Odebrecht Informa

ODEBRECHT
#152 • vol XXXVIII • jan/feb 2011
I N F O R M A
English Edition
Sustainability
Social and environmental initiatives that are
changing communities’ lives in Brazil and worldwide
“By definition, development must be sustainable.
Otherwise, it cannot be called development”
teo
- odebrecht entrepreneurial technology
04
Two exemplary cases of greenhouse gas reduction at the Santo Antônio
and Palomino hydroelectric plant projects
08
Sérgio Leão discusses the process of updating Odebrecht’s
Sustainability Policy
10
Sustainable tourism is changing communities’ lives along the South
InterOceanic Highway in Peru
14
Creer Perú: professional education and social inclusion at the Chaglla
hydroelectric plant project in northern Peru
16
Rota das Bandeiras Concessionaire carries out environmental compensation
projects with the help of public school students
18
Kukula pala Kulonga: a project that contributes to sustainable development in 10
Angolan communities
21
An extensive social-environmental project in the Hongo district, in the Luanda
metropolitan area, arises from the fight against malaria in Angola
22
The Brazil Recycling Grand Prix shows how environmental conservation
and income generation go together
24
Braskem and the projects that are part of its commitment to being the global
leader in sustainable chemicals
26
Braskem’s drive towards sustainability began with the company’s
inception in 2002
28
30
32
Introduced in Mozambique, the Caia na Rede digital inclusion project makes its debut outside Brazil
ODEBRECHT
INFORMA
152
Martina Condori
Cruz, an artisan
from the Tinqui
community in Peru.
Photo by Holanda
Cavalcanti.
Escola em Ação: activities at public schools are changing the social and cultural realities of Macaé, Rio de Janeiro
Announcing the winners of the third edition of the Odebrecht Sustainable Development Prize
35
36
In Venezuela, recognizing the creative ideas of students from Maracaibo and Caracas
39
The Portuguese government develops an initiative aimed at increasing the schooling of people over the age of 23
40
ETH’s Social Energy Program for Local Sustainability is based on participatory management, including
businesses, public agencies and the community
42
In the Camela district of Ipojuca, Pernambuco, seamstresses and artisans get ready to see a dream
come true: forming a cooperative
44
The area near the Embraport terminal in Santos, São Paulo, benefits from 34 environmental preservation
initiatives
48
In the Argentine provinces of Salta and Patagonia, water supply and technical education for young people are
boosting development
51
54
56
In Panama City, a story of social inclusion in a district marked by instability and violence
58
In the Southern Bahia Lowlands, a group of institutional partners is helping build a rural middle class
based on family units
60
Felipe Cruz writes about two imperative issues for the success of sustainability programs
Created in Portugal in 2006, the EPIS – Businesses for Social Inclusion program enables business leaders
to help improve education
In the United States, Odebrecht garners certification that attests to its determination to do more and better
Exhibition at the Organization’s Salvador headquarters tells the story of the creation and development
of the Odebrecht Entrepreneurial Technology (TEO)
02
w w w. o d e b r e c h t o n l i n e . c o m . b r
> online edition
> ETH Bioenergy is one
of the companies taking part
in the New Earth Leaders
program
> 22 business organizations
including Odebrecht hold
seminars in São Paulo on
climate change
> Odebrecht marks four years
with zero lost-time accidents
at the Braskem Project in
Camaçari, Bahia
> blog
> Read posts by the
magazine’s reporters and
editors on the Odebrecht
Informa blog Written by Cláudio
Lovato Filho, Fabiana Cabral,
José Enrique Barreiro, Júlio
César Soares, Karolina Gutiez,
Leonardo Maia, Renata Meyer,
Rodrigo Vilar, Zaccaria Júnior
and collaborators.
> video reports
> web archives
> An interview with
Guilherme Guaragna, Braskem’s
Ventures Director and the officer
Responsible for the green
ethylene plant built in Triunfo,
Rio Grande do Sul
> Access all back issues
> After Luiz Gustavo Assunção
lost his sight, he kept striving
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makes a decisive contribution
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ODEBRECHT
RESPONSIBLE FOR CORPORATE COMMUNICATION
AT CONSTRUTORA NORBERTO ODEBRECHT S.A. Márcio Polidoro
Founded in 1944, Odebrecht
is a Brazilian organization made
up of diversified businesses
with global operations and
world-class standards of quality.
Its 105,000 members are present
in the Americas, the Caribbean,
Africa, Asia and Europe.
RESPONSIBLE FOR PUBLISHING PROGRAMS
AT CONSTRUTORA NORBERTO ODEBRECHT S.A. Karolina Gutiez
BUSINESS AREA COORDINATORS
Nelson Letaif Chemicals & Petrochemicals • Andressa Saurin Ethanol & Sugar • Bárbara Nitto
Oil & Gas • Daelcio Freitas Environmental Engineering • Sergio Kertész Real Estate Developments
• Coordinator at Odebrecht Foundation Vivian Barbosa
EDITORIAL COORDINATION Versal Editores
Editor-in-Chief José Enrique Barreiro • Executive Editor Cláudio Lovato Filho • English Translation by
H. Sabrina Gledhill • Art/Graphic Production Rogério Nunes • Photo Editor Holanda Cavalcanti
• Infographics Adilson Secco • Illustrations Gilberto Marchi • Electronic Publishing Maria Celia Olivieri
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Originally published in Portuguese. Also available in Spanish.
03
Inseparable concepts
The epigraph in this issue of Odebrecht Informa, on the page opposite the table of
contents, accurately reflects how the Organization’s teams think and act in Brazil and
worldwide. For them, development and sustainability are inseparable concepts that
are mutually inherent.
In the following pages, you will find several examples that demonstrate how Odebrecht members put that belief into action.
In Peru, along the route of the South InterOceanic Highway, a sustainable tourism program is carrying out several projects that are changing the lives of families
and communities and helping the country get better results from its extraordinary
potential. In Angola, initiatives in the Luanda metropolitan area and the province of
Malange are helping improve the schooling and health of populations historically
challenged by vulnerability. In Panama, a district of the capital marked by violence
and an almost complete lack of infrastructure is becoming an integral part of the
city, and many of its residents are experiencing the status of first-class citizens for
the very first time. In Brazil, in the vicinity of the Embraport terminal in Santos, São
Paulo, 34 projects are helping preserve the environmental characteristics of an area
rich in biodiversity.
Some programs are more comprehensive, others, more specific, and all are examples of the contributions Odebrecht’s businesses are making to improve life on the
planet, which is experiencing the reality of global warming. Odebrecht is also taking
action in this regard at two hydroelectric plant construction projects: Palomino, in the
Dominican Republic, and Santo Antônio, in Brazil, which are conducting greenhouse
gas emission inventories that serve as a basis for efforts to reduce those emissions.
The Rota dos Bandeirantes Concessionaire in São Paulo is carrying out an extensive
environmental compensation program with the help of public school students. And
Braskem is continuing its drive to consolidate its position as the global leader in sustainable chemicals.
And there’s much more in this issue of Odebrecht Informa, including several other
Sustainable Development initiatives. They have many points in common, but without
exception, there is one element that permeates and inspires them all: the Odebrecht
Entrepreneurial Technology (TEO). It is the application of the principles and criteria of
TEO that makes the work of Odebrecht’s teams around the world consistent, effective
and more significant: helping people develop their capacity to change the world for
the better by changing individual lives.
04
sustainability guidelines
Climate of commitment
Odebrecht creates a climate change program and develops projects
to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions
written by Fabiana Cabral
In the course of the past 50
years, over 60% of the world’s
natural resources have been
degraded. Currently, the demand
for those resources is 35% larger
than the planet’s ability to renew
them. If we maintain this rate of
growth, by 2030 we will be consuming twice as much as the
Earth can replace. This is the scenario projected by The Economics
of Ecosystems and Biodiversity , a
United Nations study published in
June 2010.
Months earlier, in August
2009, Odebrecht Engineering &
Construction teamed up with
the Ethos Institute and other
Brazilian organizations to draft
the Open Letter to Brazil on
Climate Change. This document
presents the voluntary commitments of 22 corporations to
minimize the impacts of climate
change in Brazil and worldwide.
The initiatives in the agreement
include publishing annual reports
on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, influencing suppliers and
clients, and encouraging debate
on the issue among members of
civil society and public and private
institutions.
In addition to including a
Climate Change Program in its
Sustainability Guidelines and
organizing teams to deal with this
issue, Odebrecht conducts inven-
odebrecht informa
tories of GHG emissions, identifies
opportunities in carbon markets
and develops measures aimed
at improving the emission control efficiency of its projects and
offices. “The program was created
to support entrepreneur-partners,
and the methodology was developed for use on a range of projects. Thinking about sustainability means rethinking processes,
technology and efficiency,” says
Odebrecht Energia Sustainability
Director Luiz Gabriel Azevedo.
Based on the GHG Protocol
method, used around the globe
under the leadership of the World
Resources Institute and World
Business Council for Sustainable
Development, in 2010 Odebrecht
developed an Initial Corporate
Inventory of GHG Emissions,
which covers 11 offices in seven
Brazilian states, 11 offices worldwide and over 100 projects in
Brazil and other countries. “The
inventory will tell us what our
main sources of emissions are. In
2011, the focus will be to improve
the efficiency of processes and
controls to reduce emissions. We
will start to identify options and
opportunities to make progress in
our Engineering & Construction
activities,” says Sérgio Leão,
the officer Responsible for
Sustainability in Engineering &
Construction Operations.
The Corporate
Inventory will be completed by February
2011 and will feature in next year’s
Odebrecht S.A.
Annual Report. “The
results will enable us
to structure crosscutting programs that
can be applied to different types of projects
in different countries,”
adds Alexandre Baltar,
Responsible for the
Climate Change Program.
Santo Antônio’s
pioneering spirit
One of the largest construction
works now underway in the world,
located in the Brazilian state of
Rondônia, Santo Antônio last year
was the first Odebrecht project
and the first large-scale project in
Brazil to inventory GHG emissions.
“We couldn’t find a ready-made
method for taking measurements on this type of construction project, so we developed one
by adapting the GHG Protocol
methodology, which allowed us
to quantify emissions and obtain
the initial figures,” explains José
Bonifácio Pinto Júnior, CEO of
Odebrecht Energia.
According to the results
obtained, the total volume of CO2
modern vehicles, we have a GPS
system to monitor the efficiency
of 800 pieces of equipment. We
also encourage our suppliers
to adopt best practices to
control emissions,” says
Nelson Alves, Responsible
for the Environment on
the project.
José Bonifácio points
out that every process
carried out on the
Santo Antônio project
is linked to sustainability. “From the location of jobsite offices,
which are installed in
areas that had already
been cleared, to water
and sewage treatment in
the jobsite’s own plants,
everything contributes to
the preservation of local
resources. Where there’s a
will and creativity, there’s a way
to find sustainable solutions.”
emissions over the course of
seven years of construction will
be equivalent to 1,478,460 metric
tons. Emissions from the transportation of passengers and freight,
and steel and cement production
account for 62% of the total. The
consumption of fuels and lubricants accounts for 34%.
This volume of CO 2 equivalent
will be fully offset by the Prepaid
Energy Program, which will move
the
beginning of
the plant’s
operations forward
by one year (it is scheduled
for December 2011). “Early power
generation will mean that 1.7 million tons of CO 2 equivalent are no
longer released into the atmosphere, mainly through fossil fuels
burned by thermal power plants,”
observes José Bonifácio.
Despite that optimistic forecast,
Consórcio Santo Antônio Civil
is already carrying out several
measures to reduce GHG emissions. “Apart from buying new and
Social carbon
in Palomino
Odebrecht is building the
Palomino hydroelectric power
plant for the EGEHID (Empresa
de Generación Hidroeléctrica
Dominicana) in the Dominican
Republic, in the southern province
of San Juan. Scheduled for completion by June 2012, the plant
will increase the nation’s power
supply by 15%. “In the Dominican
Republic, 85% of the energy distributed comes from thermal
power plants. In addition to producing clean energy, Palomino
will reduce the number of barrels
of oil imported by 400,000 bbl per
year, and we will no longer emit
odebrecht informa
Santo Antônio
GUILHERME AFONSO
hydroelectric plant
120,000 metric tons of CO 2 equivalent per year,” explains Project
Director Pedro Schettino.
To expand the environmental
protection activities in a sustainable manner and create work
and income opportunities for
communities in the vicinity of the
hydroelectric plant, Odebrecht
and EGEHID teams have developed a project under the Clean
Development Mechanism (CDM)
as a social carbon initiative
focused on voluntary actions that
reflect civic responsibility. “The
investments generated by carbon credits will contribute to the
region’s socioeconomic development, and the environment will be
preserved,” says Victor Ventura,
President of EGEHID.
The Guayuyal Agricultural
Program, created in 2008 by
Odebrecht in partnership with
the Sur Futuro Foundation, is
one of the initiatives that will
odebrecht informa
stand to benefit. Residents of the
region, one of the poorest in the
Dominican Republic, who formerly
depended on subsistence farming,
are already producing over 500 kg
of grain and vegetables and earning USD 1,100 per month from
the sale of produce. Francisco
Sawaguthi, Responsible for
Health, Safety and Environment
at Palomino, observes: “The CDM
project is producing excellent
results that will ensure the program’s sustainability in communi-
SANTO ANTÔNIO HYDROELECTRIC PLANT:
SUSTAINABILITY IN NUMBERS
> 960,000 cu.m of water per day are treated at five treatment
plants (WTP).
> 100% of daily sewage output is treated without using
chemicals.
> 70% of 10 metric tons of waste generated daily is recycled
or reused. Tires, fluorescent light bulbs, paper and plastics
are sent for recycling.
> 700 kg of food scraps per day are mixed with wood chips
to produce organic compost.
> 84% of members are local residents.
> 271 sq.m is the size of the plant’s reservoir, of which 164 sq.m
is the natural bed of the Madeira River.
> The first of 44 bulb turbines will go online in December 2011,
a year ahead of schedule.
ties located in the plant’s sphere
of influence, and could also be
extended to other communities.”
Established by the Kyoto
Protocol to aid the process of
reducing GHG emissions and carbon capture in developed countries, the CDM also helps developing countries achieve sustainability. “The Dominican Republic
was one of the 138 countries that
signed the Kyoto Protocol, and
we are investing in renewable
energy sources,” points out Omar
Ramírez Tejada, Executive Vice
President of the National Council
for Climate Change and Clean
Development Mechanism. “This
was the country’s first CDM project, and through it we can access
the international carbon market,”
says Ernesto Reyna Alcántara,
the Dominican Republic’s Deputy
Minister for the Environment and
Natural Resources. Through the
international market established
by the Kyoto Protocol, developed
countries that need to meet the
UN’s emission reduction targets
can negotiate and acquire carbon
credits to offset GHG emissions.
Bureau Veritas Quality
International is currently auditing
the project. Following UN approval, the credits can be sold on the
international market for up to 21
years, raising as much as a million euros per year. “Palomino’s
social carbon credits can be sold
on the voluntary market, where
large public- and private-sector
companies acquire certificates to
enhance their image,” explains
Luiz Gabriel Azevedo.
CDM IN PERU
To help find new opportunities
in the carbon market, Odebrecht
has formed a partnership
with the Latin American
Carbon, Clean and Alternative
Energy Program of the CAF
(Corporación Andina de
Fomento). “We have produced a
Memorandum of Understanding
for the development of a
CDM project for the Chaglla
Hydroelectric Plant in Peru. As
a result, Chaglla will be built
within the Clean Development
Mechanism, and the sale of
carbon credits will make the
venture even more profitable,”
explains Alexandre Baltar.
RICARDO TELES
Palomino hydroelectric plant
odebrecht informa
08
interview
Sérgio Leão:
convergence
between
sustainability
and Odebrecht’s
entrepreneurial
culture
A multidimensional
phenomenon
Sustainability encompasses various aspects of the lives
of communities and nations
written by Zaccaria Junior / photo by Edu Simões
odebrecht informa
“Sustainability is a multidimensional phenomenon that encompasses economic, social,
environmental, cultural and political aspects. In
this sense, sustainable business practices should
aim at the creation of communities and countries
that are economically prosperous, socially just,
environmentally balanced, politically stable and
culturally diverse....” This is the opening statement
in the new wording of the Odebrecht Organization’s
Sustainability Policy, which is based on the policy
that has been in effect since 2008 but has now
been updated and expanded.
Sérgio Leão, the officer Responsible for
Sustainability in Odebrecht Engineering &
Construction Operations, explains that this new
policy was developed on the basis of a new reading of the thematic development that has the
Odebrecht Entrepreneurial Technology (TEO) as
a backdrop.
