A constructive merger of values.

• Author: Haas, Barbara B.
• Position: Leadership in Environmental Initiatives - Special Section: Answering the Call for Leadership

In 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt convened the first North American Wildlife Conference to stimulate public interest in the management and development of America's natural resources. The National Wildlife Federation (NWF), founded as a result of that conference, has since become the nation's largest nonprofit conservation education organization, with millions of members and supporters nationwide.

The Federation has long believed that the careful merger of conservation values with basic business principles will ensure an economically viable and environmentally sustainable future. The Federation demonstrated its commitment to this goal by establishing the Corporation Council in 1982. The Council serves as a forum where senior corporate executives from various industrial sectors engage in "off-the-record" discussions with the Federation's leadership to develop innovative and constructive proposals to improve economic productivity and environmental quality. Through this positive approach, the Council aims to minimize adversarial confrontations in the future.

The Council reflects its commitment to environmentally sustainable economic development by:

* Providing for informed discussions on contemporary environmental issues utilizing experts;

* Encouraging corporations to integrate environmental considerations into all aspects of their decisionmaking processes;

* Raising corporate awareness of critical environmental needs;

* Promoting exemplary environmental accomplishments in the private sector; and

* Encouraging other appropriate joint ventures between the business and environmental communities.

In order to provide an opportunity to develop relationships of confidence and goodwill which allow for frank discussion of the members' interest in the wise use of natural resources, membership is limited to a maximum of 20 senior executives. Members include: Asea Brown Boveri Inc.; AT&T; Bank of America; Browning Ferris Industries; Ciba-Geigy Corp.; Dow North America; Duke Power Co.; Merck & Co. Inc.; Monsanto Co.; Pacific Gas & Electric Co.; The Procter & Gamble Co.; Shell Oil Co.; USX Corp.; and WMX Technologies Inc.

Council discussions generally focus on topics that reflect an environmental issue with a clear corporate or industrial connection. The Council has issued policy statements on wetlands conservation (1984), groundwater protection (1986), soil conservation (1987), hazardous waste reduction (1988), and environmental education for...