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December 13, 2011
Alcoa Institute and CIEDS launch ECOA Program in Estreito (MA)
The program will have a Sustainability Center; its purpose will be to foster community participation in building sustainable societies
On Thursday, December 15 the Alcoa Institute and CIEDS(Integrated Center for Sustainable Development Studies and Programs) will launch the ECOA (Community Environmental Education) Program in the municipality of Estreito (MA).The launch will take place in the auditorium of the Classic Hotel and will be attended by local community and political leaders, as well as representatives of Alcoa, the Alcoa Institute and the CIEDS.
 
The Sustainability Center to be created in the region will cover not only the municipality of Estreito, but also Aguiarnópolis and Palmeiras do Tocantins (TO), and received this name because of the Estreito Hydroelectric Power Station, in which Alcoa is a shareholder.
 
The project that started out in Poços de Caldas (MG) in September pursues various course of action, including making people conscious of the environmental question, 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 further improve the social development of those communities with which Alcoa has a relationship”. 
 
The ECOA Program was devised in partnership with CIEDS, which will set up the 11 Sustainability Centers that will be formed by representatives from civil society, government and community leaders.
 
 
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 ECOA (Community Environmental Education) Program in partnership with CIEDS. The areas considered to be a priority for community project activities 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 tenth 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. In 2011 the Company was considered a benchmark in social responsibility and was one of the 21 model companies in the GuiaExame de Sustentabilidade [Examemagazine’s Sustainability Guide]. Further information can be found at www.alcoa.com.br.