A team effort to protect and enhance biodiversity
Seagate’s facility in Springtown, Northern Ireland has been recognized by an influential business coalition for its efforts to protect and enhance biodiversity.
Seagate was one of nine Northern Ireland organizations — drawn from both the private and public sectors — to participate in a biodiversity pilot program by Business in the Community, a coalition of businesses that work to address corporate responsibility issues.
What is biodiversity, and why does Seagate care?
“Biodiversity” refers to the different species that live within a particular ecosystem. Biodiversity is important because it’s the life-support system for our planet — it supports fresh water, fertile soil and clean air. Environmental economist Pavan Sukhdev estimates the cost to the world of not preserving ecosystems and biodiversity could be between $1.8 trillion and $4.3 trillion each year.
The Seagate Springtown site’s efforts to preserve biodiversity has attained the highest (platinum) level in Business in the Community’s Business and Biodiversity Charter.
The charter provides a framework for organizations of all sizes to measure and address their impact on biodiversity, not only in terms of land-holding management but also in relation to their activities, products and services.
Catherine Woodrow, Seagate EH&S staff administrator and team lead on the Biodiversity Charter initiative, said the Springtown site has promoted biodiversity through activities such as planting native hedgerows, picking litter and planting trees (both on-site and at a local park), as well as through a range of information sessions for employees.
Influencing component suppliers, developing biodiversity partnerships
“We’ve always taken biodiversity seriously at Seagate Springtown — to the extent that we incorporate it into our annual ISO14001 (a family of standards for environmental management) objectives and targets, together with waste minimization, energy reduction and recycling,” Woodrow said. “This third-party endorsement of our efforts has shown us that we’re already doing a great job and that we’re well placed to move forward with a strategy that will enable us to continue to address our impact on biodiversity and to enhance it to the best of our ability.”
In February and March, a small team from Seagate’s Springtown environmental-management committee assessed the site against several criteria, including: employee awareness and engagement with biodiversity activities; development of relationships with external biodiversity partners; and plans to influence the suppliers that have the greatest impact on on-site biodiversity.
To help the team understand the external habitat and its biodiversity potential, they also invited The Conservation Volunteers to carry out an inspection of the grounds and green spaces surrounding the facility and to recommend additional biodiversity improvement activities to focus on in the coming months.
The subsequent external accreditation visit by Business in the Community took place in April, with results announced at a charter launch event in late May.
