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Capitalismo Natural in Brazil |
by David Sanders PayneIn our work with our Brazilian partners, we will use natural capitalism as a filter through which we can view, assess, and understand Brazil's unique sustainability initiatives. Brazil. Mention the name and lush, green images spring to mind. Covering 8.5 million square kilometers and boasting a population of nearly 175 million, the world's fifth largest nation has recently become an economic dynamo. After two decades of stagnation and massive debt, its economy is speeding up (GDP growth rate was about 1 percent in 1999, and it hovered around 4 percent over the four quarters in 2000).At the cusp of this new economic era, Brazil's business and political leaders are only too aware of the potential for both manageable successes and intractable blunders. New ideas and applications in business, education, and policy are rapidly taking root in Brazil. Capitalismo Natural, the Portuguese version of Natural Capitalism, is being studied here for the alternatives it offers to the economic and ecological instabilities resulting from Latin America's historical development path. José Luiz Alquéres, the former chairman of Brazil's state-owned power company Electrobras, might have summed this up best when he observed to Amory Lovins: "Ten years ago, it would have been too early because we didn't have a real economy. Ten years from now, it would be too late because we'd have done too many of the wrong things. Right now is exactly the moment for these ideas to take root and transform Brazil's development path." RMI has long had links to Brazil. We were fortunate to become involved with one of Brazil's most advanced cities—Curitiba, the capital of Paraná state—during one of our own transformative experiences, the writing of Natural Capitalism. Curitiba is different. A series of mayors, most of them architects, have worked to reverse the trends to which his and other Brazilian cities had fallen victim: poverty, disease, and unemployment. Using integrated design principles, akin to the whole-systems problem-solving model that frames natural capitalism, the city of Curitiba built itself into one of the most stunning examples of good urban planning in the world. Pedestrians reclaimed the streets. Shop owners were inundated with throngs of happy customers. Rows of children painting pictures stretched for blocks along malled streets. In Hope, Human and Wild, his follow-up to The End of Nature, author Bill McKibben chose Curitiba as one of three places on earth that provides a realistic and hopeful model for the future of our planet. In the process of describing this reclaimed and rejuvenated city for Natural Capitalism, RMI's Amory and Hunter Lovins established relationships with leaders in Curitiba and across Brazil. Now, RMI has been called back to work with partners in business, government, and civil society, to extend and invigorate the "Curitiba miracle" to levels of performance not yet seen in Curitiba, but also, through the power of example and the propagation of profitable and environmentally sound design principles, to affect the course of development across Brazil and beyond. This is not a case of Northern "experts" imposing a solution on the South. Rather, in our work with our Brazilian partners, we will use natural capitalism as a filter through which we can view, assess, and understand Brazil's unique sustainability initiatives, and as a framework that can extend and invigorate them, and help to identify further opportunities. With initial funding from the Summit and Overbrook Foundations, RMI is conducting design charrettes with corporate and government clients and developing a distance learning program to capitalize on what we see as a uniquely "teachable moment" in Brazil, and in the state of Paraná in particular. These are the first steps in a long-term effort. Getting Down to Work Aware that a target as broad as Brazil's economic rise to prominence could consume the productive capacity of RMI's entire organization, we have chosen to begin with a few manageable projects in both the private and public sectors. By first achieving smaller successes with eager Brazilian partners, we hope to leverage the influence of natural capitalism across many disciplines later. In March 2001, a contingent from RMI, in the form of ENSAR Group architect Greg Franta, RMI's Brazilian "Ambassador" João Antonio Prosdocimo, and RMI Associates Huston Eubank and David Payne, spent an intense two weeks together in Brazil. We found the people extremely accessible, welcoming, interesting, and interested. Here is a summary of some of RMI's extensive work on several projects in Curitiba: Waste Water: Advanced wastewater treatment for the State of Paraná. In Summer 2000, the state water utility Sanepar hosted a presentation by Amory on natural capitalism and water efficiency at its Curitiba headquarters and a briefing at its field office in Foz do Iguaçu in western Paraná. In response to their request for implementation assistance, we are preparing an integrated sustainable design charrette on wastewater management, with these goals: to reduce energy and capital intensity of water treatment; to improve overall treatment capacity and performance; to clean up the rivers; to launch a decentralized biological waste treatment pilot project; and to develop a model for distributed biological waste treatment that can be implemented in the immigrant villages and favelas (slums). RMI is working with the leading practitioner of this approach, Living Technologies, Inc., which designs, builds, and operates innovative wastewater treatment systems called "Living Machines" (www.oceanarks.org; see the Spring 2001 RMI Newsletter for an article on John Todd and "Living Machines"). As described in Natural Capitalism, Living