Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Companies for Cleaner Production

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SAO PAULO, Oct 1 2005 (IPS) - From May 3 to May 6, 2006, in Bento Goncalves, in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, the second International Ecological and Environmental Fair (FIEMA) will promote new technologies for sustainable development. When it was announced last month, FIEMA president in Brazil, Cesar Rubechini, stressed that the business community's awareness has evolved from almost total indifference towards a vision of socio-environmental responsibility.

“Entrepreneurs see the importance of technologies for cleaner production, given that they represent a reduction of production costs,” Rubechini told Tierramérica.

According to a report from the Brazilian Network for Cleaner Production, between 1999 and 2002 the 153 companies that participate in the program together were able to reduce their annual expenditures on raw materials, water and energy by more than eight million dollars.