Corporations are obsessed with their public image, intensely concerned with how they appear to both customers and prospective customers alike. And for some corporations, good community relations are also vital. One example of a Central Ohio corporation which has strived to establish community relations is the Honda Motor Corporation, which has one major plant in the region.
Honda has brought thousands of decent jobs to our area, albeit non-union. But you may not be aware of their civic engagement. For example, Honda partnered in the completion of a much-needed domestic violence shelter for Delaware City. They are the largest annual sponsor of Columbus’s Festival Latino, which draws nearly 200,000 people over two days. And they are the major sponsor of the Ohio Wildlife Center and Hospital in Dublin.
On a national level, Honda is working directly to aid in areas such as environmental management, waste reduction, renewable energy, and reduction of CO2. They also make their environmental reports and goals publicly available.
An example of a corporation – a relative newcomer to our area – who could learn something from Honda about community relations, is Amazon, the e-commerce and cloud computing giant.
Amazon operates the following in Central Ohio: two data centers in Hilliard, and one under construction at breakneck speed (pictured above); three data centers in New Albany, and another 400 acres purchased there; a data center in Dublin; a data center in Columbus; fulfillment and sortation centers in Obetz, Columbus, Lockbourne, and Etna.
They sure seem ubiquitous until we examine their civic engagement. Amazon has one national education-based program and a STEM program of which 6,000 schools are participants, but the locations or names of those schools aren’t available. Some examples of Amazon’s local community outreach are a student grant to a local charter high school, a grant to a Special Olympics winner including a tour of the local plant and the Seattle headquarters for him and his family.
Amazon’s “good works in Ohio” seem pale compared to Honda’s deeds. To be clear, Amazon spends big money like Honda on local communities, but those communities are in Oregon, Virginia, and Indiana – not in Ohio.
Amazon has promised net-zero carbon emissions by 2040, has invested billions in Central Ohio, and operates 17 solar farms in the state. But on a local level, do their environmental ethics fall short like their community involvement?
As they lay huge chunks of concrete across our local landscapes there is some environmental damage, done quietly, with no media coverage on any level and obviously with the approval of some local and state government officials.
The company’s new data center in Hilliard will be a futuristic out-of-place campus which is visible from I-270. To build this data center, 151 acres of crop and forest land were leveled.
Tragically, a 40-acre lake, known locally as Blatz Lake, was drained and filled in for this project. True, the lake was on private land at the time of sale. Nevertheless, information received from the Ohio Division of Wildlife revealed how aquatic creatures in and around this lake were not relocated prior to draining. On a Reddit post, those who fished Blatz Lake mentioned that a large beaver lived there.
Amazon not only obliterated wildlife and an irreplaceable piece of wild habitat but also a decades-long spot of local legend and folklore. A place where, in the past, many people enjoyed fishing, hunting, and swimming – even if they risked a trespassing ticket from Hilliard police.
Hilliard office holders allowed Amazon the right to drain Blatz Lake dry. In addition, $157 million of Amazon’s $183 million in Hilliard-based facilities’ value is exempt from property taxes. Coincidentally, there was a Hilliard City Schools levy on this November’s ballot seeking $91 million. The levy passed, preventing $10 million in staff reductions, larger class sizes, and class fees that could have increased by as much as 500 percent. The levy will cost property owners an additional $242 per $100,000 in property value per year. In a city where property taxes are already steep. Amazon can’t even be counted on to do the minimum as a “neighbor,” and pay their fair share of taxes, especially considering the few good jobs they have brought into the area. Data centers hire a skeleton crew while many Amazon delivery positions, especially during the holidays, are freelance without benefits.
Amazon is a huge corporation with a sales volume that dwarfs Hondas. They will build more facilities in Central Ohio. One would think they would put greater effort and resources into community engagement here being a good neighbor.
Is there a good reason to not match Honda with what their one plant accomplishes here? Amazon’s third quarter profits for this year was $15.3 billion. The Blatz Lake property cost Amazon $15 million.
At the very least, Amazon’s executive management could recognize they are in a mostly rural state, with great numbers of nature lovers and outdoorsmen and women, and as such decide not destroy our wildlife or wreck our traditions and legends.
------------------------
Don Kloss is a retiree, an Ohio Certified Volunteer Naturalist and the founder and president of Central Ohio Nature.
