Community Outreach - ENGIE Brasil

ENGIE Brasil works on building long-term relationships with all of its stakeholders. In connection with activities intended to improve the infrastructure of the country or one of its regions, or to provide services in urban areas, ENGIE discusses, prepares, approves with the relevant authorities and makes publicly available licensing documents and literature explaining the project or services. This is usually done at public hearings or in committee meetings of public, community and/or business managers. These actions begin prior and during the implementation phase of projects and services, and persist for the duration of their lives, with the appropriate adjustment of the topics addressed. Out of the programs that ENGIE Brasil conducts to engage with its various publics, we emphasize the two next, not just for their relevance, but also for the fact that they are spontaneously conducted and involve ENGIE partnerships in connection with its activities in Brazil.

Visitations and Environmental Education Program

ENGIE Brasil promotes visits to its Plants as a means to build closer ties with the communities from the areas surrounding the projects. With this program, the company opens its doors to schools, universities and other institutions to explain how the Plant works and discuss the Company’s history and its best practices. In addition, ENGIE has in place an Environmental Education program that is carried out at ENGIE-operated power plants. The program also includes Environmental Education lectures delivered at schools. It is open to all audiences and emphasizes schoolchildren, addressing the plants’ operations and socio-environmental programs. In the last three years alone, ENGIE Brasil’s Visitations and Environmental Education program had more than 270,000 participants.

Focus

ENGIE Brasil’s Visitations and Environmental Education Program offers students, instructors and other interested parties an opportunity to learn about the operations of a power plant and the respective socio-environmental programs.

Characteristics

Lectures delivered at schools and visits to power plants, with tour guides and security.

Open to all audiences, such as scholars, researchers, students, tourists and more.

Covers plant operation and socio-environmental programs.

Social transformation

The communities surrounding ENGIE Brasil’s projects are a crucial public with which the company pursues increasingly broad dialogue and attempts to contribute to sustainable local development. To this end, it builds partnerships with local actors and develops or supports projects in line with the goals of its corporate social responsibility programs. ENGIE Brasil values its relationships with the communities in which it operates. This is why it works hard to build harmonious relationships characterized by mutual respect and cooperation. The Company’s socio-environmental responsibility actions reflect this guideline. We prioritize investment in initiatives that can revert to the benefit of the communities where ENGIE Brasil operates. Although this strategy does not restrict our involvement in actions with a bigger scope, it has been helping keep the focus on service to the people and institutions closest to us. Despite being carried out in different regions of Brazil, and for different purposes and publics, all of these initiatives share a common purpose: to contribute to sustainable development, to which the Company is strongly committed. The implementation of Culture and Sustainability Centers is an illustrative project that promotes improved living standards for and the social transformation of local communities.

Culture and Sustainability Centers Project

The implementation of Culture and Sustainability Centers in municipalities that house ENGIE projects has become one of the Company’s main socio-environmental responsibility actions, reflecting its committee to the development of the communities of which it is part. These spaces are specifically set up to offer the community cultural, recreational and educational activities, and are equipped with amphitheaters, museums, libraries, trade education and digital inclusion workshop rooms, and exhibition areas. The spaces are designed, implemented and maintained under ENGIE sponsorship using both own funds and tax incentives funds. Click here to learn more.

Wellsprings Conservation Project

The Wellsprings Conservation Program began in 2010 in the southwestern Paraná municipality of Chopinzinho, and has since then been replicated in several regions where ENGIE operates. Its purpose is to protect watersheds and ensure water supply and quality for local communities’ current and future generations. The project is enabled through partnerships involving ENGIE, social entities and local communities. The Program is aligned with the United Nations Organization’s (UNO) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – more specifically, with SDG 6 – Ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. Click here to learn more.

Ichthyofauna Project

To improve the conservation status of the Brazilian biodiversity, ENGIE Brasil carries out a series of actions connected with the conservation of the fish fauna of the Uruguay and Iguazu Rivers. The project has contributed to the conservation of five fish species endemic to the Iguazu and Uruguay Rivers. Click here to learn more.

Volunteers Program

ENGIE Brasil’s Volunteers Program aims to enable solidary citizenship and to share its corporate values. In association with the corporate social responsibility programs that the company carries out in the five regions of Brazil, it encourages the involvement of employees and their family members in areas near their homes, thereby contributing to their integration and communication with society. Participation begins with an open invitation listing the activities available and contacts to enable employees to apply. Then a Letter of Engagement is signed and, finally, the results of the experience are published. For its first edition, in 2018, several employees enrolled in the Program partners with the ENGIE Foundation’s projects. Read about some of ENGIE Brasil’s social projects next.

Between Museums (“Entre Museus”) Project

In a partnership with the MUSEUM OF TOMORROW, the Between Museums Project enables popular access to museums in the city of Rio de Janeiro. This fosters more democratic access of children and youths to science, history, the arts and culture, contributing to expanding their knowledge and potential. By attending and sharing cultural spaces, communities, instructors and students become closer with knowledge as the link between them. With funds from the ENGIE Foundation, it directly benefits 1,200 children and youths from vulnerable areas in the Rio de Janeiro seaport zone. Click here to learn more.

Open Game (“Jogo Aberto”) Project

An ENGIE Brasil partnership with the ENGIE and GOL DE LETRA Foundations, the Open Game Project aims to help enforce the rights to education, culture, sports and leisure as provided in the Statute of Children and Teenagers in communities experiencing high socio-economic vulnerability, such as the Caju community, in the Rio de Janeiro seaport zone. Social and sports activities directly benefit 2,000 people between the ages of 3 and 18. Click here to learn more.

Healthy Children, Healthy Future (“Crianças Saudáveis, Futuro Saudável”) Project

In partnership with the ENGIE Foundation, Inmed Brasil’s Melhores Dias Institute has since 2011 carried out the Healthy Children, Healthy Future Project in communities of 25 municipalities with low social development in the regions near the Jirau (state of Rondônia) and Estreito (state of Maranhão) Hydro Plants and the Trairi Wind Farm (state of Ceará). The Project’s purpose is to improve the living standards of children and communities by means of sanitary, health and nutrition education. It is based on transforming children as agents for change, building a sound foundation for long-term sustainability. The project is highly replicable and has benefitted 19,000 children. Click here to learn more.