The Johnson Foundation at Wingspread has a long tradition of sponsoring conferences that address environmental quality and community issues, helping people live in harmony with their environment. The Precautionary Principle, a landmark statement on environmental risk, was crafted at a Wingspread conference, as were many of the LEED standards for green buildings. More recently, The Johnson Foundation at Wingspread sponsored conferences that led to the Presidential Climate Action Plan.

It is not enough, however, that we support others in their work to make the world cleaner and more sustainable; we at The Johnson Foundation at Wingspread must also manifest the change that we are calling for. We therefore pledge that our own actions will bear witness to our environmental values and goals. While we always strive to live up to our unique standards of hospitality and conference productivity, we also work to limit our environmental impact and carbon footprint and to adopt environmentally sustainable practices. We seek not simply to adopt the quick fix, but to push the envelope, to be a leader in the local and national philanthropic community and to have The Johnson Foundation at Wingspread serve as an example of environmental performance in our own facilities and programs.

Sustainability Team

We have created a team of employees representing administration, programming, maintenance, housekeeping, conference and catering services who regularly meet to review the Foundation’s environmental policies and practices. Our goals:

• To be a leader in the philanthropic community when it comes to environmental policies and procedures
• To regularly educate staff and guests on sustainability practices
• To receive silver certified LEED EB status for our Guest House
• To become Green Seal Certified (we achieved gold level in 2008)
• To become certified by Travel Green Wisconsin
• To reduce our carbon footprint by a minimum of 15 percent below the 2003 level by 2020 (which matches proposed Lieberman-Warner federal legislation)