Business techniques like "mitigation banking" can also help to protect the environment. At least, that's what Philly-based entrepreneur John Yarchoan had in mind when he created Magnolia Mitigation, a startup that has done vital work to protect two separate endangered species in Pennsylvania, and has saved thousands of acres of wetland throughout the country, reported The Philadelphia Citizen. 

The magazine explain how mitigation works in this case: "Say you’re a developer, interested in constructing a set of condos on previously-uninhabited or underutilized land. But developing on that land will, as the EPA puts it, have “unavoidable” impact on local wildlife, wetlands or other protected flora or fauna. To make up for that, federal agencies like the Army Corps of Engineers will require or encourage you to invest in the reconstruction of a nearby wetland or other endangered ecological area. The work on that habitat is done by companies like Magnolia."

Magnolia focuses on smaller, but more ecologically vital tracts of land. In Pennsylvania, for example, Magnolia is replanting a 270-acre parcel in Berks County, which is the only known land in the world that supports two separate endangered species: the Indiana bat and the bog turtle, which is North America’s smallest turtle. 

Read the full article in The Philadelphia Citizen.