Banco Real is the Sustainable Bank of the Year

Banco Real triumphs in Financial Times Sustainable Banking Awards

Banco Real has been named as ‘Sustainable Bank of the Year’ at the prestigious Financial Times Sustainable Banking Awards. In a double coup, the Brazilian bank also took out the ‘Sustainable Emerging Markets Bank of the Year’.

Now in their third year, the Awards were created by the Financial Times in association with the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group. They recognise banks and other financial institutions that have shown leadership and innovation in integrating social, environmental and corporate governance considerations into their operations. The Awards are one of the most important recognitions of sustainable activities in the financial world.

Banco Real was selected from a record 182 entries from 129 institutions across 54 countries and this was the first time the top prize in the global contest has gone to an emerging markets bank. The judges said the bank had pioneered sustainable banking in South America, putting social and environmental issues at the centre of all its business activities and involving its 32,000 staff in the strategy.

"Sustainability is in its DNA," the judges said. "Banco Real has a radical vision for sustainability in Latin America: it believes a bank is only as sound as the society that surrounds it."

More information on the Awards and the judge’s comments can be found on the Financial Times website.

Let my People go Surfing

I've started to read the book Let my People go Surfing, written by Yvon Chouinard. Yvon is a climber, surfer, kayaker, skier and the founder of Patagonia, a company created to provide gear for nature related sports, which has been maintaining a few interesting principles since its foundation in the 70s:

- work has to be enjoyable on a daily basis
- one dresses as it pleases him/her
- colleagues are all friends
- everybody should have flextime to surf the waves when they are good, of ski the powder after a big storm, or stay home and take care of a sick child - the distinction between work, play and family should be blurred
- be aware of one's impact and reduce the environmental damage

This is how Yvon starts its book.

"I've been a businessman for almost fifty years. It's as difficult for me to say those words as it is for someone to admit being an alcoholic or a lawyer. I've never respected the profession. It's business that has to take the majority of the blame for being the enemy of nature, for destroying native cultures, for taking from the poor and giving to the rich, and for poisoning the earth with the effluent from its factories.

Yet business can produce food, cure disease, control population, employ people, and generally enrich our lives. And it can do these things and make a profit without losing its soul."

Human Scale Development, by Max-Neef

Manfred Max-Neef is a Chilean economist who has worked for many years with the problem of development in the Third World, articulating the inappropriateness of conventional models of development, that have lead to increasing poverty, massive debt and ecological disaster for many Third World communities.

Max-Neef and his colleagues have developed a taxonomy of human needs and a process by which communities can identify their "wealths" and "poverties" according to how these needs are satisfied.

Human Scale Development is defined as "focused and based on the satisfaction of fundamental human needs, on the generation of growing levels of self-reliance, and on the construction of organic articulations of people with nature and technology, of global processes with local activity, of the personal with the social, of planning with autonomy, and of civil society with the state." (Max-Neef et al, 1987:12)

The main contribution that Max-Neef makes to the understanding of needs is the distinction made between needs and satisfiers. Human needs are seen as few, finite and classifiable (as distinct from the conventional notion that "wants" are infinite and insatiable). Not only this, they are constant through all human cultures and across historical time periods. What changes over time and between cultures is the way these needs are satisfied. It is important that human needs are understood as a system - i.e. they are interrelated and interactive. There is no hierarchy of needs (apart from the basic need for subsistence or survival) as postulated by Western psychologists such as Maslow, rather, simultaneity, complementarity and trade-offs are features of the process of needs satisfaction.

Max-Neef classifies the fundamental human needs as below.

