What are the best ways to convince farmers and corporations that helping the Chesapeake Bay helps themselves?

Answering that question is mission critical for Tom Simpson, the executive director of Water Stewardship Inc.

On April 16, Simpson, a former professor of environmental science at the University of Maryland, addressed a small audience of scientists, farmers and citizens at the third annual Conservancy and Coldwater Summit in Waynesboro, Va., trying to teach them how efforts to clean up the bay can also benefit them, according to the Waynesboro News Virginian. For example, they can get government grants to help restore their local tributaries and make a direct impact, even if they are located in the Shenandoah Valley more than 150 miles from the Chesapeake proper.

The event offered a window into how Water Stewardship Inc. strives to improve water quality. The non-profit organization is based in Annapolis, but also works in other watersheds, hoping to change the culture of water stewardship across the country.

To achieve its lofty ambitions, Water Stewardship Inc. studies methods to reduce pollution, particularly nutrient runoff from farming and agricultural industries. It wants to work with corporations to help them implement better practices in their policies above and beyond those required by federal state governments, believing environmental stewardship will be a future hallmark of a successful business. Already, it is developing partnerships with General Mills and SYSCO Corporation.

It also plans to provide resources to farmers and other individuals in (or simply affected by) the food industry supply chain to help them learn how to put in place more effective methods to improve the bay’s health and remain on the forefront of a changing industry.

Water Stewardship Inc. was founded in 2008 and has dived headfirst into its work. As a pilot project in the water cleanup effort, its programs bear watching by corporations, lawmakers and citizens interested in the success of the bay restoration drive.