“Sustainability has been an integral part of
the concepts and principles of TEO from the
very beginning, reflecting business leaders’
responsibility to Survival, Growth and Perpetuity.
Therefore, sustainability is one of the elements
that our entrepreneurial philosophy has covered
from the start, but now it is more explicit, and
translated in accordance with the new nomenclature,” says Sérgio.
He points out that, like TEO, the updated
policy focuses on people because, although sustainability is strongly related to environmental
assets, preservation and the future, it is people
– inside and outside the organization – who
must be prepared and motivated to achieve and
maintain the results of sustainable development
within its entire scope: economic and social
development, environmental responsibility, cultural diversity and political participation.
Sérgio explains that, from the beginning of
the process of restructuring the policy, the main
focus was on the need for the document to
clearly state Odebrecht’s commitment to ensuring the survival and growth of its businesses and
achieving their perpetuity in order to guarantee
the policy’s effectiveness. Once those objectives had been set, it was decided that the path
the Organization would take in conducting its
businesses would be guided by Sustainability
Indicators that reflect its corporate vision and are
an integral part of its leaders’ goals.
“We reviewed the policy itself, and the indicators arose from that document. The theme
of sustainability was on the agenda of the
Organization’s businesses throughout 2010;
it was present in 2009 as one of the central
issues of the Vision for 2020; it was part of the
Annual Report published this year for 2009,
and it is highlighted in all the statements of our
Entrepreneurial Leaders (CEOs), our President
and CEO, and the Board of Directors. In other
words, it is an issue that has permeated our
discussions within our businesses, especially in
the Engineering & Construction business,” says
Sérgio. He adds that this commitment arose
from the decision taken in 2009 when the Open
Letter to Brazil was signed on the eve of COP 15.
In it, Odebrecht’s Engineering & Construction
companies undertake the commitment to carrying out carbon emissions inventories, as well
as including within the theme of sustainability
the consolidation of the five pillars of the guidelines in Engineering & Construction: Health and
Safety, Environment, Climate Change and Social
Programs.
“We worked on reviewing and creating those
guidelines to establish this within the sphere
of Engineering & Construction as the model to
guide our businesses, and 2010 was the year to
create the institutionalization of that subject,”
says Sérgio Leão. He notes that the work done in
that regard attempted to portray how sustainability occurs in practice in each of the businesses,
on the basis of the Odebrecht culture.
“It was crucial that the new policy be aligned
with our thinking, our way of working and acting. The Sustainability Policy portrays the way
TEO permeates sustainable development and
how sustainability is part of TEO, our task as
entrepreneurs, our various businesses and the
commitments people undertake. It attests to the
convergence of sustainability and our entrepreneurial culture.”
odebrecht informa
10
peru
Road to sustainability
Sustainable tourism projects are contributing to environmental conservation
and creating jobs and income in communities along the route of the South
InterOceanic Highway in Peru
written by Cláudio Lovato Filho
photos by Holanda Cavalcanti
Cirilo with his wife,
Ena, and daughter
Edith: an enterprising
family
odebrecht informa
Cirilo Méndez is walking on a trail
in the woods. It is an 80-hectare area
near the South InterOceanic Highway.
We are in the San Juan community,
in the district of Inambari, 45 minutes
from Puerto Maldonado, the state
capital of Madre de Dios in southern
Peru. Cirilo walks a bit further and
proudly shows off the crops he grows
there: nuts, cocoa, coffee, cupuaçu
fruit and pineapples. He engages in
agroforestry, an ancestral method
that makes it possible
for the forest to regenerate itself. Cirilo also
welcomes tourists, stu-
dents and researchers there. There
is much to see, learn and admire.
After a 20-minute walk (a compact
version of the tour, which can take up
to an hour in its complete form), we
return to the Méndez Family Tourist
Rest Stop, the starting point for our
foray into the forest. There, we find
a well-decorated, cozy restaurant
with a varied menu. Cirilo’s wife, Ena,
and their daughter Edith are waiting
for us. The family likes to welcome
visitors, strives to please them and
wants them to come back. They are
happy to see us, and never leave our
side. Soon, they will be busy making
lunch, because the rest stop fills up
at lunchtime. The Méndezes are an
enterprising family.
Life has not always been so good
for them, though. Before they opened
the rest stop in May 2010, they used
to sell natural organic products
grown on their property to travelers.
One of Cirilo and Ena’s five children
would climb aboard buses to sell
fruit, juices and snacks to passengers
while the bus was moving, traveling
two or three miles down the road,
where their sister Edith, who was
right behind them on a motorbike,
BRAZIL
Iñapari
BOLIVIA
PERU
MADRE DE DIOS
Puerto
Maldonado
Amarakaeri
Communal
Reserve
Santa Rosa
Tambopata
National Reserve
Camanti
CUSCO
(Quincemil)
Ccatcca
Urcos
Ocongate
Marcapata
PUNO
Bahuaja Sonene
National Park
would pick them up and take them
back home, where they waited for
the next bus. Today, with a restaurant
and an ample area for ecotourism,
the Méndez family are successful
entrepreneurs and committed to
sustainability. “We accomplished this
with the help of the iSur, and we are
thankful for that,” says Cirilo.
The iSur (InterOceanic South
Initiative) was developed by Odebrecht
Perú and founded in 2007 by Conirsa,
a joint venture of Odebrecht (leader)
and three other Peruvian contractors,
Graña y Montero, JJC and ICCGSA.
Their partners in the strategic alliance for the creation of the iSur also
included the environmental NGOs
Conservación Internacional and
Fundación Pro Naturaleza. Conirsa
is responsible for the construction,
operation and maintenance of 710 km
of the South InterOceanic Highway
for 25 years in the departments of
Cusco, in the Andes, and Madre de
Dios, in the Amazon jungle (see map).
The goal is to support local job and
income creation programs and foster
environmental conservation through
sustainable development. The iSur
includes the Sustainable Tourism
Program, aimed at creating highquality services along the highway
and strengthening the entrepreneurial capacity of local communities to enable them to provide those
services. The Méndez family, whose
rest stop was built by six Conirsa
subcontractors, is one of the main
symbols of the transformative potential of this program, in particular,
and iSur projects in general. Maria
Teresa Canseco, an architect born in
Lima who has been on the iSur team
for three years, coordinated the work
done to support the Méndez family.
“They’re like my own family,” says
odebrecht informa
Experiential tourism
in Cuyni and, in the
smaller photo, Magali
Salinas with Pepe:
valuing culture and
protecting endangered
species
Maria Teresa. “This makes me proud.
It is a wonderful experience to see
people grow and develop.”
There are many other examples
along the road. Magali Salinas
supervises the work of the Amazon
Shelter in Puerto Maldonado, the
capital of Madre de Dios. She and six
other people, including a veterinarian and a biologist, run a shelter for
abused local wildlife and pets. It now
houses 15 wild animals (including
five monkeys) and five pets. Pepe, a
12-year-old red howler monkey, was
rescued from a roadside restaurant,
where he was chained to entertain
visitors. “I wanted to do something
to prevent animal trafficking,” says
Magali, a former flight attendant with
a Business degree who was born in
Lima and has lived in Madre de Dios
since 2007. “I’m living a dream,” she
says. The Amazon Shelter has an
inn that welcomes guests interested
in being close to nature and learning about the work it does to protect
animal life. The iSur Initiative helps
the Amazon Shelter with publicity and
marketing, and sends visitors and
guests there.
odebrecht informa
The shelter is close to El Paraiso, a
16-hectare property owned by Percy
Wilfredo Balarezo Yabar. There, in
an area of native forest on the banks
of the Tambopata River, visitors find
accommodation, space for camping
and hiking, food, and unbelievable
peace and quiet for people used to
life in the big city. “I started clearing
trails in the woods with a hatchet,”
recalls Percy, who lives there with
his mother, Beatriz. “Today we have
visitors from Europe and the United
States. With the help of the iSur,
which hired technicians, we have
cataloged the species on the property and done a full environmental
assessment. Madre de Dios is the
capital of biodiversity in Peru, and
what we do here is exciting. It makes
me very proud.”
From the Amazon to the Andes,
the South InterOceanic Highway
provides travelers with a stunning
array of sights and sensations. As
the landscape, altitude, and especially the socioeconomic and cultural
aspects change, so does the profile
of activities the iSur supports. In the
Marcapata District, over 2,800 meters
above sea level, a church built by
the Spaniards in the 18th century
is going to be restored. A few miles
away, more than 6,300 meters above
sea level, Mount Ausangate stands
imposingly with its snowy peak in
the Vilcanota mountains, in the
Tinques community, in the District
of Ocongate. There, Martina Condori
Cruz, 38, a member of the Quechua
ethnic group and the mother of three,
talks about the artisans’ association
she belongs to, along with 10 others.
Martina is a past president of the
association. With the iSur’s support,
the artisans have improved the quality
of their work – blankets, skirts, hats
and accessories made from alpaca
and sheep wool and dyed naturally
using local plants – as well as learning how to price their products. “With
the iSur’s help, we’ve been able to
learn new skills and strengthen our
business,” says Martina.
On the way down to Cusco, we find
the scenic Cuyuni rest stop, located
3,800 m above sea level in the community of the same name, in the
Ccatcca District. Built by Conirsa, it
has a shop that sells local handicrafts
and a restaurant with a menu ranging
from snacks to more elaborate dishes
from the local cuisine, prepared by
Chef Carmen Rosa Rodríguez Vargas,
27, a native of Cuyuni. After spending
time in Lima and Cusco, she returned
to her home community. “I’m back
in my hometown because I have
acquired a skill and want to make my
contribution here,” she says.
The rest stop is run by a body
formed by six community members, all of whom are elected, which
chooses the manager. Sixty-two
families own a share in the business.
The rest stop is the starting point for
a memorable experience: experiential
tourism. Visitors set out on foot and
come into contact with agricultural
activities and religious ceremonies
that local residents have practiced
since ancient times. The experiential tourism route provides a way to
get to know the local culture and
understand at least a little about the
region’s indigenous communities’ way
of life. Marita Medina, an economist
born in Arequipa and an Odebrecht
Percy Belarezo
and (below) Martina
Condori Cruz: helping
make dreams come
true
Perú Young Partner, has worked
with the iSur since August 2009. She
coordinated the Initiative’s support for
these families. “Our focus today is on
the business side. We are working to
strengthen relationships with travel
agents and tour guides to bring visitors here. The money they make goes
back to the community.”
The community acknowledges and
is thankful for iSur’s support, and
takes advantage of the opportunities it
offers. Gabriela Rocha spent two years
in Tinqui, coordinating the iSur’s work
there. Now she lives in Lima. While she
accompanied the Odebrecht Informa
team on visits to iSur-supported projects in the departments of Madre de
Dios and Cusco, she met up with people she had not seen since the beginning of 2010. When she saw Martina
Condori Cruz, she was embraced and
hailed as a “comrade” in an affectionate and effusive mix of Spanish and
Quechua. “Martina has faced many
personal challenges in carrying out her
role in the artisans’ association,” says
Gabriela. "She is an example, a fighter.” Gabriela is a member of the team
of Delcy Machado, Director of iSur and
the officer Responsible for Corporate
Social Responsibility at Odebrecht
Perú. With the support of Cláudia Yep,
Responsible for the iSur’s Sustainable
Tourism Programs, they are getting
ready for the beginning of a new phase
in the history of the South InterOceanic
Initiative.
In 2007, on the basis of a “Plan
Maestro” (master plan), the iSur
began developing its Sustainable
Tourism Program, now composed
of eight projects. It also runs
Ecobusiness, Governance and
Environmental Conservation programs. Acting within the framework
of a construction project – the highway – with the support of institutions such as the CAF (Corporación
Andina de Fomento) and IADB (InterAmerican Development Bank), the
iSur was inspired by the Odebrecht
Foundation’s work in the Southern
Bahia Lowlands, which is based on
the four types of capital (human,
social, environmental and productive). The year 2011 will see the
consolidation of the iSur’s projects
and the definitive establishment of its
brand. In regard to the Sustainable
Tourism Program, Delcy Machado
says: “We want to make the South
InterOceanic Highway one of the
main destinations in Peru.”
It is a destination that will certainly attract Brazilian visitors, who
will get there via the state of Acre.
Once the highway has been built and
is run as a concession, a governance
system will ensure the continuity and effectiveness of the iSur’s
contribution. “We want to create
a structure and deliver it to Peru,
thereby helping this country get even
more benefits from its huge tourism
potential,” says Delcy.
odebrecht informa
peru
ODEBRECHT ARCHIVES
14
We believe
Over 4,000 people have joined Creer Perú, an adaptation of the Acreditar
Program to Andean communities’ way of life written by Luiz Carlos Ramos
The Ongoing Professional Education
Program (Acreditar) schooled almost
90% of the current workforce building
the Santo Antônio hydroelectric plant
in the Brazilian state of Rondônia.
Having been successfully replicated
on other Odebrecht projects in Brazil,
it has reached Angola and is now
being implemented in Peru, where
it is setting an example for tackling
further challenges in Latin America.
The Peruvian version of “Acreditar”
(Believe) has a Spanish name, “Creer
Perú.” But the changes go beyond
the language, as the program had to
be adapted to the characteristics of
the inhabitants of the Andean region,
where the landscape and living conditions are unique. As in Porto Velho,
Rondônia, the first project where Creer
Perú is being carried out is a dam –
the future Chaglla hydroelectric plant.
odebrecht informa
Construction will begin in 2011 on
the Huallaga River, which forms the
boundary of the Chaglla and Pillai districts in the Huánuco region of northern Peru, between the Andes and the
Amazon. The local population, which
has a 44% illiteracy rate, is poor, traditionally suspicious of companies, and
accustomed to planting and harvesting
potatoes. Its potato output supplies
most households and restaurants in
Lima, the nation’s capital. How could
they be convinced that an Engineering
& Construction project can also be a
career opportunity?
It has been tough going, but the early
results are encouraging. Jorge Barata,
CEO of Odebrecht Perú, was in favor
of introducing the Acreditar system
when the company in May 2010 won
the contract to build a plant capable of
generating 400 megawatts of energy by
2016. At the company’s headquarters
in Lima, the team of Edson Lemos,
the officer Responsible for People and
Organization, and Project Director
Erlon Arfelli was responsible for the
decision to adapt the Brazilian program
to conditions in the Peruvian Andes.
They coordinated a team tasked with
studying the characteristics of the project and the region. The next step was
conducting a first-hand study of the
area and its people, a task entrusted
to the Peruvian Alfredo Alfaro Esparza
and his team.
To understand the Huánuco region,
where the Chaglla project is located, we
must first understand the complexity
of the population and territory of Peru.
Most of the residents of the highlands
and the valleys between the Andes
Mountains have low incomes and little
education. Thus, the main challenge fac-
ing Odebrecht Perú when adapting the
Acreditar program to the rural context
was to convey the basics about construction work. Despite its mountains and
beautiful landscapes, Chaglla does little
to develop the tourist industry, unlike
Cusco, Puno and Arequipa. For one
thing, its roads are in poor shape. But
Huánuco, the largest city in the region,
founded by Spain in 1539, currently has
75,000 inhabitants and attracts visitors with its Inca temples and colonial
churches. Its soccer team, León de
Huánuco, was the dark horse winner of
Peru’s national championship, beating
the traditional champs, the Alianza Lima,
Universitario and Sporting Cristal teams.
The most famous son of that region was
Daniel Alomía Robles, who wrote Peru’s
iconic song “El Condor Pasa” in 1913,
known for versions performed on folk
instruments – the queña and zampoña
– as well as being recorded by Spanish
tenor Placido Domingo, French conductor Paul Mauriat and the American pop
duo Simon & Garfunkel.
On the basis of constant visits to the
region and the interaction of the team
formed by Ana Cecília Bardales, Gonzalo
Bussaleu and Alfredo Alfaro, as well as
a study of the socioeconomic profile of
both towns, the company devised a strategy for the Peruvian program. It highlighted the importance of an awareness
campaign targeted at the general public
through fliers and radio broadcasts
publicizing the program’s benefits, sensitizing children, taking a theater group
to the schools, producing an illustrated
booklet for students to give to their parents to encourage them to work on the
project, and direct awareness raising
among adults through performances
staged at the two high schools, simulating the application process and setting
up a system of questions and answers to
clear up any doubts that potential candidates for jobs on the dam might have.
By the end of November 2010,
4,143 people had applied for the
Creer Perú program. Then, 3,183
of the applicants were evaluated
and 1,189 were deemed suitable for
professional education. During the
first stage, 480 participants graduated from the Basic Module of the
program and either went on to work
at the jobsite or continued their education in the Technical Module, introduced in late November. The instructors were thrilled with the results.
