Lockheed Martin-Manassas a Founding Gold Member of Businesses for the Bay

Lockheed Martin-Manassas has joined Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay as a Businesses for the Bay Founding Gold Member. The organization is a partnership of large and small businesses in the Chesapeake Bay watershed undertaking voluntary actions to improve the health of the bay and its watershed, rivers and streams.

Businesses for the Bay provides a network for members to share strategies and successes with other members and partners, as well as opportunities to engage employees in environmental efforts, and receive recognition for the valuable role each member is taking to help improve the environment.

The Alliance recognizes Lockheed Martin-Manassas for its commitment to Chesapeake Bay protection and restoration.

According to a news release, Lockheed Martin, Mission Systems and Training in Manassas has a lively and active “Go Green” employee resource group led by Dave Gunnarson, Lockheed Martin Senior Staff Environmental Engineer.

“Go Green” provides environmental education for employees through creative workshops, seminars and lunch-and-learns as well as tips for implementing conservation at home, including an annual tree seedling initiative.

The team also takes a vested interest in conservation actions on Lockheed Martin’s 153-acre Manassas campus.

Team members maintain and monitor 16 songbird nest boxes for the native cavity-nesting birds on the property. They also developed a 3,700 square foot natural meadow full of native Virginia flora, now in its third season, the news release stated.

Now “Go Green” is sponsoring an employee tended vegetable garden with 24 plots.

In another initiative, “Go Green” partnered with Lockheed Martin’s environmental health and safety team in an effort that led to switching to LED parking lot lights that reduced power consumption, and initiating water conservation efforts that reduced water consumption by 10% of the facility’s 2010 baseline, according to the news release.

Dave Gunnarson was quoted in the news release as saying, “Businesses for the Bay provides us an opportunity to showcase our environmental practices, to demonstrate how they relate, and make a difference, for the Chesapeake Bay and to work with others to better the environment in which we live.”

Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay Business Partnerships Manager Corinne Stephenswas quoted as saying, “Through the Alliance’s Businesses for the Bay membership association, we help businesses to have a positive impact on Chesapeake Bay restoration, to expand their own sustainability programs, and to be recognized for their environmental successes.”

For more information about this Businesses for the Bay Founding Gold Member, go to http://businesses.allianceforthebay.org/member/lockheed-martin-manassas.