Corporate Engagement

Drs. Tom Simpson and Gary Felton are the PI’s on this project. During the last two years, Drs. Simpson and Felton worked jointly to engage the Scotts-Miracle-Grow Corporation in an initiative to reduce the impact of lawn fertilization on water quality. They served as conveners and technical resources for discussions between Scotts and the Chesapeake Bay Program. This led to the development of a Memorandum of Understanding between Scotts (and Lebanon Seaboard Corporation) and the Chesapeake Executive Council (Governor’s, Mayor and EPA Administrator) to reduce the amount of phosphorus in lawn maintenance fertilizer sold by these companies in the Bay states by 50% by 2009. It also committed the signatories to work with us to address nitrogen in the future and to work jointly on an education and outreach program. Dr. Simpson drafted the MOU and negotiated technical and programmatic details with corporate officials and the Governor’s staffs and cabinet from six states. The MOU was signed at the Executive Council meeting in September, 2006. Dr. Simpson and Felton worked with Scotts to run a series of educational ads on proper lawn fertilization and management in most major newspapers (including Washington Post and Baltimore Sun) in the region in the spring of 2007.

The PI’s are now working to try to get agreement on enhanced nitrogen management. Dr. Simpson is also working with SYSCO Corporation about development of a food service industry initiative on water quality, initially focused on the Chesapeake Bay. He is now working with them to develop an initiative that will engage all of their meat, poultry and dairy suppliers in the region to assure that the supplier’s producers have and are implementing a comprehensive approach to nutrient, feed and manure management. He has developed a five year, continuous improvement approach that includes education and technical assistance followed by independent third party inspection of grower implementation and performance to assure that expected water quality benefits are achieved.

This effort has attracted the attention of a private “funders network” that want to share the start-up cost of this activity with the food service industry. The advent of the “Corporate Stewardship Report” as part of annual reports to shareholders offers many opportunities to engage large corporations in water quality improvement efforts.

For more information, contact Dr. Tom Simpson

Last updated: 02/6/2008