Conference draws record attendance and becomes the largest one in the Ethos history

The Instituto Ethos’ 2007 Conference was attended by over 1.3 thousand people from several parts of Brazil and the world. Altogether, there were 1,008 attendees, 180 accredited journalists, 84 speakers, and 60 guests among Ethos’ partners in the dissemination of corporate social responsibility. In part, the success of the conference was considered a result of the current situation faced by mankind. This year, due to the visibility given by the media to the IPCC international reports, the world has become aware that, if nothing is done, the planet will face global warming-driven constraints to – if not unfeasibility of – the presence of life on Earth.

 

"This was the largest and the best Ethos Conference. Many businesspeople came here to know what to do and how to act in this scenario," celebrated Ricardo Young, president of Instituto Ethos. In his opinion, "we’re in an inexorable process of changing the route in order to avoid disaster." Important themes such as global warming, the Amazon, and agribusiness, for instance, were in the agenda of this event, carried out June 12-15, 2007 at Hotel Transamérica, in the South side of São Paulo. Young regarded the debate on the Amazon as one of the highlights of the conference. He believes the forest is Brazil’s chance to create a new development project. "In the Amazon, not only will we find the paths of sustainable development, but also be able to do things in a different way and inspire the rest of the world."

 

The executive director of Instituto Ethos de Empresas e Responsabilidade Social, Paulo Itacarambi, drew the attention to the achievement of deeper reflections, as well as better paths and tools leading to action. "People have shown they’re willing to learn, and many have left the conference moved and touched." he said. "We know it’s a long way, but we feel there’s a powerful strategy towards change," he added. Itacarambi believes progress has happened the moment businesspeople realized that CSR will only work effectively if it is spread throughout the production chain. "We, at Ethos, provide tools to make it possible."

 

President Ricardo Young highlighted as a strong point the fact that the conference took place together with the Instituto Ethos’ International Advisory Board Meeting. "They (Board members) didn’t know CSR in Brazil in depth. They were touched by the Amazon issue and now they’re going to spread the news all over the world," he said. The international side of the Conference also highlights the partnerships that will allow Ethos’ experiences to be replicated in other countries. One of them is the CSR Latin American Program, developed to apply the Ethos Indicators and include six other Latin American countries in the Ethos Journalism Award and the Ethos Journalists Network.

 

Although the urgent global warming issues have stood out, the members of the Instituto Ethos assured that the CSR issues were present in the conference. The highlights were the discussion on forced labor and the debate on diversity in the business sector. "Even in these points, with which we’ve been dealing longer, the problems that came up in the debates show we’re still beginners in this solution-seeking process," admitted Young. "We’re dealing with a change in the civilization pattern, and this is not an easy task, but I believe it means a strong challenge and also a great opportunity."