023 WHC Awards during the WHC Conservation Conference held in Baltimore, Maryland, on June 20-21. The WHC Awards honor excellence in corporate conservation, with awardees representing various national and international companies across industries.

The year’s top awards, signifying leadership in conservation, were won by Freeport-McMoRan, WM and Matador Ranch & Cattle.

“We are proud to recognize the excellent achievements of this year’s WHC award winners, including Freeport-McMoRan, WM and Matador Ranch & Cattle,” said Margaret O’Gorman, President, WHC. “All of the award recipients have demonstrated excellence in corporate conservation, and we are honored to work alongside them to support biodiversity, sustainability and conservation education.”

The Employee Engagement Award, given to WM, recognizes the exemplary contributions of one company’s employees towards their habitat and conservation education efforts.

The 2023 Gold Program of the Year Award, which honors the overall depth of one conservation program, was awarded to Matador Ranch & Cattle for its Beaverhead Ranch site in Dillon, Montana.

Freeport-McMoRan received this year’s Corporate Conservation Leadership Award, which recognizes one company’s overall achievement in conservation and commends their corporate commitment to biodiversity, conservation education and alignment with global conservation objectives.

In addition to these corporate and program-level awards, individual projects are recognized for excellence in each of the WHC Project Guidance themes. This award category offers projects of all sizes the ability to compete for recognition.

Freeport-McMoRan was the year’s most honored company, receiving the WHC Corporate Conservation Leadership Award as well as three project awards (Bats, Formal Learning and Species of Concern) recognizing their conservation and education work in Arizona and New Mexico.

The following is a complete list of 2023 WHC Award Winners:

WHC Corporate Conservation Leadership Award
Freeport-McMoRan

WHC Employee Engagement Award
WM

WHC Gold Program of the Year Award
Matador Ranch & Cattle, Beaverhead Ranch | Dillon, Montana

Avian Project Award
BP, Warm Springs Ponds  |  Butte, Montana

Awareness and Community Engagement Project Award
Summit Materials, Hamm Sanitary Landfill  |  Perry, Kansas

Bats Project Award
Freeport-McMoRan, Cyprus Tohono Corporation  |  Casa Grande, Arizona

Desert Project Award
CEMEX, El Carmen Nature Reserve  |  Coahuila, Mexico

Forests Project Award
SIBELCO, Unidade Jaguaruna  |  Santa Catarina, Brazil

Formal Learning Project Award
Freeport-McMoRan, Port Nickel  |  Phoenix, Arizona

Grasslands Project Award
WM, Kirby Canyon Recycling and Disposal Facility  |  San Jose, California

Green Infrastructure Project Award
Davey Resource Group, WSSI Native Habitat  |  Gainesville, Virginia

Invasive Species Project Award
California Resources Company, Bolsa Chica Wetlands Ecosystem Partnership  |  Huntington Beach, California

Invasive Species Coordinated Approaches Project
Matador Ranch & Cattle, Beaverhead Ranch  |  Dillon, Montana

Land Conservation Agreements Project Award
Boeing, Boeing South Carolina – Keystone/Fairlawn Project  |  North Charleston, South Carolina

Landscaped Project Award
DuPont, Experimental Station Laboratories  |  Wilmington, Delaware

Mammals Project Award
MEG Energy Corporation, Christina Lake Regional Project  |  Alberta, Canada

Marine Intertidal Project Award
The Earth Lab, The Earth Lab – Ejido Sisal  |  Distrito Federal, Mexico

Other Habitats Project Award
General Motors, Quito  |  Pichincha, Ecuador

Other Species Project Award
Ontario Power Generation, Ontario Power Generation Wesleyville Site  |  Ontario, Canada

Pollinators Project Award
Constellation, James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant  |  Oswego, New York

Remediation Project Award
Ashland, Research Center, DE  |  Wilmington, Delaware

Reptiles and Amphibians Project Award
BP, Warm Springs Ponds  |  Butte, Montana

Rocky Areas Project Award
Exelon, Goat Hill Serpentine Barrens Restoration  |  Nottingham, Pennsylvania

Species of Concern Project Award
Freeport-McMoRan, Tyrone  |  Tyrone, New Mexico

Training Project Award
ITC Holdings, ITC Transmission Line Right-of-Way at Tomlinson Arboretum  |  Clinton Twp., Michigan

Wetlands and Water Bodies Project Award
Ontario Power Generation, Ontario Power Generation Wesleyville Site  |  Ontario, Canada

Award finalists and winners were chosen from Conservation Certification applications submitted between January 1, 2022 – December 31, 2022 that were granted certification. Information on award criteria can be found here.