Job applicants also expressed
tremendous satisfaction with the
program.
The development of the Creer Perú
Program has awakened and stimulated
greater interest in Health, Safety and
Quality in the Workplace, Environment
and the Odebrecht Entrepreneurial
Technology (TEO), which will make it
easier for new members to adapt to
the Organization’s culture. All of the
Acreditar program’s original texts have
been adapted to local conditions.
In six years, the 199m-high dam
will be a reality, and Peru will have
more energy to drive its economic and
social growth.
SECOND ACREDITAR JUNIOR CLASS GRADUATES
The Acreditar Junior program, created by Odebrecht
in August 2009 at the Santo
Antônio project in Rondônia,
Brazil, will graduate its second class in January. This
group includes 188 apprentices: 95 boys and 93 girls.
There were 164 in the first
group, which graduated on
August 7. The third, which
began in August, has 368 students. Their graduation date
is scheduled for July 2011.
There is a good reason
for the program’s growth:
the Porto Velho community’s intense involvement
in the Acreditar Program
and the idea that the Santo
Antônio project is making a positive change in
the lives of Rondônia’s
citizens. Antônio Cardilli,
the officer Responsible for
Administration and Finance at
Santo Antônio and the creator
of Acreditar and Acreditar
Junior is overjoyed. “For me,
Acreditar is like a child who
has grown up, put a rucksack
on his back and set off into
the world to help people.”
That rucksack is one of the
symbols of Acreditar Junior,
which was designed for children of company members
working at the Santo Antônio
Civil (CSAC) joint venture. They
must be between the ages
of 14 and 17 and be enrolled
in at least the sixth year of
elementary school. The teens
get backpacks, uniforms, caps
and teaching materials so
they can attend classes that
broaden their horizons. “This
program provides dignity,
contributes to civic spirit and
boosts young people’s self
esteem,” says Cardilli.
The theoretical module is
taught on the University of
Rondônia campus and lasts
one month. The practical
module takes two semesters,
including computer classes,
mechanics and other specialties taught at the headquarters of the SENAI (National
Industrial Apprenticeship
Service). Each student
receives half the monthly
minimum wage and is also
entitled to bus passes and
life insurance. “At the end of
the course, they are qualified
for the job market,” says psychologist Fabiane Costenaro,
who is on Cardilli’s team.
The word is spreading fast in
Porto Velho, and the number
of people interested in joining
the fourth group to take
part in Acreditar Junior is
growing.
odebrecht informa
16
rota das bandeiras
Seedlings planted
in the vicinity of the
D. Pedro I Corridor:
environmental
compensation and
awareness
Planting a seed
in their hearts
A program to plant seedlings is mobilizing students and communities
in the vicinity of the D. Pedro I Corridor in São Paulo State
written by Júlio César Soares / photos by Dario de Freitas
An elementary school teacher at
the Therezinha do Menino Jesus
Silveira Campos Sirera Municipal
School in Atibaia, São Paulo,
Marlene Martiniano Bernardes has
30 students, all in the fourth grade.
They are one of the groups that
took part in the Rota das Bandeiras
and Odebrecht Infraestrutura
(Infrastructure) seedling planting
program. The school is located in
odebrecht informa
Jardim Cerejeiras, a low-income
district of Atibaia, and for Marlene,
this kind of project goes beyond the
school and environmental issues. “It
plants a seed in children, who start
making environmental preservation
part of daily life, getting their families involved and raising awareness
about the importance of the environment. They learn what quality of life
is,” she says.
Rota das Bandeiras is responsible for the Dom Pedro I Corridor
concession, which links the cities of
Campinas and Jacareí in São Paulo
State. Among other projects, Odebrecht
Infraestrutura is doubling the width of
Route SP-360 (which connects Itatiba
and Jundiaí) and the Dom Pedro I (SP065) interchange in Campinas.
Nicolas Tanwing, the Odebrecht
Project Director for the Dom Pedro I
Corridor roadworks shares the idea
of planting seeds in people. “This
work is focused on raising people’s
awareness. We are planting seeds in
the community so that environmental
projects won’t stop with the roadworks,” he explains.
Luiz Cesar Costa, President and
CEO of Rota das Bandeiras, underscores the concession company’s
contribution to sustainable development and respect for future generations. “Respecting the environment is
one of the commitments undertaken
by Rota das Bandeiras. Our commitment is to comply with the rules and
requirements of environmental agencies that can help ensure a better
future for generations to come.”
Planting is a way of offsetting the
roadworks carried out on the highways that form the corridor. Twentyfive new trees of the same species
are planted for each native tree that
is removed. The construction of Rota
das Bandeiras’s headquarters at Km
110 of Route SP-065 was offset by
planting 700 seedlings.
So far, over 20,000 seedlings have
been planted along the stretch the
concession manages, in the vicinity
of schools and in areas provided by
municipal governments in the Dom
Pedro I Corridor’s sphere of influence. “We expect
to plant 300,000
seedlings to compensate for the
work done on the
highways. The
response of both
the government
and the community has been
favorable,” says
Nicolas. The com-
pany is also donating seedlings to
schools, local governments (such as
the towns of Atibaia and Itatiba), the
Army Battalion and the Agronomic
Institute of Campinas.
Rota das Bandeiras’s and
Odebrecht’s environment teams
do the planting in partnership
with the Tecplant company. “Local
governments and environmental
agencies recommend a site and
we evaluate the terrain, check the
soil, fence it off and started planting,” explains Sandra Camargo,
the officer Responsible for the
Rota das Bandeiras Environmental
Management System.
Sandra observes that the
main areas planted are close to
Permanent Protection Areas (PPAs)
and located by rivers and springs,
as well as on hillsides. “After the
seedlings are planted, the vegetation
is monitored on a quarterly basis,
except during rainy periods, when
maintenance is done monthly. The
monitoring process continues for
about three years,” she explains.
Besides planting seedlings, the
Rota das Bandeiras Environment
team inspects areas to detect the
presence of wildlife on or near sites
where roadworks will be carried out.
When they are found, the animals are
taken to a remote area and returned
to the wild. “The animals that can’t
go back to their natural habitats for
any reason are examined by a vet on
the Rota das Bandeiras team, and in
some cases, they are sent to Tietê
Park in São Paulo, which is one of
our partners,” says Sandra. In addition, Rota das Bandeiras is conducting a study to determine the main areas
where animals cross
the highway. “When
we find them, we build
wildlife crossings there
to prevent the animals
from being run over,”
explains Sandra.
Luiz Cesar Costa
points out that, in
2011, the program’s
activities will focus
on the schools. “We will carry out
more awareness-raising, training
and educational activities and projects in the communities, particularly
in schools in the towns and cities
near the roadworks.” As far as the
concession company’s members are
concerned, he stresses: “We will
continue working on in-house campaigns to advise on the best practices for preserving and protecting
nature, such as rational consumption of water and energy, the use of
recycled paper and selective trash
collection.”
odebrecht informa
18
angola
Wellspring of hope
The Kulonga pala Kukula
Program – “Education
for Development ” in
Kimbundu – is changing
the lives of ten Angolan
communities
written by Renata Meyer
photos by Almir Bindilatti
Keen, expectant eyes were
focused on the team assigned
to install semi-artesian wells in
low-income communities in the
Pungo Andongo region in the
Angolan province of Malange,
where Odebrecht is carrying out the
Kulonga pala Kukula social outreach program. As the drill went to
work, children and adults celebrated that achievement. Previously,
access to water had been limited
by the complete lack of water supply systems. Basic activities like
bathing, washing clothes and even
eating and drinking depended on
muddy streams and improvised
holes dug in the ground to catch
rainwater.
Building semi-artesian wells
is one of the activities that are
improving people’s quality of life
and health as part of the Kulonga
pala Kukula program, contributing to the sustainable development of 10 communities near the
Capanda hydroelectric plant, where
odebrecht informa
Malanje residents and
water: a new phase in
the communities’ lives
is just beginning
The semi-artesian well under construction, the vegetable garden and cooking funge: food security
Odebrecht Angola is now building
the Capanda-Cacuso and DondoCapanda highways. The program is
based on a socioeconomic survey
conducted in April and May 2009 in
partnership with Gesterra – Gestão
de Terras Aráveis (Arable Land
Management), the state-owned
Angolan company responsible for
the creation and management of
the Pungo Andongo Farm. The aim
of the survey was to determine
family demographics, living conditions and the main potential of the
local population.
Odebrecht invested USD 892,000
in this program in 2010 with a view
to benefiting a total of 369 families – 1,148 people. Kulonga pala
Kukula is a combination of integrated and systemic activities aimed at
reducing the population’s vulnerability, enhancing opportunities for
education and income generation,
strengthening local history and culture and improving the community’s
relationship with the environment.
Expectations are that the company’s
total investment will reach USD 2.8
million by 2012.
“The main thing that sets this
program apart is that the activities
are designed in a synergic manner,
so the results achieved in each one
contribute to the results achieved
by all the others,” says project
manager Ilana Cunha. “Another
premise is the focus on making
these activities self-supporting in
order to ensure that their benefits
continue when Odebrecht’s work is
done,” she adds.
In the first half of 2010, the
Kulonga pala Kukula program
started out with activities aimed
at expanding income-generating
opportunities. The low-cost, highvalue, short-cycle supply chain for
vegetable farming was introduced
in the area, helping diversify production and ensure food security for
the local community. The resources
allocated to the project were used
to create a bank of inputs consisting of 16 different crops sold to
the producers at cost, with a grace
period for payment linked to the
production cycle for each crop.
The farmers involved receive
advice on planting methods at
weekly meetings with the project’s
agricultural monitors, who keep
track of all stages of the supply
chain, from planting to marketing
and distribution. The produce is
sold to local customers, including
Odebrecht contracts and the Nosso
Super supermarket chain.
Traditionally present in the
region, the cassava supply chain
has also gained momentum
through the Kulonga pala Kukula
program, which is now responsible
for organizing and managing the
production of bombô meal, ultrafine cassava flour used to make
funge, the most important dish in
Angola’s cuisine. The program has
helped create local distribution
channels, contributing to a 75%
increase in rural families’ monthly
incomes. In the case of households
involved in the vegetable supply
chain, that increase has been as
high as 85%. “The Kulonga pala
Kukula program has come to show
us that, with hard work and dedication, we can go much further,”
says farmer Domingos Avelino
Francisco, referring to the house he
odebrecht informa
Traditional midwives: reducing
infant and maternal mortality
rates. Below, Kulonga pala
Kukula Program participants
Kukula pala Kulonga means “Education for Development”
in Kimbundu, the language spoken in 11 Angolan provinces,
including Malanje, where the program is being carried out.
was able to buy with the proceeds
of his crops.
Both supply chains have the
logistical support of Gesterra, a
partner in the program, which provides trucks and drivers to pick up
produce from the communities and
distribute it to customers.
The high vulnerability of the
population as a result of poor living conditions, and a lack of clean
water, sewage systems and urban
sanitation, which was found in
the preliminary survey, required
including a range of activities in the
project that have a direct impact on
health care and improving quality
of life. The first step was to identify
viable alternatives for supplying
water to the communities, with a
focus on improving public hygiene.
Through this program, the company
has invested approximately USD
300,000 in the construction of five
semi-artesian wells and 21 tanks to
catch and store rainwater. The tanks
are being built as a joint effort, with
the involvement of the local commu-
odebrecht informa
nities. “We realized that the issue of
access to water was a limiting factor
for any project in those communities,” says Ilana Cunha, who points
out that the installation of water
tanks and wells in the region is a
structuring activity.
In addition to facilitating access
to clean water for local communities, Kukula pala Kulonga regularly offers training programs for
agents to prevent and combat HIV/
AIDS and malaria, thereby helping
improve health indicators. It also
runs the Program for Strengthening
Traditional Midwives, which helps
reduce infant mortality rates, childbirth deaths and the vertical transmission of HIV/AIDS from mother to
child. The program offers courses
that provide guidance on health and
safety when delivering babies, as
well as stressing the importance of
family planning.
The lack of formal education
facilities is a critical factor in the
development of the Pungo Andongo
region, which explains the low rates
of schooling and strong migration of youth to urban centers. To
improve and expand the schooling
of young people through a process
of contextual education through
work and for life, the program
should make it possible to establish a Rural Family House there
in 2011, based on the Odebrecht
Foundation’s successful experience
in the Southern Bahia Lowlands
of northeastern Brazil. The main
objective is to groom a generation
of leaders that can contribute to
the development of their communities. A literacy program for adults
is also planned, with a view to giving producers more autonomy and
enabling them to strengthen farmers’ organizations.
For the Deputy Administrator of
the municipality of Pungo Andongo,
Maria Teresa Oleque, the activities
of the Kulonga pala Kukula program
are changing local communities’
lives. “This project will help create
new opportunities for our people,
with fruits that are beginning to
appear in various areas.”
21
angola
A new day in Honga
Creative solutions improve quality of life in a district
of Luanda written by Renata Meyer / photo by Almir Bindilatti
In 2009, a worrying statistic caught the attention of the
Odebrecht teams working on the Condomínio Belo Monte real
estate project in Luanda, the capital of Angola. During the
rainy season between March and July, there was a considerable surge in malaria cases among the company’s members.
Doctors and researchers assessed the situation and discovered
that the source of the problem was the poor sanitary conditions
in Honga, a district near the project.
This was the starting point of a project that is helping change
the lives of many of the 15,000 families living in that area. Since
July 2009, Odebrecht and Sakus, the Organization’s real estate
partner in Luanda, have been active in the community through
the Honga Project, identifying problems in that neighborhood
and seeking to improve its residents’ quality of life through creative initiatives.
The mobilization of community leaders to tackle this objective and the involvement of partners from the public and private
sectors, as well as volunteers from Kambas do Bem, a group
formed by Odebrecht members’ wives, have been crucial to
establishing and consolidating the program, which also aims to
restore civic rights and bring about social inclusion. The project
that arose from health concerns has gained momentum and
now includes a range of activities in areas as diverse as education, culture, citizenship, sports and leisure.
In the field of health, the project is taking corrective and
preventive measures in partnership with the Municipal Health
Bureau of Samba (the part of the Luanda metropolitan area
where Honga is located), including training courses for com-
Honga children
play Capoeira:
recreation,
integration and
inclusion
munity workers, the distribution of mosquito nets, vaccination
campaigns and the installation of mobile public health centers.
One of the challenges in this area, given the lack of demographic statistics – most of Honga’s residents are undocumented – is collecting data on public health, the main diseases and
their impact. This task is being carried out through a partnership with Jean Piaget University that also includes community
services provided by students through supervised internships.
Those services will be available at the temporary health center
being set up in the community.
The Honga Project, now sponsored by the Luanda Sul contract since construction work for Belo Monte was completed,
also offers Capoeira classes to 130 children, encouraging
sports and cultural revival through an opportunity to learn a
truly African martial art. Using building materials left over
from Odebrecht’s construction works, the project has helped to
rebuild the local church and install the temporary health center,
as well as building the house that is now home to the Sisters of
Charity, a group that moved from Brazil to Angola to work with
the community.
In the field of professional education, the project has graduated a group of 20 women who have been trained as bricklayers
and are already working for Odebrecht. The goal is to provide
further courses at the professional education center being built,
in partnership with the community and Kambas do Bem.
“The Honga Project has come to awaken our community
to social progress. As a result, we can glimpse new horizons
ahead,” says community leader Abraão João Cawendi.
odebrecht informa
22
collective trash collection
ODEBRECHT ARCHIVES
Participants in the recycling
campaign held during the
Formula 1 Brazil Grand Prix
(on this and the following
page): environmental
preservation and job
and income creation
Recycling on the podium
Recycling campaign carried out during the Formula 1 Brazil GP shows how
to create products and work opportunities written by Eliana Simonetti
Working in partnership with
the City of São Paulo, Plastivida
and Suzuki Plastics, Braskem
organized a unique plastic recycling campaign that ran from
November 4 to 28, 2010. The start
was given at the Formula 1 Brazil
Grand Prix at the Interlagos racecourse, and featured collection
sites set up in five parks in different parts of the state capital.
The campaign was not limited
to collecting recyclable materials. It also showed how to create
new products and jobs through
this supply chain. Participants
odebrecht informa
produced 400 trash bins and 100
planters made from plastic wood,
to be donated to São Paulo in celebration of the anniversary of its
founding on January 25.
“This was a first-rate initiative.
The campaign as a whole, and
plastic wood in particular, were
highly praised,” says Geraldo
Pires, a consultant who coordinates the environmental projects
of Plastivida, an association of
plastics manufacturers. Pires
went to Interlagos before Nov. 4
to help organize the Coopercaps
Cooperative of trash collectors
and the installation of a pilot
plant for Suzuki Plastics at the
racecourse. And he also helped
welcome visitors. “It’s interesting
to see how people actually view
Braskem’s concept of sustainability,” he adds.