Fundamental Human Needs	Being (qualities)	Having (things)	Doing (actions)	Interacting (settings)
subsistence	physical and mental health	food, shelter work	feed, clothe, rest, work	living environment, social setting
protection	care, adaptability autonomy	social security, health systems, work	co-operate, plan, take care of, help	social environment, dwelling
affection	respect, sense of humour, generosity, sensuality	friendships, family, relationships with nature	share, take care of, make love, express emotions	privacy, intimate spaces of togetherness
understanding	critical capacity, curiosity, intuition	literature, teachers, policies educational	analyse, study, meditate investigate,	schools, families universities, communities,
participation	receptiveness, dedication, sense of humour	responsibilities, duties, work, rights	cooperate, dissent, express opinions	associations, parties, churches, neighbour- hoods
leisure	imagination, tranquillity spontaneity	games, parties, peace of mind	day-dream, remember, relax, have fun	landscapes, intimate spaces, places to be alone
creation	imagination, boldness, inventiveness, curiosity	abilities, skills, work, techniques	invent, build, design, work, compose, interpret	spaces for expression, workshops, audiences
identity	sense of belonging, self-esteem, consistency	language, religions, work, customs, values, norms	get to know oneself, grow, commit oneself	places one belongs to, everyday settings
freedom	autonomy, passion, self-esteem, open- mindedness	equal rights	dissent, choose, run risks, develop awareness	anywhere

Max-Neef shows that certain satisfiers, promoted as satisfying a particular need, in fact inhibit or destroy the possibility of satisfying other needs: eg, the arms race, while ostensibly satisfying the need for protection, in fact then destroys subsistence, participation, affection and freedom.

Synergic satisfiers, on the other hand, not only satisfy one particular need, but also lead to satisfaction in other areas: some examples are breast-feeding; self-managed production; popular education; democratic community organisations; preventative medicine; meditation; educational games.

This model forms the basis of an explanation of many of the problems arising from a dependence on mechanistic economics, and contributes to understandings that are necessary for a paradigm shift that incorporates systemic principles.

Source: Rainforest

Blessed Unrest

After seeing a super cool video on the internet (embedded in the end of this post), I decided to read a book called Blessed Unrest, by Paul Hawken. The book talks about the huge decentralised, democratic, global movement going on at the moment, led by more than 1 million organisations fighting for social justice and the environment, and what it represents in the context we're living in.

Below you can read the passage which inspired the title of the book. Enjoy it!

"There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable it is nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. [...] There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than others."

Martha Graham to Agnes DeMille at Dance to the Piper

Wisdom for the future

In this awesome video Gunter Pauli talks about designing a new system for the future, for

"The wisdom of the past is not the wisdom of today.
[...]
If we only teach our children what we know
they will only do as badly as we do."

Check it out!

Usage of water

Did you know 70% of the global usage of water goes to agriculture?

And did you know how much water is wasted to produce...

- 1 sheet of paper - 1 litre of water
- 1 litre of petrol - 10 l
- 1 kg of sugar - 100 l
- 1 cup of coffee - 140 l
- 1 egg - 200 l
- 1 kg of rice - 2400 l
- 1 kg of chicken - 6000 l
- 1 kg of meat - 15000 l
- 1 car - 1,2 million litres of water

Doesn't it sound wrong?

Source: Veja Magazine, 30/01/2008

First global warming refugees in Tuvalu

The sea level rising is already threatening the existence of a country in the world - obviously with its population, culture and biodiversity. This alarming piece of news testifies the effects of global warming and should be treated with responsability by the international community. But perhaps because Tuvalu is not a big player in the international arena, we don't even get to know the tragedy is happening. Check the details below.

The 11,000 Tuvaluans live on nine coral atolls totaling 10 square miles scattered over 500,000 square miles of ocean south of the equator and west of the International Dateline. Tuvalu is the smallest of all nations, except for the Vatican. Tuvalu has no industry, burns little petroleum, and creates less carbon pollution than a small town in America. This tiny place nevertheless is on the front line of climate change. The increasing intensity of tropical weather, the increase in ocean temperatures, and rising sea level -- all documented results of a warming atmosphere -- are making trouble for Tuvalu.

