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Economic Vitality

Wisconsin's high quality of life is vital to our ability to attract and retain high tech and global companies providing high paying jobs. An environmentally literate citizenry actively value and conserve natural resources so that our State offers abundant outdoor recreation, urban green spaces, clean air and water.

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Environmental education in relation to Wisconsin’s regional economy

Environmental education helps to create a skillful workforce for our state’s economy. An environmentally literate citizenry understands nature in terms of systems. These citizens actively value and conserve natural resources so that our state offers abundant outdoor recreation, urban green spaces, clean air and water. This high quality of life is vital to Wisconsin’s ability to attract and retain high tech and global companies providing high paying jobs.

The National Science Foundation Advisory Committee asserts that "in the coming decades the public will more frequently be called upon to understand complex environmental issues, assess risk, evaluate proposed environmental plans and understand how individual decisions affect the environment at local and global scales. (www.neefusa.org/pdf/ELR2005.pdf, p. 79)
 

Learn why the GE Foundation invests in education

The reason leaders in the GE Foundation boardroom are interested in the classroom is simple, said Kelli Wells, program director of U.S. education for the foundation. "Education is one of the most valuable things we can invest in," Wells said. More and more businesses -- from small companies to global giants -- are buying into that same philosophy in the wake of sobering statistics that show American students falling short of their international peers, especially in math, science and engineering. Education, long a favorite corporate cause, has taken on new urgency, said Stacy Palmer, editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy. "Lots of foundations are focusing even more grant-making on education because they realize how much it affects their own bottom line when they don't have well-educated people as workers," Palmer said. The average company in 2006 dedicated 25 percent of its total giving to education, second only to health and social services at 31 percent, according to a recently released study by the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy. Information technology companies led giving to educational causes, dedicating an average of 42 percent of their philanthropy budgets to K-12 and higher education, according to the CECP study of 136 companies.

Excerpt from : “Why GE is making education its business”
 

Environmental education and workforce ethos

The 2006 Cone Millennial Cause Study, the first in-depth study of its kind, explores how corporate cause-related initiatives influence young adults as consumers, employees and citizens. "The study shows that 61% of Millennials, born between 1979 – 2001, feel personally responsible for making a difference in the world. This civic-minded generation, 78 million strong, not only believes it is their responsibility to make the world a better place, they (78%) believe that companies have a responsibility to join them in this effort. Young adults around the country say they are prepared to reward or punish a company based on its commitment to social causes.”