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ACTIVITIES HELD ON JUNE, 8th, AT THE 2005 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
Water: problems identified and paths indicated The forms of regulating and preserving the usage of water in Brazil were discussed on June 8th, 2005, at the first Meeting Session of the 2005 International Conference – Business and Social Responsibility, organized by the Ethos Institute together with the United Nations Development Programme (PNUD), at Hotel Transamérica, in São Paulo/SP. Taking into consideration the principle that water is a right and a need of every individual, the responsibility for its treatment and distribution must be shared between governments, private enterprises, and organized civil society. According to one of the debaters, André Trigueiro, journalist and presenter of Globo News, more than 40% of the world population live in countries that share river basins with other nations, which may stimulate conflicts in these areas. “Besides that one billion people do not have access to potable water, and about 2.5 billion people do not have access to basic sanitation, which shows a lack of initiatives to democratize one of the most precious assets of the planet,” said he. Wastage, bad distribution, and contamination of water are identified as the greatest problem of this sector. “In Brazil, due to the abundance of rivers and river basins, water is a cheap commodity for the population, which in turn is not well educated regarding its preservation, throwing non-treated sewage in natural reservoirs, and abusing it,” stated Aldo da Cunha Rebouças, professor of the Institute of Advanced Studies of USP, and consultant of the Secretaria Nacional de Recursos Hídricos (National Agency of Water Resources). Leonardo Morelli, general secretary of Defensoria da Água (Water Defense), declared that the regulation of water usage in Brazil is one of the best in the world, but it is not enforced. “Today, there are more than 15 thousand contaminated areas in the country due to the lack of law enforcement.” The regulatory agencies are held hostages of public interests, which make inviable to intensify inspection over who consumes and contaminates the environment,” explained he. To José Machado, president of ANA (Agência Nacional de Águas, National Agency for Water), although Brazil has a legal structure to handle the water resources, this structure is very recent and need to be assimilated by the entire population. “Law 9433 recognizes the water management in Brazil must be decentralized and shared, that means every level of government, private enterprises, and organized civil society must be responsible,” stated Machado. By Vicente Gioielli
Regional sustainability é a requirement for social transformation in North and Northeast In “Business partnerships and development to sustain Brazil’s North and Northeast,” first thematic panel of the 2005 International Conference – Business and Social Responsibility, it was analyzed business development in partnerships with different organizations and the construction of cooperation networks in strategies of social sustainability. The mediator of the debate was Caio Magri, manager of Public Policies of the Ethos Institute. The meeting session was also formed by Jacques Ferriere, senior advisor of the Business Linkages of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad); Willemijn Lammers and Gerard Zwetsllot, representatives of the Intereclesiastic Organization for the Cooperation to Development (ICCO), and Jacques de Oliveira Pena, president of Fundação Banco do Brasil. Ferriere discussed the role of transnational companies in the new moment of social responsibility in North and Northeast of Brazil. “They must have a link of sustainable businesses with the suppliers, which normally are small and medium businesses,” explained he. Zwetsllot debated the importance of the economic development, sustainable and fair, especially in needy regions. “Generate jobs and incomes is a requirement to fight poverty,” stated the ICCO representative. Selective garbage collection and cooperatives to trade honey in different regions of the country were projects mentioned as being in effect. To Willemijin, also from the ICCO, these measures promote social transformation in the world. “In Africa, for instance, there are poor regions which trade different kinds of fruits generating income and, thus, diminishing poverty,” noted he. Jacques Pena mentioned the Rede de Tecnologia Social (Social Technology Network), a movement which organizes, articulates, and integrates a group of institutions with the purpose to promote sustainable development through diffusion and reapplication in large scale of social technologies. “The purpose of the network is to adopt social technologies as public policies. We must disseminate and invest resources for social transformation,” defended Pena. By Fabio Brito
Outlook of business social responsibility in the world: international networks promote the movement The trends of social responsibility and a broad vision of this movement disseminated all over the world, and is articulated through partnerships and learning networks, were discussed on June 8th, 2005, under four different points of view in the second thematic panel of the 2005 International Conference – Business and Social Responsibility. The first speaker, Javier Cox, director of Ación RSE, emphasized the importance of responsibility and transparence inside the companies. “Increasingly people trust less in institutions, and the smaller the confidence, the greater is the request for transparence,” assured he. Geir Westgaard, vice-president of the Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), spoke about the climate changes and their influence on the field of social responsibility. According to him, nowadays stakeholders want the companies to focus on the risks of climate changes in the world, and establish goals to reduce the CO2 emission and other factors that harm the environment. “The stakeholder must also be the activists,” he defended. Peter Davies, director of Business in the Community, Peter Davies, described the experience of England and European Union to show the importance of inspiration and support to new business, global partnerships, and collaborative actions. “We need a coherent network to transform principles in actions,” he said. Closing the panel, Paul Kapelus, co-founder and CEO of the African Institute of Corporate Citizenship (AICC), spoke about the importance and the development of learning networks in Africa. “Networks must be global and local. Social responsibility can promote a major improvement to global development.” The mediator of the Thematic Panel 2 was Marcelo Linguitte, manager of International Relationships of the Ethos Institute. By Maria Lúcia Guimarães
