New White Paper: Private Sector Potential for Community-First Climate Action
SILVER SPRING, MD, MAY 11, 2021 – Wildlife Habitat Council (WHC) offers a new white paper available for download today, Leveraging the Power of Nature: Private Sector Potential for Community-First Climate Action. The white paper is sponsored by Cleveland-Cliffs and is available for free in our White Paper library.
Since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2016, more attention has been given to the critical role that nature must play in curbing climate change and helping humans and the environment withstand the unpredictable events that a changing climate will bring.
Actions that restore or manage ecosystems in the name of climate action are known as Natural Climate Solutions (NCS), a subset of Nature-Based Solutions. By adopting these practices on their lands, corporate landowners can help sequester carbon in their soil and vegetation and increase local resiliency to climate change, while empowering community members to do the same.
Given the co-benefits associated with acts like enhancing habitat or installing green infrastructure, corporate landowners worldwide are already employing NCS, even if their stated goals speak to other environmental needs. This white paper explores NCS in a wide range of industrial, geographic and environmental contexts, and the organizations featured reflect this diversity. Case studies include:
- Bayer: Luling Plant – Louisiana, U.S.A
- DTE Energy: River Rouge Power Plant – Michigan, U.S.A
- ExxonMobil: Kearl – Alberta, Canada
- Fidelity Investments: Smithfield – Rhode Island, U.S.A
- Freeport-McMoRan: PTFI – Papua, Indonesia
- General Motors: Wentzville Assembly Center – Missouri, U.S.A
- Toyota Motor North America: Toyota Motor Manufacturing – Alabama, U.S.A
- Waste Management: Orchard Ridge Recycling and Disposal Facility – Wisconsin, U.S.A
Sponsored by Cleveland-Cliffs, this white paper includes a forward from the company which states, “There is no denying that one of the most important issues impacting our planet is climate change. The American steel industry is already among the cleanest and most energy-efficient in the world, but we know that Cleveland-Cliffs can and must do more. As a result, Cleveland-Cliffs recently announced our plan to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 25% by 2030 from 2017 levels, across all of our Cleveland-Cliffs operations.”
About Wildlife Habitat Council:
For 33 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.