Tuvaluans face the possibility of being among the first climate refugees. Sea level rise is the greatest problem. Tuvalu's highest elevation is 4.6 meters .
[…]
The islands are not going to go under immediately. Yet the effects accumulate, year by year. "Even if we are not completely flooded, " said Laupepa, "in 50 to 70 years we face increasingly strong storms and cyclones, changing weather patterns, damage to our coral reefs from higher ocean temperatures, and flooding of all our gardens." Not growing enough food and decreasing fish catch if reefs are damaged would mean "importing more food, more foreign exchange, and more health and diet problems, " he said.

Source: http://www.worldviewofglobalwarming.org/pages/rising-seas.html

Global Compact volunteer collaborative initiative

The Global Compact (world's largest voluntary Corporate Citizenship initiative, led by the United Nations) is calling volunteers to review more than 2,000 Communication on Progress Reports (COPs), submitted by its signers from all across the world.

I started doing my part reviewing my first COP this morning. It's really cool to get know what companies are doing, while contributing to an important global initiative.

If you're interested, click here to learn more and join.

Another way of looking at the world

Through a reference in Brett's blog, I found World Mapper, an amazing website that visually disturbs us about the world's current state.

Wealth Distribution

Living over US$ 200 per day

Living up to US$ 10 per day

War Deaths

Mortality 1-4 Years Old

Environment

Biocapacity

Forest Loss

Species Extinct

Gender issues

Female Managers

Girls not at primary school

End of the Australian CSIRO Sustainability Network

Since I arrived in Australia, I’ve been part of a Sustainability virtual network, fed by Elisabeth Heiji from CSIRO, an intelligent, sensitive and very coherent woman. Today the 14.000 people participating in the network received the newsletter with a note saying that was the last one, as CSIRO considered the program a proved success and would move resources to new initiatives.

I’d like to share with you some parts of Elisabeth’s last words to the network:

“Looking around, I see many of us thinking about sustainability – we may even be involved with it in our professional lives – but, whether as a result of inertia, complacency, the entrenched social systems around us, or a mixture of all of these, we are collectively doing very little personally in our homes and lifestyles. Actions such as replacing incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescents and installing low-flow shower heads barely scratch the surface and, furthermore, are consumerist solutions based on trading new goods for old. They fail to tackle the very basic issue of our reverence for the natural world and behaviour towards it. When change occurs at this more intrinsic level, it can radically transform for the better both our own wellbeing and our environmental footprint.”

She also quoted Manfred Lenzen saying that “troubling is the fact that research has indicated that there is little correlation between knowledge and concern and action: emissions attributable to households are strongly linked to consumer spending, which doesn’t seem to be affected by environmental issues, even when these issues and problems are well known by those households”

If welfare doesn’t improve our harmony with the planet, why a bigger government?

If wealth doesn’t really bring comfort for societies, why focus on economic development?

And the biggest of all:

If education doesn’t drive action, what does? Should we use the consumerism and create trends and fashions? Should we restrict our freedom and impose certain behaviours through law? Or should we finally accept that we only radically change in extreme situations?

What do you think?

March Against Global Warming

Hello guys! Sorry for being very late with the posts! As I have many things to tell, you can expect quite a lot of news in the next week.

I’m starting with a very old but extremely relevant one. On November 4th, I joined the March Against Global Warming. This movement (http://www.stopglobalwarming.org/) is happening all around the world and had around 20.000 people marching in Sydney, ironically in a cold and rainy day.

What impressed me the most was the common direction among people from extremely opposite political views. There were liberals, socialists, environmentalists, artists, students, famous personalities and obviously lots of anonymous citizens. Is the union against global warming the new common flag in our world?

Amongst all the participants, the ones that called my attention the most was the family below. Extremely coherent, they are being extremely conscious about their own impact and making the needed efforts to cut their emissions in every way possible: eating, clothing, living and having fun sustainably.

