Orion Assembly, along with General Motors? Pontiac Metal Center and Global Powertrain Headquarters Assembly have been recognized by the Wildlife Habitat Council for enhancing bio-diversity and engaging community partners to promote wildlife conservation and education.
The facilities received Wildlife at Work certifications for building and maintaining new gardens to benefit local wildlife, employees and the beautification of our sites.
The Wildlife at Work program provides a structure for corporate-driven cooperative efforts among management, employees and community members to create, conserve, and restore wildlife habitats on corporate lands.
To earn the certifications, the sites built gardens to assist with soil erosion, educate employees and the community about how GM repurposes shipping containers for garden beds and encourage pollination for indigenous insects.
Pollinators ? rapidly declining worldwide ? are critical to the reproduction of 90 percent of flowering plants and one third of human food crops worldwide.
Pollinators include certain kinds of ants, bats, bees, beetles, birds, butterflies, moths, wasps, flies and some other unusual animals. They are key to the environment.
All of the habitats are maintained by site environmental engineers and employee volunteers, providing another opportunity to show pride in where they work.
‘Our habitat program provides significant benefits to the environment and the dedicated employees who manage it,? said Doug Hanly, Orion Assembly and Pontiac Metal Center plant manager. ‘It also serves as an outdoor classroom to educate youth and the community on the importance of conservation.?
Orion and Pontiac North are two of 46 GM facilities around the world with conservation programs certified by the Wildlife Habitat Council. GM has more certifications than any automaker and actively manages nearly 4,700 acres of wildlife habitat in seven countries.
Additionally, employees from Orion Assembly have teamed up with come local community organizations and with Orion Schools to teach students about watershed conservation through GM’s Global Rivers Environmental Education Network (GREEN)