The campaign collected all
the trash discarded at the racecourse. Moreover, 12 plastic collection sites were also installed
in five parks: Ibirapuera, Luz,
Carmo, Trote and Alfredo Volpi.
Considering the racecourse alone,
there was a 22% increase in
recyclable materials and a 21%
RESULTS OF BRASKEM
RECYCLING GP
Selective Collection at Interlagos
on November 5, 6 and 7
PLASTIC 12,055 kg (33.4%)
PAPER 11,200 kg (31%)
> METAL 8,700 kg (24.1%)
> GLASS
4,140 kg (11.5%)
TOTAL
36,095 kg
>
>
Plastic collected at five São Paulo
parks – November 4-28
VOLPI
LUZ
> TROTE
> CARMO
> IBIRAPUERA
TOTAL
>
>
65 kg
384 kg
228 kg
373 kg
500 kg
1,550 kg
of experience working with plastic
collectors. Plastic wood is made
from formulas that make it possible to use all sorts of discarded
plastic. A combination of different
types of plastic produces stronger
or more flexible wood, for example.
But everything is utilized, and the
end result is both eco-friendly and
attractive. The 155,213 people who
visited the mini-factory set up at
the racecourse can vouch for that.
“We need to think about a correct and profitable destination for
plastic,” says Gustavo Bazzano,
Commercial Director of Acinplas.
“With physical characteristics
that are very similar to those of
traditional wood, and the strength
and durability of plastic, plastic
wood made of recycled materials is ideal for locations that are
exposed to the elements,” he
adds.
ODEBRECHT ARCHIVES
increase in the amount of plastics collected, compared with the
materials gathered during the
2009 Grand Prix.
This is the first time the campaign organized by Braskem and
the Brazil GP has been extended
to other areas of São Paulo. The
trophy designed by architect
Oscar Niemeyer and made from
green plastic was introduced to
the public at Interlagos in 2008. In
2009, a factory was set up within
the racecourse so people could
see the trophies being made. In
2010, the program took another
step – showing that recycling
discarded plastic is feasible on a
broader basis.
The Acinplas Group, which controls Suzuki Plastics, is a national
leader in the processing of plastic
containers for fruits and vegetables. It has more than 10 years
odebrecht informa
24
chemicals
Broad outlook
Braskem’s green ethylene unit in Triunfo: the world’s first factory
to use renewable raw materials on an industrial scale
written by Luciana Moglia / photos by Mathias Cramer
Braskem took on a fresh challenge in September
2010: becoming the world leader in sustainable
chemicals, with the aim of innovating to give people
better service. The company has followed this path
since its inception, but now that it has become
Braskem’s Vision, it has taken on a different status.
That same month, Braskem opened a unit that
produces ethylene derived from sugarcane ethanol
in the Triunfo Petrochemical Complex in Rio Grande
do Sul, Brazil, the largest factory in the world using
renewable raw materials. Its production capacity
is 200,000 metric tons per year. Green plastic has
a very favorable environmental balance, removing
up to 2.5 tons of carbon from the atmosphere for
every ton of polyethylene produced, starting with
the planting of sugarcane.
The term “sustainable chemicals” represents the
course Braskem has set and will follow until 2020.
For Braskem, sustainable development is defined as
“a way of driving business development and considering the needs of all interested parties today and
tomorrow.” In practice, this means offering products
and services through processes that combine economic and financial viability with responsibility and
commitments regarding their social and environmental impact.
Chemicals is broader than petrochemicals, and
paves the way for the company to work with other
sources of raw materials in addition to petroleum
and expand its product portfolio. Brazil
is a candidate for becoming the world’s
odebrecht informa
largest supplier of raw materials from renewable sources, because it has plenty of good, arable
land, water and sunshine, characteristics that give
Braskem excellent prospects for using renewable
raw materials.
“We have to develop new production processes
for raw materials that have proven economic conditions and sustainability, as we’ve done with ethylene made from ethanol. We will practically have
to recreate the chemicals industry,” says Roberto
Ramos, formerly the Braskem Vice President for
International Business.
The use of renewable raw materials like sugarcane and the search for other technological
routes comprise an important pillar of Braskem's
new Vision. But sustainable chemicals is part of
a much larger concept. “Sustainability is not just
about renewables. We must achieve better performance in industrial processes and eco-efficiency
indexes, such as the search for ways to reduce CO2
emissions,” says Rui Chammas, Braskem’s Vice
President for Polymers.
Jorge Soto, the Braskem officer Responsible for
Sustainable Development, explains
that the company is already getting
good results from investments in
improved eco-efficiency indexes.
The result has been a 13% decrease
in carbon emissions from 2008 to
2009. “Caring for the environment
is an appropriate way to serve
people and get results. These are the premises
of a sustainable company,” he says. The pursuit
of balance is also an important social pillar of
the Vision for 2020. Braskem has made recycling
programs a priority for the coming years in order
to contribute to the social inclusion of waste pickers. Among other projects, the company started
out 2009 with the integrated Social Partnership
for the Productive Inclusion of Waste Pickers and
Strengthening of Recycling Units Network, based
on technological support for recycling centers in
Rio Grande do Sul.
Braskem’s green
ethylene unit in
Triunfo: the largest
factory in the world
using renewable
raw materials
odebrecht informa
26
chemicals
In pursuit of revolutionary
improvements
The company set the goal of achieving global leadership
in sustainable chemicals when it was born in 2002
written by Luciana Moglia / photos by Mathias Cramer
The challenge Braskem has
issued – becoming the World Leader
in Sustainable Chemicals to Better
Serve People – began with the company’s founding in 2002. Acting in
accordance with the principles of
sustainable development is part of
its Public Commitment. Even before
the creation of
Braskem, the
companies that
formed it were
already seeking to improve
Braskem’s new green ethylene
plant in Triunfo, and, in the smaller
photo, the raw material made there:
a benchmark in the global market
odebrecht informa
their performance in Health, Safety
and Environment by signing onto the
Responsible Care Program under the
leadership of Abiquim (the Brazilian
Association of Chemical Industries).
From 2002 to 2009, the level of
investment in this area increased,
improving facilities and everyday
practice. The result translates into
numbers. The average investment
between 2003 and 2004 was approximately BRL 40 million. Between
2005 and 2008, the average came to
about BRL 140 million. And in 2009
it was BRL 283 million
(including the investment in the new green
ethylene plant). Because of this, all
eco-efficiency indicators (per unit
of output) improved from 2002 to
2009. Water consumption fell by 19%
and energy consumption by 12%.
The generation of wastewater was
slashed by 40%.
Recognition for these achievements
includes such honors as Braskem’s
listing on the BM & Bovespa
Corporate Sustainability Index (ISE)
for the sixth consecutive year and its
presence for the second year in the
Exame Sustainability Guide. “When
people look at Braskem they can
already see our best practices and our
contribution to sustainable development,” says Jorge Soto, the Braskem
officer Responsible for Sustainable
Development.
To become the global leader in
sustainable chemicals by 2020, innovation will be essential. “It will allow
us to identify revolutionary improvements that will give society a level
of response that environmental and
social problems demand, such as
climate change and water stress in
some locations,” observes Soto.
The company has
outlined seven macroobjectives to guide it
towards achieving its Vision for 2020:
reducing greenhouse gas emissions,
finding renewable raw materials,
water efficiency, energy efficiency,
post-consumption, chemical safety
and people development.
To achieve these objectives, the
company chiefly relies on technology and people. “Our team is committed to Braskem’s Vision, taking
into account their actions on the
principles of sustainability and the
pursuit of innovation, so we will
stay at the forefront,” said Manoel
Carnauba, Vice President for Basic
Petrochemicals.
One of the most important challenges will be consolidating the company’s global leadership in the production of plastic resins made from
renewable raw materials. Braskem
faces the challenge of identifying the
best technological routes and choosing the most viable ones. In some
cases, their viability will not be clear
at first, so the company will have to
take some chances. For example,
there are good possibilities of replicating the use of renewable raw
materials in Mexico and Peru.
People’s knowledge and dedication
in the pursuit of innovation will be
key to the entire process. “Braskem
will make tremendous efforts to
develop people and build strategic
alliances with universities and technology centers worldwide. We must
attract world-class researchers,”
says Roberto Bischoff, the leader of
Braskem’s joint venture with Idesa
in Mexico, which is developing a
petrochemical project in the state of
Veracruz that is expected to go into
operation by 2015.
odebrecht informa
28
mozambique
Hitting the road
A program that has benefited
20,000 people in Brazil, including
Odebrecht members and residents
of communities in the vicinity
of the company’s jobsites, Caia
na Rede (Hit the Net) made its
international debut in November.
Under the leadership of Odebrecht
and the Vale Foundation, in partnership with Microsoft Brazil,
Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Air
Portugal (TAP), the Caia na Rede
program has hit the road and is
now in Mozambique, in the sphere
of influence of the mining giant
Vale’s Moatize Coal Project.
At least 1,500 people will be
using three stations with Internetconnected computers and printers
by the end of 2011. One of those
stations is based at the Moatize
Project jobsite, and is available
to company members working on
that project; another is located at
the Dom Bosco school, serving
youth from the cities of Moatize
and Tete, and the third is in
Cateme, which is home to the 900
resettled families that used to live
in the mine concession area. “The
reception has been fantastic. The
participants want to stay on in the
classrooms after class and use
the Internet in their spare time,”
says Marcos Vinícius Couto, the
odebrecht informa
Emílio Munaro, Educational
Director of Microsoft Brazil,
with Caia na Rede participants
in Mozambique: 1,500 people
will have access to three
stations equipped with
Internet-linked computers
by the end of 2011
ODEBRECHT ARCHIVES
The Caia na Rede digital inclusion program makes its global
debut in Mozambique written by Leonardo Maia
ODEBRECHT ARCHIVES
officer Responsible for Caia na
Rede in Mozambique.
With a duration of 32 class
hours, the two-month course
includes the basics, focusing
on digital literacy, and technical
classes focusing on using online
services and Microsoft Office
programs. Classes are taught
through Microsoft’s e-learning
system with the help of volunteer
instructors.
Mozambique is 172nd among
the 182 countries in the Human
Development Index (HDI) ranking, and only 1.56% of its population has access to the Internet,
which attests to the importance
of a program to close the digital divide in that country. Just a
few months after its debut there,
Caia na Rede’s future is already
guaranteed. “Vale is our executive
partner in the program and will
be present in Mozambique for 35
years. This program will continue
with their support,” says Marcos
Vinícius.
odebrecht informa
30
escola em ação
Life-changing lessons
A program underway in Macaé, Rio de Janeiro, encourages social
inclusion through cultural and community activities
written by Rubeny Goulart
Introduced in Macaé, Rio de
Janeiro, in 2007 with the aim of
encouraging social inclusion in
deprived areas through cultural and
community activities, the Escola em
Ação (Schools in Action) program is
the result of a partnership between
Odebrecht Oil & Gas (OOG), the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and
the Macaé Department of Education.
It has directly benefited more than
1,500 people, including students from
the schools involved and members
of the local communities. Today, it
serves more than 400 participants
in seven schools (four more will be
added in 2011). Escola em Ação is a
social initiative that is changing lives
by providing growth prospects that
many had never experienced before.
Nineteen local volunteers from
Macaé communities are participating in Escola em Ação by working on
the three projects that comprise the
program: Abrindo Espaços (Making
Room), focused on sports, cultural
and recreational activities, Caia na
Rede (Hit the Net), for digital inclusion, and Professional Qualification,
which offers community members an
opportunity to acquire specific skills
Young participants in the Escola em Ação program: fresh prospects
odebrecht informa
that are in demand on the job market. The program is run by a Steering
Committee comprised of representatives of the corporate sponsors, the
Department of Education, and the
Crescer (Grow) Institute, the NGO
that is the executive partner in these
projects.
Escola em Ação was inspired by
UNESCO’s Abrindo Espaços (Making
Room): Education for a Culture of
Peace program, which focuses on
opening public schools on weekends
to provide cultural, sports and leisure
activities in low-income communities. The goal of the program carried
MARCELO PIZZATO
out in Macaé in partnership with the
Department of Education is to reduce
the number of young people living
with violence in their social environment, encourage interest in school,
and integrate the school with the
community. Today, Abrindo Espaços is
active in four schools in the region.
Botafogo Municipal High School,
located in one of the most deprived and
violent areas of the city, was the first
to join the Abrindo Espaços program.
Today, at least half of its 758 students
are taking ballet, jazz, judo, Capoeira and
knitting classes offered as extracurricular activities after school and on weekends. The Basic Education Development
Index (BEDI), which measures the quality
of education, has risen by 40%, and
the school, which once suffered from
constant vandalism, is better preserved.
“There is more respect, and students
spend most of their time at school in
cultural activities,” says the principal,
Luziana Almeida, who has worked in
that community for over 22 years.
Escola em Ação launched Caia na
Rede in October 2010 in the wake of
Abrindo Espaços. So far, it is being
implemented at three public schools
in Macaé. The IT project, which replicates the digital education courses
offered at Odebrecht construction
sites, was first introduced in São
Roque do Paraguaçu, Bahia, by the
PRA-1 joint venture. In less than a
year, it has closed the digital divide
for over a thousand people, including
workers, teachers and students at
municipal schools in the region.
Adapted to the Escola em Ação
program, Caia na Rede is implemented in school libraries with the
support of the Macaé Department of
Science and Technology. It is open to
students, teachers and community
Caia na Rede:
giving youth the
tools they need
to work in their
communities
members. Through a partnership
formed in 2009, the program was
eventually bolstered by partnerships
with Microsoft, which provides software and teacher training, Dell and
IBM, which furnish computers, and
SESI (Social Service for Industry),
which is responsible for the basic
introductory course on computer
science. “The expectation is that, by
mastering computer skills, some
young people will work actively in
their neighborhoods, producing and
conveying information of community
interest,” explains Emile Machado,
OOG’s Corporate Social Responsibility
Coordinator and the company’s representative on the Steering Committee.
Nine students are enrolled in
Caia na Rede at the Oscar Cordeiro
School. The principal, Adelma José
dos Santos Menezes, considers digital
inclusion a gateway to opportunity.
“Mastering the language of computers and IT skills raises students’
self-esteem,” she says. “Escola em
Ação permits tremendous interaction,
including community members who
had not been going to school.”
Professional Qualification, the third
pillar of Escolas em Ação, arose to
meet the demand in Macaé communities. The first classes were in the
areas of construction, boilermaking,
and industrial and electrical painting. So far, 453 young people have
graduated. All are members of the
community, and at least 60% are now
included in the labor market.
In addition to participating in
Escola em Ação’s classes and activities, community members can also
interact through volunteer work.
Greicy Kelly, 15, is a student and a
volunteer teacher at the Engenho
da Praia School, where she teaches
a class in decorating china, glass
bottles, jars and other items. She is
a “multiplier” – someone with the
ability to train other volunteers. One
of them is her friend José Tayan, 15,
who is not only her student but also
teaches china painting at the same
school. “I am happy to be able to add
something and help people,” he says.
More than simply adding something,
for Escola em Ação, volunteer work
multiplies.
odebrecht informa
32
prize
Engineering
preservation
The winners of the third edition of the Odebrecht Sustainable
Development Prize are college students from five Brazilian states
written by Leonardo Mourão
Produced by young college
students from universities
throughout Brazil, the five winning entries in the third edition
of the Odebrecht Sustainable
Development Prize show that,
from north to south, young talent is rapidly growing, with a
focus on producing engineering solutions that consider the
main pillars of sustainability:
economic viability, environmental responsibility and social
inclusion. They are future
professionals who are already
finding ways to contribute to
social and environmental sustainability in Brazil and the
world.
Reusing construction waste
One example is the “Proposal
for the Feasibility of Building
with Zero Waste,” by Beatriz
Rossignol Vieira Cardoso, 23,
and Neide Braga dos Santos,
29, final year Civil Engineering
students at the University of
São Judas Tadeu in São Paulo.
Mentored by Professor Flávio
odebrecht informa
Leal Maranhão, Beatriz and
Neide’s Course Completion
project took into account that
the waste produced on a construction project is generated at different stages of the
works and could be used as
raw materials in the following
stages.
“A construction site is a perfect place for recycling and
reusing materials, and we have
the technical know-how to do
that,” says Neide. “We want to
do away with dump trucks filled
with rubble and all the energy
expenditure required to take it
to the local dumps, which, incidentally, are already overflowing in major cities.”