Sustainability Learning Circle #2

This week, the theme of our sustainability learning circle was: “Do companies lead the global agenda?” The discussion was quite interesting! Some highlights:

- Companies definitely influence a lot the global decisions, for good (e.g. engaging SMEs and individual entrepreneurs in their distribution chain) and for bad (e.g. fighting for less health regulations or even stimulating war);

- In general, multinationals and governments are not extremely pro-active in driving change, but have a much more responsive attitude in face of public demands. In this sense, size is quite a limiting thing;

- In this sense, it’s more probable that the main paradigm changes will come from individuals, who are visionary, try beyond the others have tried and establish horizontal networks, both to design and spread the new inventions.

Coming back from such interesting conversation (around midnight), Lucy, Jem, Jhow and I played a little bit of soccer in the Centennial Park. Random, we???

Sustainability learning circle

I’ve been reading quite a lot about sustainability. As I shared some ideas with people here in Sydney, I figured out there are some fans of the topic around here. So, I invited these people – Salma, Lucy, Jeremy and Jhow – for a learning circle about the theme.

We discussed our personal connections with the issue and came to some agreements:
- We want to have periodic prepared conversations about different sub topics;
- We think coherency is essential; therefore we started having personal commitments, so that we can act more sustainably;
- We visualise a project that we can potentially run with AIESEC in Sydney.

Good start! Let’s see how it evolves! I’m particularly happy with the volunteer commitment to coherency and with the broad intuitional understanding that all the participants of the group have about sustainability.

Brisbane - green city?

On Monday, I had the chance to spend the morning around the city, which is quite interesting. The weather is great (by the way, Queensland is called “The Sunshine State”), the city is not too crowded and there is a river passing in the middle of the city. Besides, there are some signs of what could be the starting of a green city:

- I saw quite a lot of people riding their bikes;
- There are some parks in the city, including a very nice Botanic Garden, very close to the city centre;
- The new buses of the city are powered by natural gas;
- One of the public transports widely used is a ferry, powered by bio-diesel;
- And the most interesting of all: a green bridge was built just for the circulation of buses, bikes and pedestrians.




After the tour, I went to the university, where I met Angie, who went to the Peace Project with me in Poland, in 2003. Angie is finishing her PhD in Peace and Conflict, in which she studied the genocide in Rwanda. She recently got married, is going to move to Canberra in February to work for the national diplomatic department, and has an old orange kombi van, with which she travels with her husband to different places. After the description, I think I don’t need to say how much I enjoyed to meet her and how cool the conversations were!



As my time in Brisbane finished, I took the bus back to Sydney. As the photo witnesses, I was tired, with blister in my fingers (reminders of the canoeing effort), but extremely happy and inspired by the two awesome women I met there – Anh and Angie. Thanks, girls!

Sustainability in Australia

It took me quite a long time to write about this, right? But subjects that interest us continue catching our attention – maybe even more than before – when we’re abroad.

So, since I arrived in Australia, I’ve been getting involved and meeting people engaged in sustainability related things:
- engaged in a very nice sustainability virtual network, commanded by CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation), which produces a high level worth reading scientific newsletter - http://www.csiro.au/;
- engaged in the social investment committee of Colmar Brunton, which is focused on the Habitat for Humanity program - http://www.habitat.org/;
- participated of some events: launch of One at a Time Foundation, GreenPeace renewable energy seminar and social leadership lecture at Sydney University, where I can understand Australian stage in terms of sustainability practices and thinking and, most importantly, connect to locals;
- watched “The inconvenient truth” movie.

Some sad findings:
- Australia is among the top 3 countries in greenhouse emissions per capita (after US and Kuwait);
- 90% (!!!) of Australian energy comes from coal (in Brazil, 96,8% come from water);
- Australia and US are the only developed countries who didn’t sign the Kyoto Protocol;
- More than half of the people drive to work;
- Although Australia produces lots of technology around environmentally friendly systems, it generally exports it without implementing in the country;
- The level of conscience and engagement is still very low and even the ambitions of the environmental leaders is shy – they are fighting to have 15% of the total energy production coming from renewable sources by 2025.

Given this situation, we are planning to start a discussion group on the theme in the upcoming weeks, formed by people with different backgrounds, willing to spread knowledge, create individual commitment and put some actions into practice. Let’s see…