Auto-regulation of social responsibility is discussed during the Conference The auto-regulation of social responsibility, debated in the Thematic Panel 3 of the 2005 International Conference of the Ethos Institute, on June 8th in the afternoon, has become more frequent among companies all over the world in the last years. Such attitude is a nice surprise for those who work in the area, as an evidence of the growing commitment toward the society. According to Ricardo Young, president of the Deliberative Council of the Ethos Institute and president of UniEthos, “the regulation processes that arise spontaneously whether through enterprises, or organized civil society, is a unique and legitimate phenomenon that demonstrates the maturity of the social responsibility movement.” In this sense, two examples of the creation of regulations were presented in the panel. First of all, ISO, well known to Brazilians, works with the concept of sustainable development and indicates guidelines that may be followed by the companies. “ISO, created in 1946 and present today in more than 156 countries, help companies which require balance between environmental, social and economical resources,” said Jorge Cajazeira, world president of ISO. The second example, the example of Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), which works with guidelines for sustainability reports, is an initiative growing all over the world so to make contact among several companies and institutions that take into consideration social responsibility. “GRI was not born out of an imposition of political groups or governments, it is result of extensive debates organized primarily by the society,” said Ernst Ligteringen, officer of GRI. By Vicente Gioielli
Ethical communication and building values for a sustainable society Communication has a major role in the formation of values of a society, building opinions and aggregating values to products available for consume. This role was deeply discussed in the fourth thematic panel, held on June 8th, 2005, during the International Conference. According to the debaters, there is an exploitation in the media to monopolize or reduce the diversity of points of view, manipulating consumers by using exaggeration, psychological inclusions, subliminal techniques of persuasion, or other forms of induced consentaneity. “Responsible marketing respects human weaknesses,” said Geoff Lye, from SustainAbility, in regard to the incentive to excess consume imposed by communications and not by human beings’ actual needs. To him, responsible marketing replaces the vision of “only selling” for one that gives information about the product. The transformation of ethical ideas in concrete actions was the theme discussed by the president of Thymus Branding, Ricardo Guimarães. “Ethics is not a limitation, but a source of inspiration,” reminded he. Evandro Vieira, coordinator of the Center for Transdisciplinary Studies of Communication and Awareness of Escola de Comunicação of UFRJ, declared that communication needs to change effectively and immediately: “Communication constrains reality, calls people target public, and translates the essence of life in consume,” denounced he. The futurist Rosa Alegria, president of Perspektiva, emphasized that “it is essential to respect the consumer as a human being, and respect attitudes, cultural rules, and values beyond the market.” The panel was coordinated by Leno F. Silva, manager of Communications of the Ethos Institute. By Maria Lúcia Guimarães
Exercises to develop through partnerships a good Environmental Management were the theme of the first Workshop of the 2005 International Conference – Business and Social Responsibility, held in the afternoon of June 8th, 2005, at Hotel Transamérica, in São Paulo/SP. In the opening, the coordinator of the workshop, Eduardo de Souza Martins, director of Elabore Assessoria Estratégica em Meio Ambiente, spoke about the necessity for companies and institutions develop partnerships linked to social responsibility. “Partnerships bring benefits for all parties involved, as far as there are transparence and communication between them,” said Martins. To carry out practical exercises, the coordinator formed groups and divided among them the representation of five segments of the society: companies, communities, investors, public authorities, and NGOs. Each group received a text describing a case about a company facing environmental problems. From that, the groups should define the priorities to be discussed, and the partnerships to be formed to solve the problems. After that, the partnerships were detailed as, for instance, listing the goals and responsibilities of each segment. During the coffee break, a complication: the groups received an envelope with a new fact to be taken into account, a crisis. the purpose of this hindrance was to test the strength of the partnerships established previously. At the end, each group exposed to the others the difficulties found during the workshop, generated especially from the lack of points of common interests to the parties. The conclusion was that establishing this kind of partnership is everything but easy. Some participants ware able to compare the exercise to their own experiences. By Karen Feldman
Outlook and evolution of the social responsibility movement in Brazil: articulation networks The enterprise social responsibility movement is growing in the entire country. This was the primary conclusion of the “Panel Brazil – Outlook and evolution of the social responsibility movement: articulation networks,” held on June 8th. This panel was prepared with the collaboration of associates, partner, and articulators of the Ethos Institute, which held a broad discussion about the improvements, challenges, and trends of the national movement. Emilio Martos, coordinator of the Integration Program of the Ethos Institute, spoke about the projects of the NAN (National Articulation Group) and the Integration Programa, showing a growth in the integration of companies regarding social responsibility in the entire country. He also highlighted that “it is necessary to respect the peculiarities of each region so the projects can move forward.” Deives Rezende, manager of Enterprise Relationships of the Ethos Institute, mentioned the role of the articulator: to mobilize partners in his/her region. Paulo Itacarambi, executive director of the Ethos Institute, mentioned the improvements and challenges of the RSE (Enterprise Social Responsibility) showing that first of all it is necessary to promote the movement, disseminating the vision and the concept, mobilizing the companies. “We can only move forward if we are interested and if someone gives the proper incentive,” concluded he. At the second part of the panel, the workshop gathered the people at the meeting to build an outlook that could enrich the projects of social responsibility and list the challenges and proposals to take this theme forward – among them, the most remembered was tax incentives to the projects of social responsibility and sustainable development. By Adriana Somma Ethos |
Meeting
session 1