In their project, the two
students cite statistics showing that the average amount
of waste produced per square
meter in new construction projects is 150 kg, which means
that a 10,000-sq.m project produces about 1,500 metric tons
of waste. According to their
research, 17,240 metric tons
of construction waste were
discarded in the city per day in
2000. “That’s a very high figure,” says Beatriz. “And the big
issue is that engineers who are
30 or 40 years old today have
not been trained to dispose of
that waste correctly, and are
often unaware of the need to
do so.”
The proposal of the future
engineers who created the
method also suggests ways to
encourage the various entities
involved in this issue – government agencies, builders
and clients – to reduce this
environmental impact. For
example, construction companies that fully recycle waste in
their projects could be entitled
to tax breaks when purchasing
products or services; clients
who buy units in those buildings could pay less property
tax, and government agencies
would save due to the decrease
in truck traffic on roads and
the lower cost of maintaining
disposal sites.
ODEBRECHT ARCHIVES
From left, rear, MC Ricardo Voltolini, Rovy Ferreira, Enedir Ghisi, Nadja Dutra, Henrique Valladares (CEO of Odebrecht
Energia), Angelo Zanini, Francisco Cavalcante, Guilherme Soares, Lucianna Szeliga, Michélle Casagrande, Pedro
Henrique Lopes, Neide dos Santos and Flávio Maranhão; foreground, Gustavo Fontes, Suelly Barroso, Synardo Pereira,
Isadora da Silva, Hersília Santos and Beatriz Cardoso: the business world and academia are in sync
“It’s a new proposal for
handling waste,” says Flávio
Leal Maranhão, a Professor
of Building Materials and
Construction. “In the United
States and Europe, there are
similar programs that encourage energy savings, and 50% of
builders have signed on. Here in
Brazil we would certainly see a
similar percentage, which would
have a huge positive impact on
the environment.”
Replacing crushed rock
The construction industry
is facing the urgent need to
seek alternatives for the waste
produced in cities, as well
as in rural areas. The huge
increase in construction projects requires new approaches
in construction. The number of
roads that are beginning to be
paved is one example. Natural
resources, primarily crushed
rock, are limited, and their use
is now heavily regulated by
environmental agencies.
Students Synardo Leonardo
de Oliveira Pereira and
Francisco das Chagas Isael
Teixeira Cavalcante, from the
Federal University at Ceará,
have proposed a solution to
this problem. Mentored by
Professor Suelly Helena de
Araújo Barroso, who has been
the advisor for winning projects in all three editions of the
odebrecht informa
Odebrecht Prize, the students
proposed to use waste from
the steel industry as aggregate
in Double Surface Treatment
(DST). The performance of
this byproduct was compared
with that of conventional DST
methods in a laboratory test
that simulates the responses of
both, confirming the efficiency
of using waste products from
the steel industry on low traffic
volume roads.
Green roads with ash
Another study also suggests
that the reuse of materials that
are usually discarded – at best
in controlled dump sites – can
benefit road construction. It
was conducted at the Catholic
University of Rio de Janeiro by
students Gino Omar Calderón
Vizcarra and Lucianne Szeliga
under the guidance of Professor
Michéle Dal Toé Casagrande.
In this proposal, the students
evaluated the possibility of mixing fly ash (so called because
it consists of light particles
obtained from the combustion of
organic products) with clay soil
to form the base for roadways.
They analyzed ash produced
at the Green Plant on Fundão
Island, Rio de Janeiro, studying
its chemical composition and
testing its mechanical strength.
The conclusion was that the
ash can be used to stabilize the
base of the pavement by reducing expansion and contraction,
and is suitable for roadways
with moderate traffic. Better
yet, this process could prevent
ash from being released into
odebrecht informa
the atmosphere, which is the
case with many urban incinerators.
Fish ladder
In a country like Brazil, where
an abundance of rivers makes
it highly advantageous to build
dams for electricity production,
the impact of large artificial lakes
on fish is a constant concern. The
interruption of a watercourse by
a large dam usually prevents fish
from migrating upstream during
breeding season.
To minimize this serious risk,
ladders are built on the sides of
the dams to allow fish to climb
them, as they would in natural
rapids. However, as three students from the Federal Center
for Technological Education
at Minas Gerais (Cefet/MG)
observed, most often these ladders are made of smooth concrete, making them difficult to
climb and even preventing fish
from swimming upstream.
To address this challenge,
Isadora Carvalho da Silva,
Guilherme Gonçalves Soares
and Pedro Henrique Viana de
Araújo Lopes have proposed
adding pebbles and clay to
these ladders to make them
rough enough for the fish to
climb. In this project, which
was mentored by Professor
Hersília de Andrade e Santos,
the students proposed a kind of
transposition mechanism that,
besides adding pebbles and
clay to facilitate the propulsion
of the fish, can also make the
water flow compatible with their
upstream movement. The stu-
dents produced concrete parts
for this experimental transposition mechanism and measured
the flow and turbulence of the
water passing through them.
All-weather school
Students from the Federal
University at Santa Catarina
have produced a proposal to
develop a modular and sustainable school that can provide
comfort to its occupants in any
of Brazil’s different climate
zones. Authored by Gustavo
Prado Fontes and Rovy Pinheiro
Pessoa Ferreira, and mentored
by Professor Enedir Ghisi, the
project proposes using modern and conventional building methods and innovative
technologies to generate and
conserve resources with energy
efficiency, while staying within a
comfortable range of temperature and light intensity.
The project envisages using
solar water heating and rainwater, reusing wastewater and
providing natural ventilation and
lighting. As one of the goals
was to make the modules suitable for all types of weather,
they selected three cities –
Curitiba, Ituaçu and Belém,
respectively in southeastern,
northeastern and northern
Brazil – where climatic conditions are quite different. Based
on a computer simulation,
their analysis showed the need
to adapt the module to the
extreme temperatures of each
of those regions (freezing cold
in Curitiba and intense heat in
Belém), which was done.
venezuela
35
Fresh ideas, fresh solutions
ODEBRECHT ARCHIVES
The first edition of the Odebrecht Venezuela Sustainable Development Prize
mobilizes universities nationwide written by Cláudio Lovato Filho
From left, Jorge Yánez, Fruto Vivas (speaker), Guillermo Bonilla, Joaquin Clausnitzer Paez, Aillen Ferreira Camacaro,
Euzenando Azevedo, María Boscan Granadillo, Alvaro Waracao Navaez, José Cláudio Daltro (Responsible for
Administration and Finance at Odebrecht Venezuela), Marcos Catillo Rondon, Manuel Briceño, Agustín Marulanda and
Emily Marín: the company’s recognition for students, professors and university representatives
Young college students are building their own tomorrow while thinking about their country’s future. A group
from Caracas has devised a solution for reducing the
environmental impact that can be caused by installing a poorly designed concrete factory. A student from
Maracaibo has suggested a way to develop power,
water and natural gas at a resort hotel on the Island of
Coche. They are the winners of the first edition of the
Odebrecht Venezuela Sustainable Development Prize
for students of Engineering and Architecture at universities around the country.
At the award ceremony held in Caracas on
November 16, the joy and vibrancy typical of the university environment set the tone for the festivities. The
events room in the Marriott Hotel where the ceremony
took place was more like a college campus. The 190
people gathered there including students, teachers,
deans, university presidents, representatives of professional associations, media associations and Odebrecht
clients.
Joaquin Bertholdo Clausnitzer Paez, Aileen Gabriela
Ferreira Camacaro and Marcos Alfredo Castillo Rondon
study Civil Engineering at José María Vargas University
in Caracas. The advisor who mentored their project was
Professor Alvaro Jose Waracao Narvaez. María Daniela
Boscan Granadillo, a student of Electrical Engineering at the
University of Zulia, in Maracaibo, was mentored by Professor
Cesar Francisco Alvarez Arocha. They shared first place in a
prize that may be new but had many entries vying to win it.
The second edition is already in the works. They received trophies, certificates and a total of BsF 90,000 (strong bolivars),
shared by the students, advisors and universities.
“We want to motivate young students to produce and
implement projects based on sustainable development,
generating knowledge and promoting new ideas,” said
Euzenando Azevedo, CEO of Odebrecht Venezuela, at
the opening ceremony. He underscored Odebrecht’s
tradition of seeking the closest possible relationship
with academia in all the countries where the company’s
teams are present.
odebrecht informa
36
portugal
Isabel and Tatiana:
overcoming dislike
of school through
dialog
A new relationship
Business leaders are getting involved in a program that helps
change how young people see their schools
written by José Enrique Barreiro / photos by Marcella Haddad
A year ago, Portuguese teenager
Soraia Caetano, a 9th grader from
the EB 2/3 Cardoso Lopes School, in
the Lisbon district of Amadora, had
lost interest in her studies and was
about to make a life-changing decision. “I wanted to quit school.” She
spent all her time playing soccer and
surfing the Internet. As for school,
she was unmotivated and had poor
grades and worse behavior. Soraia
was on the verge of dropping out.
But then Isabel Duarte, a schoolteacher who works as a facilitator
for the EPIS - Businesses for Social
Inclusion program, came into her
life. Created in Portugal in 2006
odebrecht informa
after President Aníbal Cavaco Silva
called on the nation’s business
leaders to help improve education,
EPIS focuses on improving failure
and dropout rates and developing
good practices in school administration. More than 80 companies,
including Odebrecht Bento Pedroso
Construções (BPC), are supporting
the program.
“We do one-on-one monitoring
for struggling students,” says Isabel
Duarte. She has managed to turn
Soraia Caetano’s situation around
at school, and the teen is no longer
thinking of dropping out. On the
contrary: she has not only started
to enjoy her classes and get good
grades but still finds time to practice as the goalkeeper of Benfica, a
young women’s soccer team.
Another teenager whose relationship with school was transformed
through her interaction with Isabel
Duarte is Tatiana Mendes, who is
also in the 9th year at the EB 2/3
Cardoso Lopes School. According to
Tatiana, a year ago, all she did was
“just fool around.” Today she wants
to become a fashion designer and
is at the top of her class in Visual
Education. Regarding the facilitator’s
work, Tatiana says: “The most important thing she did was talk to me.”
Simple solutions
“We are doing complementary
work at the school. Through individual extracurricular coaching, we
help students adopt simple routines
that can be decisive to their development,” explains EPIS Director Diogo
Simões Pereira. One of those routines is learning to study by better
organizing students’ daily schedules
and setting priorities and focuses.
“We don’t teach subjects – that’s
the teachers’ job. Nor do we change
the students’ lives. We want to help
them get better grades, transform
their relationship with their studies and get them to realize that
their only prospect for the future is
through school, because that is what
provides the certification needed for
social inclusion,” says Diogo.
To cope with these challenges,
EPIS has developed a technology
centered on mediation. The facilitators are not teachers at the schools
where they operate. They play an
external role, focusing on under-
Diogo Pereira: complementary work
standing the issues that students
with learning difficulties face in four
areas: themselves, their families,
their territory (community) and
their school. Through dialog and
encouragement, they seek the best
and simplest solutions to overcome
those difficulties. “No matter how
Soraia: “I wanted
to quit school”
much they might want to, teachers
do not have the time or the means
to do this work in the classroom.
That’s why we are here,” says Isabel
Duarte, one of the 73 EPIS facilitators who mentored 5,812 students
from 94 schools nationwide in 2009
and 2010.
Schools of the Future
The other front of EPIS’s work
focuses on school administration.
Called Schools of the Future, the
project aims to disseminate the best
practices of Portuguese schools
that get good results. The program
has identified 130 best practices.
Collected in a book for school principals, teachers and parents, it is a
guide for the improvement of school
management in Portugal, a country
that has one of the highest failure
and dropout rates in Europe. “We’re
lagging behind in the field of education, in comparison with Central
and Northern Europeean countries,”
explains Diogo Simões Pereira.
odebrecht informa
“One factor was that the Portuguese
school system, which was elitist for
20 years, has been universalized,
so many young people are the first
in their families to go to school.
Therefore, average performance
declined.” However, he believes that
that trend is only temporary. Soon,
the overall quality of education will
resume its growth.
Prompted by Odebrecht Informa
to pick two of the 130 best practices
that he would implement immediately if he were the principal of a
Portuguese school, he recommended the following:
- Getting to know the students
and their socioeconomic environment very well. Identifying those
with special needs (“typically 20%
of each class; the others can manage on their own”) and focusing on
them.
- Building a closer relationship
between parents and the school.
When parents keep an eye on their
children’s education, the students
get better results. When they realize their parents are not involved,
young people become at risk of
leaving school.
LEARNING TO ENTREPRENEUR
In addition to EPIS, other nongovernmental institutions are
also helping improve education
in Portugal. They include Junior
Achievement, founded in 1919
in the United States and present
in Portugal since 2005, where it
runs the Learning to Entrepreneur
program, aimed at all areas of the
schools.
The objective of the program,
according to Erica Nascimento,
the institution’s Regional
Director for Southern Lisbon, is
to bring students into the professional world through extracurricular activities. In primary
schools, it covers the roles of the
family and community and provides practical information about
personal finance. In secondary
schools, young people learn
about companies, banks and professional relationships and are
challenged to come up with an
entrepreneurial idea. At the university level, students organize
and operate a fictitious company.
Erica Nascimento:
providing the tools
odebrecht informa
“Our focus is on education for
entrepreneurship,” says Erica.
“As our history demonstrates,
Portuguese youth are enterprising,
but they need the tools that will
enable them to build sustainable
businesses. That’s what we try to
offer them.”
The program has the support of Odebrecht Bento Pedroso
Construções and other Portuguese
companies. In addition to providing
financial assistance, the companies
encourage their members to visit
the schools as volunteers and share
their professional experience with
students.
Anabela Nunes, a member of
the Odebrecht Bento Pedroso
Construções communication team, is
one of those volunteers. In 2007-2008
and 2008-2009, she worked at the
São Marcos primary school in Porto
Salvo, where she used games to show
children the role of money, how to go
shopping, why taxes are paid and how
to set up a store. “I tried to help them
distinguish between wants and needs,
the essentials and the superfluous,
because I think that is very important
in life,” explains Anabel.
Erica says the number of volunteers from the companies involved
in the program is growing. “They
are essential, because they contribute the realities of work, which
become part of what students learn
in school.”
Since Learning to Entrepreneur
was created in Portugal in 2005,
about 1,300 volunteers have worked
with 1,280 classes at 390 schools in
that country, sharing their expertise with 28,000 students.
portugal
39
Victory of determination
Portuguese workers seize an opportunity to improve their schooling
written by José Enrique Barreiro / photo by Marcella Haddad
November 25, 2010, was an important day in the life of Francisco
Rodrigues, 57, better known as Chico Bragança. A Portuguese
national, he is a supervisor on the Baixo Sabor Dam construction
project in the Bragança district in northern Portugal. He had only
studied until the 4th grade, but that day he received a 9th-grade
certificate (equivalent to a primary school diploma). At the graduation ceremony held in an office at the dam’s jobsite, Fernando
Calado, the Director of the Bragança Office of the Institute of
Employment and Vocational Education, the organization that runs
the program, explained what Chico Bragança and the other 17
workers who finished the 9th grade knew from experience: “It is
not easy to work all day and study at night, when the mind and
body just want to rest. Anyone who has experienced it knows how
much determination it takes.”
Chico and his coworkers had a chance to finish the 9th grade
because they enrolled in the Portuguese Government’s New
Opportunities program to increase levels of education for people over
the age of 23. Life experience is recognized as knowledge through
the Acknowledge, Validate and Certify Knowledge (Portuguese initials
RVCC) process. The participants also study academic subjects, which
allows adults to obtain better educational certification. However, as
was the case with Chico and his coworkers at the Baixo Sabor dam
construction site, this is not done in schools but in the workplace.
Book of Life
Located in the Bragança district, the Baixo Sabor dam will
have two large reservoirs to store water from the Sabor River, a
tributary of the Douro. They include an upstream reservoir, with
a maximum height of 123 m, and a downstream reservoir, with a
maximum height of 45 m. Both will be filled as of January 2013.
The client for the project is EDP – Gestão da Produção de Energia
S.A. The Baixo Sabor project is one of the most important works
in progress in the country, and the contractor is the Baixo Sabor
ACE, formed by Odebrecht Bento Pedroso Construções and Lena
Construções, with BPC as the leader. There are currently about 800
workers at the jobsite, and that number is expected to increase to
1,600 at the peak of construction. This is the backdrop for the New
Opportunities program.
