The Wildlife of Innovators
A statement that strikes fear into any business person’s heart is the well known, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” Anybody from New Orleans out there?
Although our federal government can do some pretty stupid things—like paying $640 for a toilet seat and $436 for a hammer—when Congress established the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) in 1984, it was a stroke of creativity and innovation that sill pays dividends for the environment and businesses.
Realizing that government agencies are bound by more red tape and political minefields than we can imagine in our wildest bridges to nowhere dreams, Congress created the NFWF to help federal natural resource agencies accomplish their mission without utilizing federal employees and without being bound by statutes.
Now before you start to think that the NFWF is some type of secret Freemason shadow organization, the foundation works with businesses to create programs that strike a balance between the normal cost of doing business and the cost of doing good for the environment. In some cases, the foundation funds the potential costs of environmental impact in advance.
Here are two examples of how it works:
As an ongoing business expense, a power company had to maintain a 10–to–12 mile right of way. The right of way happened to be in an area that was a natural habitat for wildlife. The NFWF was able to leverage what the power company was spending for maintenance to recruit concerned local area groups and individuals. The volunteers now maintain the right of way, and the cost to the power company is no more than it was to maintain it themselves—the difference being that the habitat is now better preserved for wildlife, and the company scores significant community-relations points.
Another example involves a power plant on the Mississippi River.
Exelon, the nation’s largest gas and electric utility, needed to increase its output of energy to serve growing customer demand, which meant that the temperature of a water discharge from its plant would increase by one degree. Following thorough investigation by federal and state agencies, no immediate environmental impact could be determined. But, to err on the side of caution, the power company, through the NFWF, is putting aside funds to mitigate the potential costs of any future impact—kind of like an environmental insurance policy.
While we don’t always think of the government as being especially creative or innovative, in the case of the NFWF, they got it right.
Sometimes you have to create an entirely new entity in order to get a job done, or to look at solving a problem creatively.
No animals were harmed in the writing of this blog.


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