GM Earns Keystone Leadership Award for its Partnership with the Wildlife Habitat Council

Mountaineering gave Bob Craig, the founder of the Keystone Policy Center, a unique perspective on the world and public policy. Bob understood that the best strategies and solutions are born from collaboration and a shared summit.

That idea is at the very core of the Keystone Policy Center’s mission and work over the past 41 years. From sustainability to education and health policy to agriculture, Keystone has brought together leaders from the public, private, and civic sectors to confront the most challenging and vexing issues of our time and to reach common higher ground.

Since 1994, Keystone has honored other organizations and individuals whose work embodies our mission and commitment to lasting policy solutions.

This year we were proud to honor General Motors for its partnership with the Wildlife Habitat Council to expand wildlife habitat, support pollinator health, and enhance biodiversity at locations around the world. The award is a great example of how a shared commitment to sustainability can forge a lasting strategy to improve our landscape.

General Motors’ work in collaboration with the Wildlife Habitat Council have established roughly 21,000 acres of habitat across North America.

The General Motors Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Plant in Michigan is a great example of how this partnership has resulted in successful habitat conservation. The Plant now includes 20 acres of grassland with milkweed and other flora essential to the health of monarch butterflies and other native pollinators. The habitat also supports local water quality and biodiversity — at a time when monarch butterflies and other animals face challenges.

General Motors is working to build on this and other success stories — committing in its 2015 Sustainability Report to establishing and improving habitat through the Wildlife Habitat Council Conservation Certification each manufacturing site where feasible by 2020.

Keystone commends General Motors on its collaborative strategy to establish wildlife habitat — and looks forward to others following its example.

Christine Scanlan is president and CEO of the Keystone Policy Center, which honored General Motors, the Wildlife Habitat Council, and Toyota for their work supporting habitat and biodiversity at the 23rd Annual Keystone Leadership Awards on June 8.