About WHC

For 35 years, WHC has been promoting and certifying ecological stewardship action on corporate lands through partnerships and education. Since only 10-15% of the world’s land surface is protected, private lands provide an essential opportunity for restoring and protecting biodiversity. As the only international conservation NGO focused exclusively on the private sector, WHC provides a framework for voluntary conservation action on a wide variety of corporate lands. WHC’s corporate members represent some of the leading national and multinational corporations seeking to support sustainable ecosystems and the communities that surround them. These efforts have resulted in more than 1,000 certified programs across 47 states and 28 countries.

Suppliers Partnership for the Environment

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Biodiversity efforts are not restricted to a single company or industry — in fact, they are made stronger by engagement along the supply chain. WHC supports companies and organizations looking to foster industry-wide collaboration, such as our work with the Suppliers Partnership for the Environment (SP) and a coalition of health and life sciences companies.

SP recognized biodiversity was not a priority for suppliers as its impacts occurred later in the manufacturing process, unlike concerns related to packaging or climate change mitigation efforts. WHC has seen that small, easy to access and understand projects like pollinator gardens are often a manageable entry point for small- to medium-sized enterprises to begin their biodiversity efforts. Additionally, experiencing the success of these smaller projects often inspires companies to further their conservation work by aligning with biodiversity frameworks, implementing nature-based solutions and more.

As part of the engagement, WHC developed strategies and tactics to guide the suppliers through the logistics of planning, implementation and ongoing management of pollinator conservation projects. SP disseminated these resources to their members to encourage them to engage with biodiversity uplift on a smaller scale.

WHC also supported a coalition of five manufacturers and suppliers working together in the health and life sciences industry. This group was interested in encouraging their members to get involved in biodiversity projects by lowering the barrier of entry and providing actionable tools and resources. Using stakeholder input and feedback, WHC developed the brand, voice and visual identity for this new industry-wide biodiversity alliance, as well as the delivery of a vast toolkit of resources to support suppliers in implementing scalable biodiversity-based initiatives. Members of the alliance were also given access to and training for WHC’s program tracking platform in order to record their progress and potentially pursue WHC Conservation Certification®.

Butterfly on a flower

Exelon Corporation

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When energy provider and WHC member Exelon acquired utility company Pepco, which operates in Washington, D.C. and Maryland, they engaged WHC’s support in developing an environmental stewardship strategy to expand conservation efforts and foster community connections in this region.

The development of the strategy began with the convening of employees to create a cross-functional team comprised of engineers, scientists, vice presidents, interns and more. WHC worked with the team to determine stewardship opportunities throughout the D.C. metro area that would also drive a message about the values of the company. The team was guided through a series of exercises that helped them determine the conditions — such as social factors, political situation and environmental circumstances — that would influence the stewardship activities chosen.

WHC conducted a spatial analysis through geographic information system (GIS) mapping, which was overlaid onto the stakeholder analysis to identify hotspots for stewardship projects in each of D.C.’s wards. These results illustrated the suitability of an area for a conservation project, mapped against Pepco-owned lands in the area. Based on the social, stakeholder or ecological needs identified, a variety of compatible projects were suggested for each area, such as tree plantings, outdoor STEM education, native restoration on rights-of-way or community gardens.

This analysis helped match conservation projects to the most suitable locations, and also assisted Pepco in directing their philanthropic giving, identifying areas where the company could best focus its efforts.