“The idea of the program is not to study to finish school, but to
recognize the skills that people already have,” says António Monteiro,
from Odebrecht, the Administrative and Financial Manager at the
Chico Bragança receives his certificate: recognized expertise
Baixo Sabor ACE, who along with Clarisse Monteiro and Filipe
Amaral is on the team that took the New Opportunities program to
the jobsite and coordinates its implementation. António gives a concrete example of what it means to recognize expertise: “Some of the
workers who graduated had extensive experience in using explosives
for rock blasting, but could not work in that area because they didn’t
have a primary school diploma, which prevented them from getting
‘blasting certificates’ that qualified them to work with explosives.
Now they can work in that area.”
The workers’ experience is recognized by educators who go to
the jobsite once a week (in the first phase) and four times a week
(in the second phase) to teach Portuguese, math, computer skills
and other subjects. The final stage of the course is the students’
development of their “Book of Life,” which describes their experience up to that point.
The New Opportunities program also allows people who already
have a primary school diploma to finish secondary school. This was
the case with Ricardo Santos Cardoso, 40, who works in the commercial department of Baixo Sabor ACE. He had already been planning to go back to school, and was overjoyed when he realized he
could do it at the jobsite without having to go to Bragança or some
other location. In addition to the certificate (awarded on December
13), Ricardo explains that the program’s benefits also included interaction in class and the opportunity to exchange information with
coworkers from other areas of the project.
odebrecht informa
40
social energy
Mass movement
A company, government agencies and the community team up to produce
an iconic example of social change
written by Fabrício Correa
everyone shares the priorities and
responsibilities of the projects to be
implemented, helping identify partnerships that will maximize results.
“We hold monthly meetings, and all
participants carry out sustainability
education activities. In the early stages
of the program, that was an unknown
and remote concept for many,” says
Carla Pires, the ETH Bioenergy officer
Responsible for Sustainability.
In the first quarter of 2010, the
program held 22 meetings involving
173 people in all five towns. After six
months, from July to September,
89 events had been held, including
encounters, seminars, meetings and
training sessions involving a total of
1,868 people. “Social Energy brings
opportunities to include citizens in
society as agents of social change.
The program is achieving just that.
Everyone can see the possibility of
making their town a better place for
their children and contributing to
future generations,” observes Carla,
who points out that participatory management in conjunction with the community is the key to transforming an
idea into reality.
According to Carla, encouraging
involvement is based on the premise
that the community can find ways
to solve its own problems. “What we
need to do is work with the communities to identify local needs, set priorities, make choices and implement
projects that are sustainable over
time,” she says.
After marking its first anniversary,
the program is also celebrating the
consolidation of its initial projects.
ODEBRECHT ARCHIVES
If anyone should ask residents of
Caçu and Cachoeira Alta, Goiás; Nova
Alvorada do Sul, Mato Grosso do
Sul; and Mirante do Paranapanema
and Teodoro Sampaio, São Paulo if
they know or have heard of the term
“sustainability,” many will show
exactly what it is in practice. This is
down to the Social Energy for Local
Sustainability Program, which ETH
Bioenergy launched in December
2009 to bring about social, environmental and economic change in those
towns through participatory management involving the company, government agencies and the community.
The program is committed to sustainable development and quality of life in
the region.
Each of the program’s activities
is based on open dialog in which of
From left, Adelmo Barbosa de Freitas, from the Caçu Rural Producers’ Syndicate; José Carlos Girot, a community
representative; Antonio Carlos Gomes de Carvalho, ETH People Manager - Goiás Hub; André Luiz Guimarães, Mayor
of Caçu; Carla Pires, Responsible for Sustainability at ETH, and Eline Petroni Fleury, Mayor of Cachoeira Alta (at the
microphone): identifying lasting, sustainable projects
odebrecht informa
ODEBRECHT ARCHIVES
Members of the Community Council at Nova Alvorada do Sul, Mato Grosso do Sul, and Flower of Local Sustainability:
finding and tackling crucial areas for building an environmental culture in the schools
The priority topics include providing
more job skills to create the conditions for taking advantage of work
opportunities, building community
gardens and nurseries, setting up
hotspots of sustainability culture
and carrying out local waste management projects, among others.
Each town has a Community
Council (CC) and four Thematic
Committees (TC). They meet
monthly and are tasked with mapping and choosing priorities and
designing projects. ETH members,
local government officials and civil
society leaders are on the councils
and committees. One innovative
outcome has been open dialog with
the community. Several agents of
society are involved in any given
meeting, including the mayor, a
municipal secretary, a priest, an
ETH leader, a teacher, health workers and private citizens.
The program’s success lies in
its basic design. It is grounded on
documents, instruments and principles that serve as external and
internal guides for building sustainable societies: the Earth Charter,
the Eight Millennium Development
Goals, Agenda 21, the Odebrecht
Organization’s Sustainability Policy
and the ETH Code of Ethics, among
others.
To support the work of the Social
Energy Program, surveys were conducted before the activities began to
study the social context in each region
of operation. The reports were based
on interviews with local leaders – an
average of 40 people were interviewed in each location – as well as
an analysis of demographic indicators
such as family income, the Human
Development Index (HDI) and schooling. This comprehensive study served
as the basis for forming the councils,
bringing the debate closer to local
realities.
The NGO 5 Elementos Environmental Education Institute
provides support for the program.
Each town has a facilitator hired
by ETH – the person who will be
responsible for organizing meetings,
implementing measures to encourage the participation of residents
and community leaders, and involving local governments.
The next steps include introducing Social Energy in four more towns
– Mineiros and Perolândia, Goiás;
Alto Taquari, Mato Grosso; and Costa
Rica, Mato Grosso do Sul – to keep
pace with ETH Bioenergy’s growth.
It is developing a set of indicators to
evaluate the program and projects
and launching a website to enhance
the exchange of experiences between
towns, communication and the program’s transparency.
odebrecht informa
42
na emenda
Part of the group of seamstresses and artisans; opposite, Dona Risolene: success after an 11-year struggle
Stitching a dream
In Ipojuca,
Pernambuco,
seamstresses and
artisans are achieving
a long-held goal:
forming a cooperative
written by Sheyla Lima
photos by Élvio Luiz
odebrecht informa
For eleven years, a group of
seamstresses and artisans from
the Camela district of Ipojuca in
the metropolitan area of Recife
has struggled to form the Na
Emenda (In the Stitch) cooperative.
The name comes from the work
that they do: making bed, table,
bath linens and clothing from
scraps of fabric. In early 2008,
Odebrecht Engenharia Industrial
(Industrial Engineering) began to
mobilize teams and equipment for
the PTA PET POY installation project, which involves building three
plants for Petroquisa, the petro-
chemical arm of Petrobras. The
project is located in the Industrial
and Port Complex of Suape, also
in Ipojuca, in the northeastern
Brazilian state of Pernambuco.
This is where the two stories intersect and the future of Na Emenda
is starting to take shape.
“Our first contact with the
group took place in early 2009. We
heard about it from the municipal Secretary of Development
at the time, Osias Simone, during one of our meetings with
the City Government,” says the
PR coordinator for the contract,
Ana Carolina Sousa. “We met
the group’s founder, Risolene
Gonçalves, and learned about the
handicrafts the women make. We
could see that Na Emenda had
potential, so we offered them
two entrepreneurship courses
in partnership with the SEBRAE
(Brazilian Support Service for
Small Businesses),” she adds.
Although theoretical classes
were welcome, they were not the
seamstresses’ main focus. They
were eager to put their knowledge into practice. “We met with
our client, PetroquímicaSuape,
the SENAI (National Industrial
Apprenticeship Service) and the
City Government to build a plan of
action,” says Ana Carolina.
Odebrecht and the SENAI contributed the educational side,
and jointly financed an industrial
sewing course with a duration of
340 class hours for 40 women.
The course covers subjects such
as Fashion Design, Collection
Development and Regulations for
Labeling Textiles and Clothing.
“The goal is to professionalize them so they can meet the
demand for uniforms for businesses at the Suape Complex,
employees of the hotel chain in
Porto de Galinhas, and the City
Government,” explains the coordinator.
The classes started in
November and will go on until
February in the Camela district. They are held in two shifts,
Mondays through Fridays, in a
building that is on loan from the
city for two years, by which time
the cooperative’s permanent
home will have been built on land
that was donated by the City of
Ipojuca.
PetroquímicaSuape will furnish
all the machinery the cooperative requires. According to the
company’s Communications and
External Relations Manager,
Cláudio Paula, one of the things
that makes him believe in Na
Emenda is the group’s enterprising spirit. “Furthermore, the
project falls into two of the three
criteria required for our social
programs, which are income generation and professional education,” he says.
For the women in the group,
the industrial sewing course
is a dream come true. “I spent
11 years fighting for an opportunity. Not just for myself but for
the other women of Camela,”
says Na Emenda’s founder,
Risolene Gonçalves, better
known as Dona Risolene. “When
Odebrecht proposed this program, I started to think that
finally we would have more
opportunities; that many women
who have no income today will
be able to earn their own
money. If we can get 40 women
to make uniforms, it will change
40 families’ lives,” she says,
visibly moved.
For the PR coordinator for the
PTA POY PET installation project,
changing the lives of Camela’s
seamstresses and artisans is
truly gratifying. “I believe the
small seed that Odebrecht has
planted here will thrive for a long
time and bear tremendous fruit,”
says Ana Carolina Sousa.
odebrecht informa
44
embraport
Planning for life
Embraport’s social
and environmental
initiatives in Santos,
São Paulo, are
Brazilian benchmarks
written by Miucha Andrade
photos by Guilherme Afonso
Ednaldo: passing
on knowledge
to his children
odebrecht informa
Ednaldo Monteiro de Almeida
began lobster fishing in Olinda,
Pernambuco, at the age of 16. Six
years later, he moved to Santos, São
Paulo, where he became a professional ocean fisherman and sailed to
Uruguay, South Africa and Trinidad
& Tobago, among other places.
He sometimes had to spend three
months away from home at a time,
but his homesickness for his wife
and three children got too much for
him, so he changed course and got a
job as a field assistant at Embraport
– Empresa Brasileira de Terminais
Portuários, an Odebrecht TransPort
project being built on the left bank of
the Port of Santos in partnership with
DP World. Since November 2006,
Naldo, as he is known, has been
part of the company’s Environment
team, helping biologists carrying out
environmental programs that have
become a benchmark.
After a long period in which none
had been issued, Embraport was
one of the first ventures in that
region to receive an environmental license. “That was because
the studies done for the terminal
Regina: contribution
to science
were performed with the requisite
depth, breadth and quality, serving
as a model for the next projects,”
explains engineer Regina Tonelli,
the officer Responsible for Quality,
Health, Safety and Environment at
Embraport. Since 2006, the company
has invested BRL 8 million in 34
programs covering plant and animal
life, engineering, archaeology and
environmental measures, which were
prerequisites for the installation of
the Embraport project.
Naldo started out as an assistant
in the effort to save 34,000 plants,
including orchids, bromeliads, cacti,
ferns and hosta, among others.
These plants were donated to several
institutions to be used in restoration and enhancement projects for
degraded areas in the surrounding
region, as well as contributing to the
plant collections of city parks, such
as the Orchid Garden and the “Chico
Mendes” Botanical Garden in Santos.
The company’s work with plant life
has made Embraport a pioneer in
developing a mathematical model to
determine the biomass of the ecosystems of mangroves, restingas and
marshy grasslands. “It was a major
contribution to the scientific community because the results achieved
through this program have made
carbon credit market projects feasible for similar ecosystems,” says
Regina Tonelli.
Specialized training
After working with plants for a
year, Naldo underwent specialized
training and started working with
wildlife. One of his jobs is fishing
for the Aquatic Wildlife Monitoring
Program. Every two months, Naldo
casts his net in the estuary near
Embraport and catches catfish, carapeba, parati and blue crabs, among
other species. The samples are sent
to the Office of Fisheries in Santos,
where experts examine them in laboratories to analyze aspects that could
be related to the project’s impact on
the aquatic environment.
One of the highlights of the wildlife programs is monitoring Harris’s
hawks, the first such initiative to
use radio telemetry in Brazil. These
hawks are an endangered species in
São Paulo State, so they merit their
own special program. Naldo participates in this activity and uses lures
to attract the birds. “I bait them with
chickens, quails and guinea pigs,” he
explains. After they are caught, the
hawks are fitted with a radio transmitter so they can be monitored, and
the data is used to develop proposals
for the conservation and preservation of these birds of prey on the São
Paulo coast. “My job is to keep an eye
on the GPS tracker and communicate
the birds’ positions to the biologist in
charge,” he says proudly.
But tracking hawks is not the only
part of Naldo’s job that he loves. His
favorite task is identifying birds in
the vicinity of the project. “We set up
a net to catch them, fit them with a
ring and then set them loose,” he
says. He likes birds so much that he
has bought four books on the subject. “I learn a lot here and pass on
that knowledge to my kids,” he says.
odebrecht informa
“When I go out into the field with the
consultants, I’m not ashamed to ask
questions.”
After four years of work at
Embraport and with many skills
under his belt, Naldo recently
received a welcome reward. “My salary has almost doubled, and now I
can invest in a home of my own.” He
enjoys going to Guaiuba Beach in
Guaruja, plays soccer on weekends
and plans to buy a car in 2011. Today,
at the age of 35, he realizes that
changing his profession has turned
his life around.
Support for fishing communities
In addition to monitoring plant
and animal life, Embraport carries
out programs for the fishing communities in the region. Support for
Artisanal Fisheries aims to empower
fishermen with professional education courses and modernize their
activities. The program also helps
maintain local folk traditions and
odebrecht informa
festivities and organizes activities
designed to generate income. Since
2006, Embraport has trained 400
fishermen and offered 37 courses
on subjects like boat construction
and repair and engine maintenance.
It also encourages fishermen to get
their official papers in order, such
as ID cards and Marine Registration
(CIR), through courses offered by the
Brazilian Navy.
“Thanks to the skills Embraport
has provided, many fishermen
can do other kinds of jobs,”
says Edson dos Santos Cláudio,
President of the Vicente de Carvalho
Fishermen’s Colony. “But they don’t
lose their identity. They always have
one foot in the water, and fish in
their spare time,” he stresses. “It
makes me very proud to know that
some are helping build the new terminal.” It was thanks to Edson that
Naldo got a job at Embraport.
At 75, “Seu” Edson, as everyone calls him, has worked as a
mechanic, a city councilman, an
adviser to the mayor, and a civil servant. “I’ve always been close to the
sea,” he says. Despite being retired
for 24 years, he has never stopped
working. He has taken the helm of
the Fishermen’s Colony, which is
affiliated with the State Federation
of Fishermen, and helps members
and their families obtain the basic
documentation they need to get
Social Security provisions such as
childbirth benefits, breeding-season
insurance and retirement pensions.
His goal is to raise fishermen’s living standards so they can support
their families with dignity. “In this
sense, the terminal will bring benefits and a better future for all of
us,” he says.
Diana Island’s play
center: a place where
kids can play and learn
DIANA ISLAND: RETRIEVING
HISTORY AND CULTURE
Diana Island is a peaceful spot
in the mouth of the Diana River, 20
minutes by boat from the Port of
Santos, near the future Embraport
Terminal. It can only be reached by
small boats that hold up to 45 people and keep to a schedule set by
the TEC traffic engineering company. The 29,463-sq.m island is home
to 50 families and a total of about
200 people. “We’re all related here,”
says Elisa Maria da Silva Alves, 32,
a resident of the island. They are all
close cousins who help each other
carry groceries home, among other
things.
Elisa has two children and works
at the community play center. There,
she looks after children over the age
of one from 8:30 a.m to 11:30 a.m.
The kids play hide-and-seek, jump
rope and play soccer in the field next
door. The play center is an old house
that Embraport has refurbished in
keeping with the local architecture.
“It has improved 100%. There’s
nothing better than a place that’s
just for kids,” says Elisa.
The restoration project was part of
the Research and Rescue Program
for Archaeological, Historical and
Cultural Heritage on Diana Island
and the Embraport Terminal area.
While the project was underway,
experts found some archaeological sites, such as shell mounds, on
the island and at Embraport.
Shellmounds are deposits of shells
left by the indigenous peoples who
sion line on Diana Island. The community currently receives power
through an older cable, which
causes fluctuations in the power
supply that frequently burn out
appliances. The company is installing the transmission line with poles
and wires that reach as far as a
pole-mounted transformer on the
island. From that point on, the local
government, in partnership with
CPFL Energia, will be responsible
for internal distribution and public
lighting.
The route of the transmission line
was designed to minimize environmental impacts. The wires have a
maximum height of 11 m to clear
the existing vegetation and prevent
the need to fell trees. The arrival
of the new power line on the island
will give a significant boost to the
community’s quality of life by putting
an end to waste, food spoilage and
burned-out appliances.
LIA LUBAMBO
inhabited the coastal regions of
Brazil between 4,500 and 1,000
years ago. The company currently
maintains one of the sites and is
monitoring another seven.
