28 Jul São Paulo leads the way in Brazil’s sustainability reforms
Patrícia Iglecias, CEO, State of São Paulo Environmental Company, outlines current key environmental initiatives in the state of São Paulo and what needs to be done to see positive change in the next decade
What are State of São Paulo Environmental Company’s (CETESB’s) current mandates?
CETESB is one of the most prestigious environmental agencies in South America. We work on licenses and regulations for environmental protection and economic management of the state. We follow high standards when dealing with environmental issues and pollution control. We consider what the World Health Organization determines as good for the population. The idea is to make a difference in São Paulo. For example, we began the Nascentes Program to combat a terrible drought and ensure our water supply.
Internally, CETESB is focused on creating more efficiencies and optimizing licensing processes to bring society and entrepreneurs closer. We want a drastic reduction in license processing times without compromising on environmental protection. In 2019, we achieved a raise in productivity of 26% compared to the previous year, a growth that continued this year.
We are also investing in gender policies. In my first year as CEO, we received a seal from Women on Board, an independent initiative supported by UN Women, for having more than two women sitting on the board of our company. We now have four. In the following year we approved a decision to have events, business round tables and mediations with almost 55% female participation. We also created a department of diversity inclusion, internal communication and institutional memory in 2021 to propose actions related to diversity and social inclusion.
What kind of projects has CETESB brought to the state of São Paulo and what impact have they had?
The rest of Brazil is facing a severe crisis in terms of environmental issues, specifically regarding climate change policies. However, the state of São Paulo is in the opposite situation. When the Paris Agreement was adopted, Brazil took up important targets to reduce national greenhouse emissions. A large part of these refer to greenhouse gas reduction associated with land use change and reforestation. While these are still big challenges for most of the country, São Paulo has actively prepared and implemented appropriate policies. We have a robust licensing process and are working on pollution control and actively maintaining the biological cycle. Given that São Paulo is the largest economic hub in Brazil, what we do here sets the bar for other state governments.
The state launched the São Paulo Environmental Agreement in 2019 just before the Conference of the Parties in Madrid. The agreement includes municipalities, associations, companies and other organizations. The main objective of the agreement is to encourage the voluntary reduction of greenhouse gases in the state. We started with 55 companies and sector associations, and we now have almost a thousand entities under the agreement. We want companies to cooperate instead having to enforce change to meet the goals set in the Paris Agreement.
In the coming years we want more policies focused on the circular economy of our state. We are working on reverse logistics policies and extended producer responsibility. For the latter, we have a similar law in Brazil as in the U.S. and Europe. We ask producers to take back from manufacturers, importers and commerce sectors. We now have more than 4,000 companies in São Paulo working on this. Reverse logistics is mandatory, and the idea is to increase these kinds of operations and policies in the state. This is aligned with the UN’s 12th Sustainable Development Goal.
What kind of investments into renewable energy sources has the state of São Paulo made?
Improvements in renewables is less in the rest of Brazil than in São Paulo. In Brazil the supply matrix of renewables is around 41%, whereas we have a mix of 53%. It is one of the highest in the world. We have made significant private investments in solar-based initiatives. Expansion of solar power generation has seen a fast rise in the last years. Our state has a high solar potential and a current capacity of 646 MW. We are the third state in Brazil in terms of solar energy production and intend to expand our capacity. These investments are also in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. We want to create more room for investments in these types of projects in our economy.
Additionally, we have developed energy-recovery initiatives through biogas generation. In 2020, CETESB formed a state regulation on waste that establishes parameters for preparing and using urban solid waste and equivalent industrial waste for the cement industry and other industry boilers. The new resolution 47/2020 establishes parameters for transforming hazardous waste into refuse-derived fuel. CETESB is currently contributing to a similar research project supported by the sugar and alcohol industry. The project will increase power-generation efficiency for the sugar industry and surrounding urban areas.
What is CETESB doing to monitor the environment in the state of São Paulo?
We play an important role in monitoring environmental quality. We are installing automatic monitoring stations for air quality that captures pollutants, sends them to analysis equipment, forwards information to the telematic center in CETESB and transforms it into a color code so the population can easily understand the data and ultimately the quality of our air. We are working at building 85 air-quality stations in the state that will monitor in real time. Starting next year, state industries will have another standard based on a technical study carried out by CETESB for better air quality. This standard considers the automotive and industrial sectors and will improve the health of São Paulo’s population.
We also have around 500 monitoring points for water quality in rivers and 22 hydrographic basins. We look for physical, chemical and biological data. Our objective is to monitor and obtain a diagnosis of our water quality through compliance with environmental legislation. This serves as a fundamental instrument in the planning of environmental improvement actions. For example, the Pinheiros River is an important natural resource in the state of São Paulo. The river sits in a city of 2 million people and has been polluted for many years, which is unacceptable. We are working on changing the sanitation of the area.
How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected CETESB’s operations?
The pandemic has imposed radical changes in everyone’s lives. We are all involved. It is now a society of risk; if something occurs in Asia, we can have the same problem on the other side of the world in days. The public sector is traditionally a space of stability; changes in the public sector normally occur slowly. However, in this new scenario we have had to change rapidly. Two thirds of our employees have been working from home since the beginning of the pandemic while continuing to provide quality services at a fast pace and not compromising on the preservation of the environment. Of the 53 years since the company was founded, 2019 and 2020 were our most efficient years, despite the pandemic. In 2019 we analyzed 60,000 license requests and in 2020 more than 50,000, contributing to the most diverse economic activities in our state. We worked to internalize our ability to keep up with fast-paced changes, meet the expectations of society and ensure sustainable development.
CETESB has been contributing to the epidemiological surveillance of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the metropolis of São Paulo. We preformed research in the sanitation sector by looking at increases of the virus in different territories of the city. Movement is very important in how we combat the crisis. The presence of pathogens in the sewage shows the virus is still circulating in the population. Information collected by CETESB in all regions is available on our website so that everyone can follow the evolution of the virus. We had to develop, install and improve this initiative very quickly.
What can be done to promote eco-tourism in the state of São Paulo?
São Paulo has state parks in different environments that are often underutilized. The Serra Do Mar State Park has trails in forests and next to waterfalls and paradisiacal beaches. Cantareira Park in the metropolitan region has access to places with a wide view of the city and trails in the surrounding forests. There are 2,700 square miles of underused natural space that could be exploited for tourism activities. New environmental licenses dictate those businesses opening new roads or building complexes must compensate with recovering vegetation in other areas. Recovery on the banks of rivers could allow for exploration of these stretches by river tourism, either with motorized boats or with kayaks. This can feasibly mix economic development of the state with eco-tourism.
What major hurdles does society face in cleaning up the environment and creating a more sustainable community?
We are facing an unparalleled period in history. Environmental policies built in the last decades in our country have been questioned. The pandemic has caused disruption all around the world and is an opportunity to make much needed social and environmental changes. At a time when our hearts ache for at the loss of so many lives, we must be brave and assure environmental achievements that will guarantee a better life for future generations. We cannot succumb to the misleading speech that uses the pandemic as a protest to put environmental protection and economic development on opposite sides. We have already seen too many losses. We must commit to a better quality of life for our population.
In the next ten years we want to improve all activities promoted by CETESB through contributions from other branches of the state government, private sector and civil society. Having cleaner air, a cleaner Pinheiros River that provides the state capital with a better quality of life, cleaner energy generation and reduced greenhouse gas emissions is possible. However, we need to do our homework. Both the private and public sectors need to work together on our environmental, social and corporate governance agenda.
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