WHC Webinar: Creating Meaningful Corporate-Community Relationships

Community-First Environmental Action: How Crossing the Fence Line Can Create Mutually Beneficial Partnerships

Presenters: Listed below in event description.

April 27, 2022

12pm-1pm CDT on GoToWebinar

Register for the event here.

As companies in the U.S. and worldwide make or revisit their overall commitments to equity and community engagement, many are recognizing the opportunity to address local environmental concerns through their sustainability initiatives and conservation programs. To successfully cross the fence line and connect with local stakeholders, companies must be open to community members’ ideas and concerns and respond accordingly. Community leaders and organizers can serve as critical liaisons between companies and communities.

In this webinar, leaders from a community development organization and the owner of a business committed to resident empowerment will discuss the importance of community-first environmental action and the keys to meaningful corporate-community relationships.

What you’ll learn:

• Challenges that companies face in community engagement, and how an awareness of local needs can help address them
• Ways that education efforts can strengthen corporate environmental initiatives and foster trust between communities and companies
• How community organizations approach, and can benefit from, corporate sustainability and stakeholder engagement initiatives

Who should take this webinar:

• Site teams anywhere interested in crossing the fence line to collaborate on environmental action
• Corporate employees who wish to empower site-level staff to engage with adjacent communities
• Community leaders and organizers who wish to develop relationships with the industrial facilities within their neighborhoods
• Detroit-based teams curious about how local companies are engaging with communities

Presenters:

• Vickie Lewis, VMX, President/CEO, VMX International
• Kim Theus, President, Canfield Consortium
• Rhonda Theus, Vice President, Canfield Consortium

Moderator:

• Patricia Billette, Manager, Conservation & Community Engagement, WHC