While water cleanup is a critical element of any environmental organization’s work, it’s even more effective to prevent pollution before it gets to the water in the first place. The Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay takes this approach by partnering with communities, corporations, and conservationists that depend on our natural resources.
Rather than treating local businesses as adversaries, the Alliance does the opposite. It engages with companies like Perdue Farms, Turkey Hill Dairy, and The Hershey Company to find common ground. “We want to sit at the table together,” says Kate Fritz, CEO of the Alliance. “We want to help them see that they can do better—that we can work together—and that it’s in their best interest to do so.”
Partnering with Perdue Farms
The Alliance began their relationship with Perdue Farms 15 years ago. Over that time, the partnership has enjoyed several successes. Perdue employees participated in volunteer trash cleanup days and worked with farmers to plant tree barriers around chicken houses to improve the air quality. In 2021, Perdue even awarded the Alliance $10,000 for its Project Clean Stream.
“It’s an interesting time with all these corporations now,” Fritz notes. “They all have corporate sustainability plans. For some, it’s about operational excellence and efficiency. For others, it’s in response to stockholders asking, ‘What are your climate resilience and mitigation plans?’”
Another change the Alliance sees in the corporate culture is that younger, more environmentally conscious professionals are stepping into leadership roles and bringing their sense of environmental responsibility with them. “In this way, they are reshaping the cultures of the organizations they work for,” says Fritz.
At the same time, environmentalists are gradually shifting their attitudes towards corporations, too. “Environmentalists tend to be suspicious of corporations as much as corporations are suspicious of them,” Fritz continues. “But if we aren’t sitting at the table together, how do we get them to put their resources in the right place and change their priorities?”
This doesn’t mean that environmental organizations shouldn’t pursue legal actions when corporations aren’t willing to do the right thing, of course. “It takes both the carrot and the stick,” Fritz explains. “You need both.”
Partnering with Turkey Hill Dairy
One of the Alliance’s most successful partnerships is with Turkey Hill Dairy. Several years ago, as Turkey Hill was renegotiating its milk cooperative contract, the Alliance engaged with then-CEO John Cox (now on the Alliance’s board), who made the decision to prioritize farms with the most proactive conservation plans.
Thus began the Alliance’s dairy supply chain agricultural work. Now the Alliance is looking to extend those efforts into other supply chains, including poultry. Perdue Farms, in particular, is interested in how they can apply the Alliance’s work to Coleman, its organic chicken line. “It is so exciting to be finally working at the systems level,” says Fritz. “These cooperatives have relationships with hundreds of farmers. Instead of us going farm to farm, trying to engage each farmer individually, we can work through these co-ops and effect change at a much larger scale.”
Two areas where the Alliance has made significant progress in working with farmers are manure storage and riparian barriers (an area adjacent to a waterway, containing a combination of trees, shrubs, and/or other perennial plants that aid in conservation). Instead of farmers spreading raw manure, which can drain into the waterways and destroy water quality, the Alliance provides grant funding to implement mitigation measures such as manure storage, fencing, and barnyard stabilization. Similarly, the Alliance encourages farmers to add riparian barriers by offering to plant fruit trees, which not only filter the water but provide farmers with another source of income.
“One reason our programs are successful is that we try to meet people where they are,” says Fritz. “Farmers aren’t necessarily motivated by environmental benefits, but if we can bring 100% cost share on some of these practices, it’s too rich a deal for them to pass up. Plus, there is a new generation coming in that understands that the health of their livestock will produce a better product. When the animals are healthier, they get more yield.”
The Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay is proving that the relationship between corporations and environmentalists doesn’t need to be antagonistic. Partnerships can work both ways. “When it comes to meaningful change,” Fritz concludes, “Sometimes the carrot can be just as effective as (if not more effective than) the stick.”
To learn more about the Alliance and how you can get involved, visit allianceforthebay.org.
Sustainably,
Bobby Firestein
For our 2023 Ecoprint calendar, Protecting the Natural Beauty of the Chesapeake Bay, we have partnered with 13 different organizations, all dedicated to helping solve the environmental challenges in this important ecological hub. The Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay is our featured partner for the month of May. To get your own 2023 Ecoprint calendar, click the button below.