
They're hiding in those reeds... really!
OWC had some out-of-town visitors this weekend. In the small wetland ponds just outside our Woodstock, Illinois “green” campus, a pair of sandhill cranes were spotted.
“Great,” you might say, “but what’s so newsworthy about that?”
Well, throughout most of the 20th century, seeing a sandhill crane in this area was a fairly rare occurrence. The pair visiting were most likely the Greater Sandhill (Grus canadensis tabida) variety. Due to habitat change and hunting practices, by 1940 these cranes had been reduced to under 1,000 individuals. They have since recovered; according to the US Forestry Service, the current population is estimated to be between 65,000 and 75,000. Combined with the other migratory subspecies of sandhill cranes (the Lesser and the Canadian), with whom interbreeding often takes place, there are over 500,000 sandhill cranes, making them the most plentiful crane alive today. Article Continues…

Other World Computing announced today its corporate campus was awarded LEED® Platinum Certification by the Green Building Certification Institute, the highest achievable level of the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) program. Out of more than 14,000 LEED projects engaged worldwide since the program’s 1998 inception, OWC is one of less than three hundred to achieve the Platinum standard. With this recognition, OWC also became the first privately owned light manufacturing/assembly firm in Illinois to obtain LEED Platinum status.