A Model for Corporate Environmental Programs
It’s common for corporations to highlight their sustainability initiatives without building an environmental program that leads to meaningful action. ITC Midwest is different.
ITC Midwest operates an environmental program that leverages its unique advantages to make a real-world impact on one of the most pressing ecological challenges of our time – habitat loss.
Restoring native habitat is one of the most powerful tools for supporting healthy ecosystems where wildlife, native plants, and humans can all thrive.
Pollinators, such as the monarch butterfly, play a crucial role in any healthy ecosystem. In an effort to help the monarch butterfly and other pollinators, ITC Midwest is working to plant and preserve more than 38,000 acres of pollinator habitat in Iowa.
“At ITC, we always want to do the right thing. With this program, we can make a difference in our communities by engaging in efforts to restore and protect the monarch butterfly population.”
Planting and Preserving Pollinator Habitat
As an energy company, ITC Midwest manages right-of-ways and easements that are necessary to access and maintain its electric transmission lines. Owning all this land presented ITC Midwest with the opportunity to make a real impact for pollinators.
The program focuses on converting turfgrass or undesirable vegetation in transmission corridors and at substations into diverse native prairie plantings and installing rain gardens with native plants at warehouses. Many of the acres are in rural areas, but they are also making a difference in our backyard.
Already, 128 acres of land in Linn County alone have been planted with different varieties of milkweed (the sole food source and nesting locations of monarch caterpillars). Milkweed seeds have been spread at Beverly Park, McLoud Run Park, Squaw Creek Park, and along the Cedar Valley Nature Trail, and the Sac and Fox Trail.
By planting milkweed in corridors across the state, ITC Midwest is operating an environmental program that will make a real and lasting impact on pollinators.
Supporting Local Environmental Leaders
ITC Midwest’s commitment to sustainability doesn’t end there. They also use corporate giving to support local organizations, like Indian Creek Nature Center, that are working to preserve native habitats.
This year, ITC Midwest is the lead sponsor of Nature’s Noel, a holiday market that supports sustainable shopping by offering gifts that are from local vendors, sold secondhand, or handcrafted from evergreens. Plus, the proceeds from Nature’s Noel are used to support the environmental programs and land restoration work that Indian Creek Nature Center has been doing for more than 50 years.
By pairing their effective environmental program with mindful corporate giving, ITC Midwest is able to amplify their positive impact on the environment.
Thank you, ITC Midwest, for supporting Indian Creek Nature Center and for showing how to do corporate environmental initiatives the right way.