As part of this program,
Embraport has held an Archaeology
Week, a heritage education activity including teacher training that
involved 1,300 students from local
elementary schools. The company
distributed 1,400 copies of educational booklets on the subject during
that event.
Being the closest community to
the jobsite, Diana Island residents
were offered the first work opportunities at Embraport. Since the
company’s arrival, its partnership
with the City of Santos has produced many benefits, such as the
construction of a retaining wall, the
renovation of the dock, landscape
design and the donation of a nursery
for native plants using specimens
retrieved from the terminal area.
Silvia Helena de Souza, 42, works
at the nursery. Previously, she sold
clams and crabs. “My old job was
never a sure thing. Sometimes I
hardly made anything at all,” she says.
“Now my wages are guaranteed,” she
adds happily. Silvia is an employee of
the City of Santos and gets paid the
minimum monthly salary for taking
care of plants from 7:00 a.m. to 1:00
p.m. She loves her job and is thrilled
to be able to work just a few steps
from home. Silvia and 38 other people
underwent 46 hours of training in the
basics of gardening, landscaping, cultivation and orchid breeding. “When
you do what you love, the plants thank
you with flowers.”
In 2011, an Embraport initiative
will install a new power transmis-
Silvia: doing
what she loves
odebrecht informa
48
argentina
Assembly of God School students
and, opposite, schoolteacher
Maria Cristina Ferrari (left) with
her colleague Fannyn Yanacon:
previously, Maria Cristina would
go to school with buckets
balanced on her motorbike
Results come in the form
of the FUTURE
Dialog with communities in the vicinity of jobsites aims to leave a legacy
that can improve their quality of life
written by Sérgio Bourroul / photos by Guilherme Afonso
odebrecht informa
“We need to give back and leave
something for the communities we
are living and working with here in
Argentina,” says Flávio Faria, CEO
of Odebrecht Engenharia Industrial
(Industrial Engineering). “We have
entrepreneured our business in a
sustainable, long-term fashion, living
up to the communities’ expectations
and sharing the wealth and knowledge generated by our activities,” he
adds. Corporate Social Responsibility
Coordinator Marina Gonzalez Ugarte
observes: “We don’t want to impose
solutions. We try to establish dialog
with the people who live near our
jobsites to jointly develop alternatives
to improve the quality of life of those
who remain there after our work is
done.” Marina spends most of her
time on the road visiting jobsites
and villages, and networking with
representatives of indigenous communities, authorities, NGOs, project
directors and members working
on the company’s projects. In other
words, she is creating the necessary
conditions for the legacy Flávio Faria
described to grow and flourish.
Tartagal
Odebrecht’s biggest project in
Argentina today is the expansion of
the gas pipeline that runs through 15
provinces from north to south in that
country. Because of that, the company is facing the challenge of coping
with different geographical and social
realities. For example, in the far
north, 1,700 km from Buenos Aires
and just 40 km from the border with
Bolivia in the town of Tartagal, in the
province of Salta, it only rains four
months per year. For six months, the
rivers are dry, but summer storms
often cause flooding, inflicting severe
damage on urban and rural areas.
Populated by immigrants, oil workers
and Amerindians from various ethnic
groups, it is an isolated area that
lacks just about everything, including
clean drinking water.
That is where the new pipeline
will cross the Tartagal River with 700
meters of 30-inch pipe at a depth of
15 meters. It won’t take long to do
the job, because it will be carried
out with tunneling equipment that
consumes about 400 cubic meters of
water per day. The only clear solution would have been to obtain the
precious liquid from a well, which
could have been dug next to the jobsite where the tunneling equipment
was installed, set up on a large soy
farm. But the management team
decided on a different solution that
was more complex on one hand, but
much more sustainable on the other.
The well was dug 2 km away, on the
grounds of “Kilometro 6,” a community school attended by descendants
of the Wichi, Chorote and Toba ethnic
groups.
To leave the community with a
182-m well capable of producing up
to 37,000 liters per hour, tank trucks
make several trips per day to carry
water from the school to the work
front. “That part of the project lasted
less than a month, but the com-
munity will benefit from the water
forever,” says Marina Gonzalez,
who is clearly delighted. That decision involved discussions with the
leadership of the indigenous community, the school board and the
Department of Education of the
Province of Salta, which runs the
schools. From now on, it will also
be responsible for the maintenance
of the well and its water distribution
system.
The Assembly of God Primary
School where the well and two
2,750-liter tanks are installed has
500 students. Water is also taken
to a kindergarten 1.2 km away that
is attended by another 120 children
under the age of five. Until a few
months back, schoolteacher Maria
Cristina Ferrari used to carry water
to school from her home in buckets
balanced on her motorcycle. The
Primary School’s principal, Susana
Cortes, recalls that the building
didn’t have piped-in water: “Today
we have plenty of hot and cold running water, which enables us to serve
good-quality meals and introduce the
students to basic concepts of personal hygiene.” In addition to the well
and water tanks, heaters, new pipes
and faucets have also been installed
in the kitchens and bathrooms in
both schools.
odebrecht informa
Worker from the technical
education program in Dolavon:
the power of volunteer work
Dolavon
At the other end of the country,
in the town of Dolavon, Patagonia,
where Odebrecht is completing
the expansion of a gas compressor
plant, the company’s teams have
prioritized the technical education of
youth in that region after conducting
a survey in partnership with local
authorities. Now in his third term,
Mayor Martín Bortagaray observes
that 30% of the approximately 3,600
inhabitants of Dolavon are 18 or
younger, and the unemployment
rate is 18%. “There is a job shortage
here. Our young people are leaving
odebrecht informa
us and moving to more developed
regions,” says the mayor. “We have
to provide them with job skills and
keep them here.”
The partnership is working.
Vocational Education Center No.
657 was once housed in a room in a
family home in Dolavon. The space
got too small, so the city government provided a building that was
part of the city’s former movie theater to house the new school and
began refurbishing it. Odebrecht
contributed construction materials,
equipment and tools, and encouraged its members to get involved
in this project. When the work got
started in September, 14 members
from the compressor plant project
team volunteered their time and
expertise to the initiative.
“Engineers and technicians spent
a week sanding and painting the
walls of our building, alongside the
students. It was heartwarming,”
says the Center’s director, Maria
Albertelli. The company also invited
young apprentices to visit its construction site and mobilized some
of its engineers to go over the textbooks adopted by the Metalworking/
Mechanics course being offered
with Odebrecht’s support.
The 120 students, most of
whom are 17, attend the Center
(which also offers Accounting and
Information Technology courses) in
the afternoon and go to school at
night. The auxiliary Metalworking/
Mechanics course has a duration of
250 class hours per year, including
theory and practice, and produces
woodworking products such as
benches, wastepaper baskets and
tables, as well as metal household
structures, which are sold to generate revenue that is reinvested in the
school. In the end, the students who
pass the course will get a diploma
and a new impetus to their lives.
The future looks promising. The
local government plans to acquire
the school’s products, such as
benches and playground equipments for city parks. Odebrecht
want to attract partners and suppliers to the project. And the student Ivan Obarrio has a dream: “I
want to build a sawmill here in my
hometown and raise my kids with
a better quality of life than I have
now.”
ODEBRECHT ARCHIVES
panama
51
Curundu, in
Panama City
(on this page and
following): ending
a long period
of isolation
Now it’s part of the city
The Curundu Project enables the social inclusion of the district with the
most precarious living conditions in Panama City written by Lorena Gómez
More than 50 years have gone by
since the first residents began to
arrive and build their humble dwellings on land that the Curundu River
floods every year. The neighborhood
that has the same name as the
river is now the worst in Panama
City. It is a settlement of palafittes
(stilt houses) made of wood, cardboard and corrugated zinc sheeting.
The hardships Curundu’s residents have to face range from the
difficulty of getting formal employment, a lack of technical or professional education and the absence of
basic services, road infrastructure,
drainage systems and sanitation.
Because of this, the renewal
of Curundu is a priority for the
Panamanian government’s social
programs. It will have a dramatic
impact on urban and social conditions in an important part of the
inner city. Specifically, the goal is
ensuring the social inclusion of the
neighborhood in the city’s development by improving public safety and
security and strengthening the productive capacity of Curundeños, as
the district’s residents are called,
through professional and business
education.
Odebrecht has won the public
tender to carry out this project,
which is based on a master plan
that has made infrastructure the
basis for a Comprehensive Social
Action Plan (PAIS).
More than a construction project,
the Curundu Project is a public
intervention that seeks to incorporate the district into the city in
social, environmental and urban
planning terms, taking advantage of
its central location and valuing the
Curundeños’ talent and entrepreneurial ability.
The new infrastructure facilities
will link the district to neighboring areas, thereby enabling it to
interact with other parts of the
city. Curundu will be the first district of Panama City whose design
and public spaces are intended
to make them a bridge between
nearby areas, both structurally and
socially.
odebrecht informa
ODEBRECHT ARCHIVES
The new Curundu will have more
sports fields and playgrounds than
any other part of the city. It will be
enriched with a child guidance center and a training facility for adults,
as well as cultural centers (including
an amphitheater) and green recreational areas. Additionally, the project will set aside a 2,000-sq.m area
for Curundu’s small and micro businesses. As a result, the district will
become a new social and commercial hub in the Panamanian capital.
Due to all of these factors, the
project’s social impact will go well
beyond the 12-hectare area of the
construction works, and its beneficiaries will include many more
people than the district’s 5,000
residents. Estimates are that it
will have a positive impact on the
lives of over 20,000 people – the
estimated population of Curundu’s
neighboring districts.
To carry out the project, it was
necessary to relocate families while
their new apartments were being
built. They had two options: a subsidy called Social Rent, with which
people could pay rent at a place of
their choice, or temporary housing
built by Odebrecht in the project
area. At this stage, the households
benefiting from this project are
already experiencing an improvement in their quality of life, because
the temporary housing the company
has built will provide all the necessary basic services and rid them
of the risk of flooding. Residents
who decide to take the Social Rent
option can move into houses with
better living conditions than they
had in their former homes.
Skills for a better future
Designed by Odebrecht and
approved and implemented by the
Ministry of Housing and Urban
Planning (Miviot), which is in
charge of the project, PAIS’s main
objective is the social inclusion of
Curundeños. It offers an extensive
professional education program
that will give Curundu residents the
necessary conditions for fully developing their capacity for work and
entrepreneurship.
Curundeños themselves will
use the commercial areas under
construction, and their production capacity will be bolstered by
IN HARMONY WITH NATURE
Curundeños are used
to living near the river,
but far from being a
privilege, it has been
a source of problems
and danger, ranging
from floods in the rainy
season to the stench
generated by the still
odebrecht informa
waters beneath their
palafittes.
The Curundu Project
includes reclaiming
land to level the terrain. The bed of the river
that gave the district its
name is being adapted,
and sewer systems are
under construction. They
will be linked to another
megaproject underway
in that Central American
country, the Panama
City and Bay Sanitation
Project, which is being
carried out with the help
of Odebrecht.
The Sanitation Project
will collect domestic and
industrial wastewater
that has historically been
discharged into rivers
and the bay, so those
bodies of water can once
again be used as public
recreation areas.
ODEBRECHT ARCHIVES
The picture shows how the neighborhood will look when the project is completed:
new infrastructure facilities and better conditions for achieving first-class citizenship
courses organized in partnership with the Authority for Micro,
Small and Medium Businesses,
the government agency that is also
contributing to the planning of
businesses established in the area
according to needs identified in the
community.
Moreover, plans are in the works
to provide professional education that will enable Curundeños
to seize the job opportunities that
already exist in the hubs of activity
near their community. Hospitals,
ports, hotels and construction projects within a 10 km radius and even
some college campuses need workers with different skill sets.
The possibility of having access
to these job options, starting their
own businesses and living in a
completely renovated environment,
as well as a series of campaigns
organized by the State and sponsored by the company to promote
a culture of peace, good relations
and solidarity, are key elements
that will make Curundu an example
of urban renewal and sustainable
development.
From pasieros to partners
The poverty and marginalization
that once reigned in the neighborhood made Curundu a dangerous
place, where violence and crime
were part of everyday life. It created a bad image for the rest of
the Panamanian population, a
stigma that all Curundeños bore for
years. The stereotype of the typical
Curundeño was so negative that
many residents say they could not
get work for the simple fact of living in Curundu. Some people even
said that, in order to get work, they
had to give a different address or lie
about where they lived.
To change this situation, the
project was designed to include
the participation and integration of
Curundeños, making them protagonists who are an integral part of the
process. Their role as productive
and worthy citizens is preparing
them to become first-class citizens when they are reincluded in
Panamanian society.
In addition to PAIS’s planned
activities, the project is also helping local residents enter the job
market by offering work opportunities on the construction works.
Some of the people who now hold
responsible positions at the jobsites
were previously caught up in a gang
environment where each had his
own crew, his pasieros, as well as
enemies. Pasieros, which means
“friends” in Panama, were bad
company, and enemies were the
people they had to watch out for.
Many Curundu residents have
been in prison, and after they
served their time, they couldn’t get
jobs because they had a criminal
record. For many people, this has
been their first opportunity to get
a real job.
Ronny Murillo, a construction
supervisor, says he now has a
bank card and a driver’s license.
Now, when he goes to the bank, he
knows that people see him as “one
more customer.” “Folks who used
to see me as a threat, a danger,
will greet me now. They say ‘Good
morning, how are you?’ and that
makes me proud because they can
see I’m a different man.”
Many Curundeños are discovering
how their quality of life is improving
through the construction phase of
the Curundu Project, while changing other people’s image of them,
because now they are seen as what
they really are: members of a community that is eager to work and to
become part of the economic and
social development of the city.
odebrecht informa
54
united states
Proof of excellence
Odebrecht is in the process of obtaining LEED certification in the
United States, taking an additional step forward in its sustainable practices
written by Renata Pinheiro
Human activities are changing the
composition of the Earth’s atmosphere. Greenhouse gases remain in
the atmosphere for periods ranging
from decades to centuries. Measuring
our impact on climate change is the
first essential step towards achieving
a more sustainable society. Keeping
track of our “carbon footprint” is a
simple step that can be adapted to
the way we work, improving our interaction with the environment.
odebrecht informa
A “carbon footprint” is the total
set of greenhouse gases (GHG)
caused by an organization, event or
product. For simplicity’s sake, it is
often represented in terms of the
amount of CO2 or its equivalent in
other greenhouse gas emissions.
An example of the contribution
Odebrecht is making in this regard
is through a partnership with MiamiDade County in the construction
of the MIA Mover. This project will
provide an alternative public transport system that is both efficient
and eco-friendly, removing about
100 buses from the streets and
reducing CO2 emissions. The project’s management team is working
to obtain LEED Gold Certification
for the MIA Mover Station. LEED
stands for Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design. It is an internationally recognized certification
system for buildings that minimize
using strategies that will improve its
performance in areas such as energy savings, water yield and reduction
of CO2 emissions to improve internal
environmental quality and preserve
the planet’s resources.
The project is using Renewable
Energy Credits that will make up
for 70% of the station’s energy consumption for two years, supporting the development of renewable
energy options such wind, solar and
geothermal. About 780-megawatt
hours (MWh) are being negotiated,
and estimates are that, as a result,
the MIA Mover will prevent the emission of approximately 468 tons of
CO2 into the atmosphere.
The project’s management team
has also developed an educational
campaign focused on the characteristics of green buildings, sustainable
practices and ecological solutions.
The campaign includes a program
focused on a sustainable lifestyle,
using the MIA Mover as an example,
and is designed for students in the
Miami-Dade Public School System.
PHOTOS: ODEBRECHT ARCHIVES
environmental impacts, both during
construction and in use.
The MIA Mover Automated People
Mover system will be the first
project in Miami-Dade County to
obtain LEED Gold certification. The
project includes a 2-km automated
transport system that connects
Miami International Airport to the
Intermodal Center, which includes
Miami Central Station – the hub that
connects the subway, trains, buses
and taxis to the airport, providing an
alternative means of transportation
for residents and visitors. Odebrecht
is also building the AirportLink,
an extension connecting the city’s
subway system to the Intermodal
Center.
By seeking LEED certification,
Odebrecht is taking an additional
step toward ensuring sustainable
practices in its construction projects. It involves selecting a set of
guidelines to quantify the project’s
design and construction in terms of
sustainability. The MIA Mover station was designed and is being built
Previous page, students from the Miami-Dade County Public School System during
the campaign organized by the Odebrecht team: information on eco-solutions.
