Five Questions With: Steven Zenofsky

FM Global is a property insurance company that employs more than 1,000 people in Rhode Island. And now, a small herd of goats. The company occupies a campus in Johnston that is certified as a corporate sanctuary by the Audubon Society.

The insurance company recently decided to hire, as a two-week pilot, about 20 goats to maintain the acreage on its corporate campus. The goats, which come from a farm in the Hope village of Scituate, cost about $600 a day and operate under the name “Herd of Hope.” Spokesman Steven Zenofsky explained how it works.

PBN: Tell us about the goats.

ZENOFSKY: There are about 19 goats currently working on the property, munching their way through lots of shrubbery that has become overgrown in the woods around our property. At our corporate offices, there are about 93 acres.

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PBN: Who had the idea that this was a good idea?

ZENOFKSY: The goats [arrived] at FM Global last week and perhaps surprisingly to our employees, the goats arrived in a school bus. The company we’re working with, Laurel Hill Microfarm, they’re based in Hope. This is what they do. They go out and help landowners clear land in an ecologically friendly way. Instead of using chemicals to remove invasive species that may be choking out native plants, the goats end up doing that job for our grounds crew.

PBN: How do you keep them from eating valuable plants?

ZENOFSKY: I had a similar question. I found out these goats are pickier than my kids. They don’t like wildflowers. They like the stuff that you and I would stay away from, when we’re out in the woods. Like poison ivy. They love poison ivy.

GOATS CLEAR AWAY overgrown shrubbery at FM Global’s corporate campus in Johnston. / COURTESY FM GLOBAL

PBN: Where do they stay? Have you built a pen?

ZENOFSKY: The company we work with is on-site. There is a goat herder. They do segments of the property. For the time that they’re here, they live on the bus. … The seats are out. In place of that is wood chips. It’s almost like a converted barn.

PBN: This is a maintenance process. But are the employees in the building completely distracted by all this?

ZENOFSKY: We have walking paths all around the building. Some of the walking paths bring the employees, as they’re out walking, right by the goats.

Mary MacDonald is a staff writer for the PBN. Contact her at macdonald@pbn.com.