Verizon and the Environment
Verizon feels like it is their responsibility to minimize the impact their operations have on the
environment. That means conserving energy, recycling and finding
innovative ways to solve environmental challenges.
Wetlands Restoration Project Called ‘a Model of Stewardship’
November 2007: Verizon has won the New Jersey Governor’s Environmental Excellence
Award for Healthy Ecosystems for its habitat restoration project at the
Verizon Center campus in Basking Ridge, New Jersey.
The
on-going environmental project is a collaborative effort between
Verizon, the New Jersey Audubon Society and the U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Service that’s restoring about 25 acres of grass and wetland
habitats around the corporate campus.
New Jersey Audubon Society President Tom Gilmore told the Morris Daily Record that Verizon “really went out of their way to do the right thing and in
the right way. We want other corporations with vast holding to see this
as a model of stewardship and to consider doing it on their property.”
Verizon
started discussions with the Audubon Society in 2005, after the
135-acre Basking Ridge campus was purchased. The Audubon Society
suggested that Verizon stop the frequent mowing and heavy application
of pesticides and fertilizer that were previously in routine use.
Starting in early 2007, Verizon and its partners planted 550 native
trees and shrubs along the 25-acre buffer zone along Passaic River,
with the goal of returning the parcel to its native state.
In
addition, the company has eliminated the use of chemicals in the
restoration areas, helping to preserve a clean source of drinking water
for 800,000 people who reside downstream.
The
Basking Ridge campus sits in a watershed adjacent to a portion of the
Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, a federally-owned preserve of
over 7,000 acres operated by U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. The
watershed is home to some 240 species of birds, over 30 species of
mammals and many species of amphibians. As a result of the restoration
project, more than 60 species of wildlife have been observed in the
improved habitat on the corporate campus, some that never before were
recorded on the property.
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