Above, the MIA Mover project
Water, power and recycling
Water conservation is crucial
for an LEED project. The project’s team is taking a proactive
approach to reducing water consumption during the life of the
station. Facilities with low and zero
water consumption are incorporated into the project with the goal
of reducing water consumption
by at least 30%. Furthermore, the
design also eliminates the need for
watering the grounds because the
landscaping uses native plants.
The station is designed to maximize energy efficiency and cut
down on the amount of electricity
needed for its operation. The result
is a saving of more than 15% in
energy costs.
The MIA Mover project has
already recycled more than 80%
of all debris resulting from its
construction. In addition, 20%
of all materials installed at the
jobite were extracted, processed
or manufactured within 800 km of
the project. This initiative not only
reduces the impacts associated
with transportation, but is also a
boost for the local economy.
“The identification and implementation of green practices that
reduce carbon emissions can be
easily applied to construction
projects, whether or not they are
seeking LEED certification,” says
Gilberto Neves, President and CEO
of Odebrecht USA. “To combat
global warming, we have to start
investing in ideas that can change
the way we do business, generating revenue opportunities that will
help us preserve the planet for
future generations,” he emphasizes.
odebrecht informa
56
teo
The practice of trust
Exhibition in Salvador recounts the conception and development of the
Odebrecht Entrepreneurial Technology
written by Rodrigo Vilar / photo by Almir Bindilatti
In Portuguese dictionaries, “technology” is defined as a set of ideas
or scientific principles that apply to a
practical purpose. In this sense, the
conceptual and philosophical basis
of the Odebrecht Organization – the
Odebrecht Entrepreneurial Technology
(TEO) – goes much further. It is a philosophy of life developed through and
applied in practice.
The exhibition entitled “Discipline,
Respect and Trust - Building
the Odebrecht Entrepreneurial
Technology (TEO),” held at the
Organization’s headquarters in
Salvador, Bahia, portrays the process
of developing this corporate culture,
conceived by the founder, Norberto
Odebrecht, on the basis of his beliefs,
values and professional experience.
TEO is based on confidence in
people and their unlimited capacity to
grow and develop. It is also an ethical touchstone that guides the work
of all members of the Organization,
wherever they may be. Gaining a
precise understanding of this set of
values requires getting to know the
life story of its creator.
Born in 1920 in Recife,
Pernambuco, Brazil, Norberto
Odebrecht received a solid upbringing from his parents, Herta and
Emílio Odebrecht, based on the spirit
of service, humility and discipline. In
1925, the Odebrecht family moved
to Salvador, which the engineer and
entrepreneur Emílio Odebrecht had
identified as a promising area of the
construction market. The following
year a Lutheran pastor named Otto
Arnold became Norberto’s tutor,
and as such, he was responsible for
supplementing the young boy’s education. Through his tutor, who taught
him to read and write and gave him
religious instruction in German,
Norberto learned to view the world
critically, interpreting and acting on
what he saw. During their weekly
walks together, which were actually practical lessons, Pastor Arnold
and young Norberto would observe
nature and visit rich and poor neighborhoods in Salvador. Through dialog,
Pastor Arnold underscored lessons
that would last a lifetime, one of the
most important values being to serve
others instead of being served.
On his own initiative, at the age of
14, Norberto learned the crafts of a
mason, locksmith and steelfixer at
'
odebrecht informa
“TEO fosters and creates
a conducive environment for
each member of the Organization
to develop the intellectual,
professional, financial, family and
personal aspects of their lives.”
Renato Baiardi, Member of the
Board of Odebrecht S.A.
the workshops of Emílio Odebrecht &
Co., his father’s construction firm. He
also supervised the warehouse and
was responsible for transportation.
“Don’t think that the tasks I’m talking about were just a pastime for the
boss’s son. The allowance I got from
my father was based on actual hours
worked, as recorded by the foreman
who supervised me,” says Norberto
Odebrecht.
At the company’s workshops and
jobsites, he had the opportunity to
interact with and learn from the
supervisors and workers, who were
men of character and professional
integrity. Later, he went to engineering school to complete his education,
enrolling at the Polytechnic School in
Salvador at the age of 18. “My childhood and youth were truly privileged
because, without trauma or upsets,
I was slowly absorbing Philosophical
Concepts and acquiring habits that
were very important for anyone who
wants to be an entrepreneur and
succeed in life,” he says.
At university he studied the principles of Scientific Labor Management
developed by Frederick Taylor and
Henri Fayol, based on the hierarchical division of labor and control. The
young entrepreneur rejected those
principles. His upbringing and experience at work recommended following
another direction: Decentralization,
Planned Delegation and Partnership,
Exhibition at the Odebrecht
Building: TEO is the
Organization’s trademark
and sets it apart
'
“Valuing people, delegation,
relationships based on trust.
These are universal themes.”
Luiz Rocha, CEO of
Odebrecht International
which involves the sharing of results.
Once he had identified those pillars, the Odebrecht Entrepreneurial
Technology began to take shape.
“For a long time, my decisions
and actions were based on intuition
and experience. Only at age 48 did I
come to realize that my beliefs and
values had an internal consistency,
and that intuition and reason played
equal parts.” As a result, the engineer embarked on the pragmatic and
disciplined exercise of conceptualizing what he had learned in practice. His initial reflections resulted
in What Do We Need?, published in
1968, which sought to strengthen the
Organization’s unity of thought and
purpose. In that short book, Norberto
reaffirms the qualities of the decentralized model of entrepreneurship
and delegation, citing the French
journalist and politician Jean-Jacques
Servan-Schreiber: “Decentralization
brings the power to make decisions
as close as possible to the theater of
action. It requires the understanding that several individually good
decisions are more valuable for a
company than decisions made and
controlled by a central body.”
As the concepts and principles
presented in the first work matured,
he launched his second book, Points
of Reference, in 1970, which served
as a guide for Odebrecht members,
especially the young people who were
striving to build a large national company in a decade marked by the engineering and construction company’s
arrival in southeastern and southern
Brazil. Eleven years later, his third
book, Survival, Growth and Perpetuity,
took shape, published in 1981. In it,
Norberto systematized the principles,
concepts and criteria that constituted
the foundations of the Organization’s
culture, which then became known
as the Odebrecht Entrepreneurial
Technology. Finally, in 1991, while the
Organization was tackling the challenge of international expansion, he
launched his fourth book, Education
through Work, which provides the
basis for intensifying and enhancing
the ongoing cycle of grooming the
younger generation and disseminating
the Organization’s culture.
During the preparation of all four
books, Norberto Odebrecht mobilized
colleagues to help him and contribute ideas and new learnings. Even
today, at the age of 90, working at full
pace as Chairman of the Odebrecht
Foundation, he reiterates that TEO
is a philosophy in construction. “TEO
is our trademark. It sets us apart.
It is a living culture that must be
internalized, practiced and updated
to maintain the foundation that never
changes.”
'
“Sustainability is at the root
of TEO, whose practice
is intended to keep the
Organization on the path
of Survival, Growth and
Perpetuity.”
Emílio Odebrecht, Chairman of the
Board of Odebrecht S.A.
odebrecht informa
58
southern bahia lowlands
All together!
A partnership is helping
strengthen rural families
written by Gabriela Vasconcellos
Like musicians in an orchestra, they share the same
stage, harmoniously combining their skills and expertise
to make a rural area with vast environmental potential a
dynamic and prosperous place to help keep youth in the
countryside. Several institutional partners of the Program for
the Integrated and Sustainable Development of the Mosaic
of Environmental Protection Areas in the Southern Bahia
Lowlands (PDIS) are helping build a rural middle class
structured around family units, the protagonists of their own
sustainable development. They are all driven by the high and
noble goal they share in common.
Established by the Odebrecht Foundation, the PDIS’s new
brand is based on the concept of a mosaic: a combination of
elements that form a greater and unique whole. Focusing on
the belief that there is no shortage of talented people, but
what is lacking is opportunities to realize their potential, civil
society organizations, the federal, state and local governments and the private sector are working together as they
follow the path of sustainability. Their mission is to ensure
that the Eight Millennium Development Goals proposed by
the United Nations and endorsed by 192 countries, including
Brazil, are achieved in the Southern Bahia Lowlands.
Through Participatory Governance, through which the first,
second and third sectors work in an integrated and synergistic
fashion, the PDIS promotes job creation and the fair distribution of income, high-quality rural education and environmental
conservation. According to Maurício Medeiros, the Executive
President of the Odebrecht Foundation, this is what sets the
Program apart. “Its innovative governance system creates a
collaborative space for the construction of social initiatives
and benefits all the parties involved,” he observes.
Program for the Integrated and Sustainable Development
of the Southern Bahia Lowlands (PDIS)
odebrecht informa
“We are already reaping the rewards of the
partnership between the Ministry of Social
Development and the Odebrecht
Foundation. The PDIS has been instrumental in
the qualification and training of families seeking
productive social inclusion. The performance of
the Odebrecht Foundation in this area can serve
as a model for other companies to become
partners and fulfill their social responsibility.”
Márcia Lopes, Minister of Social
Development and the Fight
Against Hunger
“The Program for the Integrated and
Sustainable Development of the
Mosaic of Environmental Protection
Areas in the Southern Bahia Lowlands is a
concrete model for achieving a regional
project for everyone, a basic tool of
sustainability, guaranteed by the Eight
Millennium Development Goals.”
André Lisboa Filho,
Mayor of Ituberá, Bahia,
and President of Ciapra
“The BNDES seeks to work with
institutions that demonstrate great
executive and investment capacity,
thorough local knowledge and strong
identification with a model of growth and
development that addresses the community
and individuals, as well as economic and
social aspects, and can be reproduced for
generations. The Odebrecht Foundation has
been our partner from the outset.”
Elvio Gaspar, Director
of the Credit and Social
Inclusion Area
“State, Federal and local governments,
hand in hand with the private sector, must
encourage initiatives aimed at
technological development and income
generation while valuing the environment so
that young people can live in the countryside
with dignity.”
Jaques Wagner,
Governor
of Bahia
“The aim of the work being done in the
Southern Bahia Lowlands is to build a new
model of sustainable development.
Producers who were once unable to make a
living are no longer experiencing social
exclusion. The children and grandchildren of
many of them, who had migrated to the cities
in search of opportunities, are returning to the
region and living in dignity.”
Alessandro Teixeira,
President
of Apex-Brazil
“The Bank of Brazil is joining forces with the
PDIS because it believes in and values
partnerships that seek sustainable
development for the Southern Bahia Lowlands.
We support productive activities aimed at
generating employment and income, improving
quality of life and environmental conservation,
and keeping people in the countryside.”
Edson Pascoal,
CEO of the Bank
of Brazil in Bahia
“We always seek to produce a measurable
impact for our beneficiaries, and we
believe that the only way to expand our
work is through projects like the one being
implemented by the Odebrecht Foundation.
The PDIS has helped improve many people’s
quality of life. The challenge now is to
mobilize partners to replicate this model in
other communities in Brazil, Latin America
and the Caribbean.”
Luciana Botafogo, Sector
Specialist at the IADB's Multilateral
Investment Fund
“The PDIS is fully aligned with the
Brazilian Army. It has the social purpose
of educating citizens and transmitting
values and virtues. We are contributing to the
cultural and personal growth of young
people who envision a prosperous future for
their community and are guided by
principles that are important in the here and
now: environmental conservation and a
vision of sustainability.”
João Francisco Ferreira,
Division General and Commander
of the 6th Military Region
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by FELIPE CRUZ
Globally responsible leaders
Odebrecht has paid attention to social and environmental
issues since its inception. In recent years, they have become a
permanent part of the business agenda through the adoption
of new technologies in our companies’ products and processes,
the consolidation of Foz do Brasil and ETH Bioenergy, and the
quality and quantity of the projects carried out in the vicinity of
our operations. Braskem has inventoried its greenhouse gas
emissions since 2006, and other Odebrecht companies are preparing to do so. Throughout the Organization, we have over 500
people working exclusively on environmental projects.
We still have much more to contribute!
Two factors that are imperative to the success of sustainability
programs are the capacity for entrepreneurship and the relationship between the actors in a given region or context.
For us, these are essential skills that we have developed over
time due the very nature of our business. Without exception,
all of our projects begin with extensive dialog on their viability
involving clients, governments, financial institutions, private
companies and other social actors in order to engage in positive
networking that will make them feasible.
Solving the most important human issues of our time –
hunger, poverty and environmental preservation – requires
the development of infrastructure as a tool for accessibility
and the creation of new sustainable businesses to generate
more work and income opportunities. Leaders with a high
capacity for entrepreneurship and communication – in business, government and society in general at all levels – are
the key factors for the desired construction of the common
good.
The deliberate choice of following the Organization’s path
of Survival, Growth and Perpetuity, a clear policy regarding
re-investment and a strong belief in the continued identi-
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fication, grooming and integration of new entrepreneurs,
require a world that is developing, but not at any cost.
It is true that we must not and cannot take on roles
that pertain to the State. Nor can we restrict ourselves to
responding to “demands for compensation,” sticking to
legal requirements and complying with the regulations of
loan and licensing agencies and interest groups. We all have
converging interests, and therefore our business ventures
are opportunities.
At Odebrecht, Sustainability is the proactive use of our
entrepreneurial energy to boost the effects of the ventures
we are developing now and will be creating in the future in
order to become true inducers of Sustainable Development
in the areas where those ventures are carried out.
It is important to stress that this is not an act of charity. Sustainable Development requires economic, financial,
socio-cultural and environmental results. This stance is
consistent with our values and enhances our contribution to
society, placing us at the forefront through the creation of
new, more comprehensive and ongoing opportunities.
From our valued teachers, we have learned to build infrastructure projects with the quality, budgets and schedules
our clients require. The “job at hand” requires us to become
globally responsible leaders, going beyond the company and
competently performing this broader entrepreneurial task
for the benefit of a more just society, encouraging more balanced use of natural resources and helping mobilize a movement for Sustainable Development – in our communities, in
the countries where we operate and on the planet.
Felipe Cruz is Responsible for Social Programs in the Sustainability Area
of Odebrecht Engineering & Construction
THE TRAIN SEEKS PASSAGE
The tracks of the Transnortheastern
Will take progress to the backlands.
Works we have always longed for,
Like a starving man craves food,
Will change the landscape of the hinterland,
So the economy, too, will be transformed.
When the “Iron Snake” gets rolling,
Roaring on the tracks and shaking the ground,
Our land will have an engine
That will forever change our fate;
The tracks of the Transnortheastern
Will take progress to the backlands.
The Brazil that built Tucuruí
Itaipu, Paulo Afonso and many more,
Can certainly manage
To make this train run here too.
And I know the Northeast will applaud
When this great work is done.
Where now you see the damage of want,
A bridge’s beauty will fascinate;
The tracks of the Transnortheastern
Will take progress to the backlands.
From Elizeu Martins in Piauí,
From Pecém in beautiful Fortaleza,
This train will carry all the wealth
Of the Northeast, sweet native land, Cariri,
And the junction will be right here!
Here in Salgueiro, which I love with a passion,
Passing by the birthplace of the outlaw Lampião,
To Suape the train will go on its narrow road;
The tracks of the Transnortheastern
Will take progress to the backlands.
We have more than enough Engineering here!
Without neglecting the social side,
Good people caring for the environment,
Now and when the train runs through.
The trouble the works are causing,
Like the noise from blasting,
Tractors and trucks that stir up dust,
The end result makes it all worthwhile;
Because the tracks of the Transnortheastern
Will take progress to the backlands.
That’s why “The Train Seeks Passage”
For these important and lovely works
That make the Northeast stronger, equipped
As a hub of production and exports.
The world will see us differently, ending
That image of desolation and drought;
God bless the engineers and railwaymen
Who are building this benison;
Because the tracks of the Transnortheastern
Will take progress to the backlands.
This is dedicated to all those who,
directly
or indirectly, are giving their all
to
carry out this vital project for the
Northeast’s development
Diógenes Vieira – Social Technician
from the Train Seeks Passage Project
Salgueiro Pernambuco, July 2010.
To ensure the best solutions for the smooth progress of works along the
1,121-km route of the Transnordestina (Transnortheastern) railroad in the states
of Piauí and Pernambuco, Odebrecht and the client (Transnordestina Logística
S.A. - TLSAES) have created the Train Seeks Passage Project with the support of
both state governments. Built through an alliance agreement between Odebrecht
and TLSAES, the railway works involve expropriation, which requires direct
monitoring of the families affected. Through a visitation program, the Train Seeks
Passage Project, including Diogenes Vieira, the author of this cordel folk poem,
is working to ensure effective communication and a harmonious relationship
between the expropriating agency and the expropriated people.
PHOTO: GUILHERME AFONSO
A young boy at the Diana Island play center in Santos, São Paulo: the
building was restored by Embraport.
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