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November 9, 2011
Alcoa Institute and CIEDS launch ECOA Program in São Luís (MA)
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The program will have a Sustainability Center; its objective will be to foster community participation in constructing sustainable societies
On Thursday, November 10, the Alcoa Institute and CIEDS (Integrated Center for Sustainable Development Studies and Programs) will launch the ECOA (Community Environmental Education) Program in São Luis (MA). The launch will take place in the Events Hall at FIEMA(Maranhão State Federation of Industries) and will be attended by local political leaders, as well as representatives from Alcoa, the Alcoa Institute and CIEDS.
There will be a presentation by the Afro Akomabu Band from the Black Culture Center of Maranhão, representing local culture. Saplings will also be distributed for planting trees as a contribution to Alcoa’s Ten Million Trees Program, the objective of which is to plant ten million seedlings worldwide by 2020.
The project, which was first launched in Poços de Caldas (MG) in September, pursues various lines of action, such as making people sensitive to environmental issues, community mobilization, courses and workshops, the preparation of a community action plan and events.
For Suzana Sheffield, vice president of the Alcoa Institute, “the initiative seeks to improve social development even more in those communities with which Alcoa has a relationship”.
The ECOA Program was conceived in a partnership with CIEDS and will set up 11 Sustainability Centers, comprising representatives of civil society, government and community leaders.
The Alcoa Institute will continue to maintain its programs that encourage corporate voluntary work, like ACTION, BRAVO!, and others. It will also continue supporting those communities where it operates in Brazil, through partnerships and investments in projects.
About CIEDS
The CIEDS Group comprises three institutions: CIEDS (Integrated Center for Sustainable Development Studies and Programs), which was founded in 1998 and is a federal philanthropic institution of public utility; CIEDSBRASIL, the Integration and Sustainable Development Center, founded in 2001, a not-for-profit social institution; and CIEDSSociocultural [socio-cultural], founded in 2009, a social organization that is going through its official qualification process in the Municipality of São Paulo.
CIEDS Group’s 13 years of activity have resulted in 280 projects, more than 500,000 people benefiting and some 2000 communities served. The Group operates throughout Brazil and has regional offices in the states of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Ceará. Further information can be found at www.cieds.org.br .
About the Alcoa Institute
Established in 1990, the mission of the Alcoa Institute is to generate a sustainability legacy in the communities in which Alcoa operates, through strategic and articulated projects that value and strengthen their potential. The Institute works with programs and actions for encouraging corporate voluntary work, among which are ACTION, BRAVO!, Green Weeks, the World Month of Community Service, the Program for Supporting Local Projects and its signatureprogram, known as the ECOA (Community Environmental Education) Program in partnership with CIEDS. The areas considered to be a priority for actions or community projects are education, health, the environment, security, governance, work and income. Since 1995 the Alcoa Institute, along with the Alcoa Foundation, has invested some R$96 million in more than 1900 projects, benefiting 39 Brazilian cities and involving more than 1.3 million hours of voluntary work.
About Alcoa
Alcoa Alumínio S.A. is a subsidiary of Alcoa Inc., the world’s leading company in the production of primary and transformed aluminum and alumina. The Company has 59,000 employees in 31 countries and for the ninth consecutive year is part of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. Alcoa has been in Latin America and the Caribbean since the end of the 1950s and has some 7,000 employees in the region, with operations in Brazil, Jamaica and Surinam.
In Brazil the company operates in the whole of the aluminum production chain from bauxite mining to the production of transformed products. Alcoa has seven production units and three offices in the states of Maranhão, Minas Gerais, Pará, Pernambuco, Santa Catarina, São Paulo and the Federal District. The company also has shareholdings in four hydroelectric power stations: Machadinho and Barra Grande on the border of the states of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul; Serra do Facão in Goiás; and Estreito, between Maranhão and Tocantins. In 2010 Alcoa recorded revenues of US$ 1.6 billion in Brazil and was elected the Sustainable Company of the Year by GuiaExame de Sustentabilidade [Exame’s Sustainability Guide]. Further information can be found at www.alcoa.com.br.
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