Machines "eliminate the need for the chlorine, polymers, aluminum salts (alum), and the other chemicals used in conventional wastewater treatment plants. A biological treatment plant costs about the same or less to construct, especially for small-capacity systems. It yields valuable fertilizers and soil amendments instead of toxic chemical hazards, looks like a water garden, greenhouse, or wetland, doesn't smell bad, and yields safer, higher-quality water." School Design: Curitiba's new schools. With nearly 100 children born daily, Curitiba must spend 27 percent of its budget on education. Its 120-odd schools, many reused for adult education at night, have achieved one of Brazil's highest literacy rates. Yet many of these buildings are vestiges of a past era of design, embodying many of the inefficiencies that natural capitalism describes how to overcome. Representatives from the Curitiba municipal school system who attended Amory's Summer 2000 seminar on natural capitalism expressed interest in working with RMI to construct model schools incorporating daylighting, energy efficiency, resource-efficient construction, air quality, and other green building qualities and techniques. We are currently analyzing Parana's prototypical school design and will present our findings this summer. We will then work with them to implement some of our recommendations in one of their existing schools. The results of this pilot will be put into a statewide guideline for construction of new schools. School Curriculum: Graduate engineering, technology curriculum And distance learning. Oberlin Professor David Orr, the leading proponent of integrating the environment and education, believes that changing the procurement, design, and investments made by our educational systems represents "the foundation for a radically different curriculum than that presently offered virtually anywhere...;" Our work in school design is providing just this sort of "hidden curriculum" to schoolchildren. In addition, we are working with graduate programs such as CEFET (The Federal Center of Technological Education) to embed the lessons of sustainable design into design, engineering, and environmental management curriculum. We are also exploring web, email, and videoconference links via Paraná's "Electronic University." These academic distance learning initiatives will be integrated with the following business and public education ventures: Executive Education: Distance learning and "online community building." Amana-Key, co-sponsor of the Brazilian Portuguese version of Natural Capitalism (Capitalismo Natural), is one of Brazil's leading executive training companies. Over the past 15 years, Amana has trained over six thousand top corporate managers at its campus retreat in São Paulo. The thrust of the program is "out-of-the-box" and innovative thinking. Sustainability is a core aspect of the program and a personal priority for Amana CEO Oscar Motomura. RMI will work with Amana to create original content, using digital technology to enhance and extend the highly effective and interpersonal programs that are underway at Amana. Broadcasting: Satellite-broadcast executive learning. DTCom is a satellite television and web-based self-improvement, management, and strategy content provider. The leader in its field in Latin America—with 73 subscribers and 600 satellite receivers installed (ranging from North Florida to Patagonia)—DTCom provides an excellent channel for disseminating sustainable design and business knowledge, and for highlighting natural capitalism. We are providing video presentations and case stories to DTCom that will be subtitled in Portuguese and broadcast on its "strategy" channel and possibly on a future "sustainability" channel. Mall Development: Sustainable mall development. For the last decade, malls have been one of the fastest-growing sectors in Brazilian real-estate development. In part, this building boom has been a response to historically high levels of violence and theft, so secure malls have become the community centers for many urban neighborhoods. In March we toured several malls and made presentations to members of Brazil's largest mall development company and its design team. A report commissioned by the US utility Pacific Gas & Electric documents a 40% increase in retail sales in well day-lit stores (such as Wal-Mart's experimental "Eco-Store" in Lawrence, Kansas). Brazilian developers' response to daylighting and other green development techniques was very positive. We expect that this growing relationship will yield a number of positive outcomes in the coming year. Transportation Research: Hypercar® research & development. While Curitiba's bus system is second to none in the world, Brazilians do like to drive (Brazilian Formula One racing outpaces America's NASCAR in its fanatic following). Small cars rule the streets and SUVs look like the dinosaurs they are—so what appeal does an "Explorer-class" Hypercar® vehicle have in Brazil? Not much. Working with our partner at TECPAR (Paraná's research & technical institute), Dr. Ricardo Torres, RMI will therefore promote the localization of Hypercar® technology for the Brazilian market.
Meanwhile, fuel would fall by about fivefold (and use by 100 percent) and materials use by about tenfold. Together, such advantages would make the Brazilian auto industry significantly leaner and cleaner. Learning From the South All too often, North Americans try to foist ideas on our neighbors to the south. In Brazil, RMItes implementing natural capitalism are engaged in transforming the course of South America's economic dynamo while at the same time learning from Brazil's remarkable sustainable development innovations. We then hope to transfer that learning to a Northern Hemisphere in need of such ideas. |
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