Wildlife Council Gives Waste Management Conservation Award
David P. Steiner, chief executive officer, received the first Conservation Education and Outreach (C.E.O.) Award on behalf of Waste Management from the Wildlife Habitat Council (WHC) at the council's 20th Annual Symposium recently.
The William W. Howard C.E.O. Award, named in honor of the late president of WHC, is the organization's most prestigious award. The award honors a corporate member organization for its combined efforts in providing educational experiences, access to quality education opportunities, and the opportunity to experience personal contact with the natural world to its employees and the surrounding community.
"The C.E.O. Award recognizes the exemplary effort of a corporation which demonstrates that one of the best ways to ensure long-term sustainability of conservation programs is to have strong engagement on the human level," said Robert Johnson, WHC's president. "WHC's conservation education programs like Corporate Lands for Learning and Conservation Education Sites put a human face on those noble efforts, linking them to the local community and to the region."
Through developing comprehensive habitat management practices, providing educational opportunities, and partnering with conservation and environmental groups, universities and communities, Waste Management has achieved wildlife habitat certification at 49 of its landfill sites, Steiner said.
Waste Management landfills provide more than 19,000 acres of protected land for wetlands and wildlife habitat, which are carefully managed in partnership with conservationists, universities, and environmental groups. Many of these projects provide refuge for threatened or endangered species. They also serve to broaden understanding of wildlife and environmental values through environmental education, volunteer participation, and community outreach.