Stellantis and Canfield Consortium – Detroit

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WHC was engaged by Stellantis to conduct several tree plantings as part of the company’s MotorCitizens community engagement initiative. This effort, which started in 2018, included planting 15 trees on a vacant lot owned by a local community development group, Canfield Consortium, which is located both down the street from the Mack Ave plant and across Canfield St. from the Barack Obama Leadership Academy. Around the time of the plant’s 2021 expansion, the company installed Beniteau Stormwater Park within the neighborhood. The park is part of a multifaced Community Benefits Agreement, designed alongside Canfield Consortium and other community leaders, which seeks to alleviate the social and environmental impacts of plant expansion.

Beniteau Stormwater Park’s installation was paired with WHC’s development of curricula for local schools, and corporate volunteers were trained to serve as lesson leaders. Designed to resonate with students with a wide range of learning styles, both curricula incorporate hands-on activities, social learning, and opportunities for reflection. The topics that align with Michigan State Science Standards, providing a real-world supplement to lessons being taught in school. Activities illustrate concepts such as the interconnectedness of food webs and morphological diversity of animals, allowing students to make real-world connections between the concepts covered and their immediate natural surroundings.

In a community devastated by flooding during extreme rain events in summer 2021, activities illustrating the water cycle, from the local rain garden level up to the watershed level, are especially important. Students have seen the damaging effects of climate change on their homes and communities, and these opportunities for place-based learning that explores the role of trees in storing stormwater will help broaden their understanding of the solutions available to build local resilience.

Metro Detroit- I-94 Corridor

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Alkebu-Lan Village (AKBV) is a longstanding community center in Detroit. With a 30-year history serving youth and their families, what began as a martial arts program teaching discipline and personal responsibility is now a sprawling facility with programs supporting technological literacy, physical fitness, academic success and food security. When employees at the nearby ArcelorMittal Tailored Blanks (AMTB) facility reached out to AKBV to discuss how they could best connect and support the community across their fence line, AKBV leaders identified a community garden as a project in need of support.

With guidance from WHC and funded by WM Think Green and the DTE Foundation, employees of WM, General Motors, DTE and AMTB came together to plant 45 trees and 200 plugs on AKBV property, adjacent to the community garden. All plants were native species selected to provide habitat for local pollinators. The planting event was paired with a selection of informal environmental education activities, designed to build participants’ understanding of the importance of pollinators both ecologically and to food security at a large scale.

The successful pilot planting convening corporate, academic, nonprofit and community stakeholders resulted in additional funding from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative to install green infrastructure across the neighborhood, including the planting of 500 additional trees. These funds will also enable WHC’s development of additional curricula, teaching AKBV’s youth program to monitor on-site pollinators, steward and maintain newly planted trees, and understand how the restored habitat provides ongoing value to local wildlife and the community.

CommuniTree – Calumet Region, Illinois-Indiana

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In an effort to increase canopies and address canopy iniquities, WHC co-founded and manages CommuniTree, an urban and community forestry collective comprised of businesses, municipalities and forestry-oriented NGOs, that has planted over 12,000 trees within community spaces and industrial properties in northwestern Indiana and northeastern Illinois. Building on the longstanding success of these plantings, WHC and CommuniTree engaged students at George Washington High School on Chicago’s southeast side in a collaboratively organized tree planting on school grounds. Students, teachers and local youth organizers planted 45 native trees and shrubs alongside WHC staff and volunteers from local corporations.

The school is located next to an impactful industrial corridor with poor air quality and the associated health impacts on the adjacent community. As such, in addition to broadly applicable lessons about stormwater management and habitat value, students were taught to observe and measure the impact of new tree canopies through the lens of air pollution.

Following the planting event, students, in partnership with Davey Tree Institute, used i-Tree software to track and model projected atmospheric impacts of the planting. Quantifying the carbon sequestration, particulate matter capture and fugitive dust capture of this small-scale planting engages students in real-world problem solving while developing their contextual and scientific understanding of the environmental justice (EJ) conflict playing out in their community.

WHC has also partnered with the Calver Military Academy, a Chicago public school in the Altgeld Gardens and Murray Homes neighborhood. The area is notable as the home of the late Hazel Johnson, an Altgeld Murray resident dubbed “the mother of environmental justice.” Johnson forced factories to improve their anti-pollution practices and also shut down incinerators and landfills.