Global Compact International Yearbook Ausgabe 2010
A profound retrospective of the first decade of the UN Global Compact, challenges in the light of the year of biodiversity, and instruments for an adequate Corporate Citizenship are some of the issues highlighted in the new 2010 edition of the “Global Compact International Yearbook”. Among this years prominent authors are Ban Ki-moon, Bill Clinton, Joschka Fischer and Achim Steiner. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said: “As the Global Compact enters its second decade, it is my hope that this Yearbook will be an inspiration to bring responsible business to true scale.” Formally presented during the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit in New York, the yearbook is now for sale. Looking back at the past ten years, the United Nations Global Compact has left its mark in a variety of ways, helping shape the conservation about corporate responsibility and diffusing the concept of a principle-based approach to doing business across the globe. Chapter two deals with Biodiversity: UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner emphasizes the importance of protecting the nature: “Climate change has been described as the biggest market failure of all time – the loss of biodiversity and nature’s economically-important services must surely be running a close second, if not an equal first. Year in and year out, the world economy may be losing services from forests to freshwaters and from soils to coral reefs, with resulting costs of up to $4.5 trillion or more. Decisive action needs to be taken to reverse these declines or the bill will continue to climb – and with it any hopes of achieving the poverty-related Millennium Development Goals and a sustainable 21st century for six billion people, rising to nine billion by 2050.” Dr. Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, adds: “Now is the time for concrete action from the business community to save life on earth. The alternative is an impoverished planet that can no longer support a healthy, vibrant global economy. The stakes in this fight could not be higher. As the slogan of the International Year reminds us, ‘Biodiversity is life. Biodiversity is our life.’”
A profound retrospective of the first decade of the UN Global Compact, challenges in the light of the year of biodiversity, and instruments for an adequate Corporate Citizenship are some of the issues highlighted in the new 2010 edition of the “Global Compact International Yearbook”. Among this years prominent authors are Ban Ki-moon, Bill Clinton, Joschka Fischer and Achim Steiner. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said: “As the Global Compact enters its second decade, it is my hope that this Yearbook will be an inspiration to bring responsible business to true scale.” Formally presented during the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit in New York, the yearbook is now for sale. Looking back at the past ten years, the United Nations Global Compact has left its mark in a variety of ways, helping shape the conservation about corporate responsibility and diffusing the concept of a principle-based approach to doing business across the globe.
Chapter two deals with Biodiversity: UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner emphasizes the importance of protecting the nature: “Climate change has been described as the biggest market failure of all time – the loss of biodiversity and nature’s economically-important services must surely be running a close second, if not an equal first. Year in and year out, the world economy may be losing services from forests to freshwaters and from soils to coral reefs, with resulting costs of up to $4.5 trillion or more. Decisive action needs to be taken to reverse these declines or the bill will continue to climb – and with it any hopes of achieving the poverty-related Millennium Development Goals and a sustainable 21st century for six billion people, rising to nine billion by 2050.” Dr. Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, adds: “Now is the time for concrete action from the business community to save life on earth. The alternative is an impoverished planet that can no longer support a healthy, vibrant global economy. The stakes in this fight could not be higher. As the slogan of the International Year reminds us, ‘Biodiversity is life. Biodiversity is our life.’”
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Copagaz<br />
<strong>Global</strong> Warming and<br />
Risk Management<br />
Recognizing that climate change has become a worldwide challenge, Copagaz made this<br />
a priority. A signatory of the UN <strong>Global</strong> <strong>Compact</strong> since 2003, in 2008 Copagaz became a<br />
member of the Caring for Climate initiative. In 2009, at the United Nations Leadership Forum<br />
on Climate Change, held by the <strong>Global</strong> <strong>Compact</strong> at UN headquarters in New York, Copagaz<br />
also became a signatory of the Copenhagen Communiqué on Climate Change, conceived at<br />
Cambridge University and led by Prince Charles of the United Kingdom.<br />
By Elizete Neto Tavares Paes and José Pascowitch<br />
Copagaz is a company that is concerned<br />
about its performance. A pioneer in its<br />
field with respect to sustainability, the<br />
company has guided efforts to improve<br />
its internal processes on the way toward<br />
responsible management that is based<br />
on mitigating its environmental impacts<br />
and strengthening its relationship with<br />
its principal stakeholders.<br />
In this sense, climate change constitutes<br />
one of the underlying issues for<br />
Copagaz that will be guiding its activities<br />
in the coming years. This article will recount<br />
some of the internal initiatives that<br />
the company has been implementing to<br />
improve its management and bring it<br />
into alignment with an economy of low<br />
emissions. These efforts have been geared<br />
primarily toward the logistics involved<br />
in the distribution chain, and some of<br />
the results can be reviewed below.<br />
Copagaz Distribuidora de Gás Ltda.<br />
is a large-scale, privately held Brazilian<br />
company that is a traditional and family<br />
enterprise. It operates in the segment<br />
that bottles and distributes liquefied<br />
petroleum gas (LP Gas), and is the fifth<br />
largest company in this industry in Brazil.<br />
Founded in 1955 by its current president,<br />
Ueze Elias Zahran, Copagaz has established<br />
a trajectory of solid and continuous<br />
growth, based on an awareness of the<br />
fundamental importance of its product<br />
in the everyday lives of its clients. With<br />
a presence in nineteen of Brazil’s states<br />
and Federal District, Copagaz directly<br />
employs 1,246 staff members.<br />
Renewal of the fleet<br />
The Department of Logistics has undertaken<br />
to develop and implement programs<br />
and actions that achieve effective<br />
logistical, financial, and commercial<br />
results for the company while they help<br />
to improve its performance in sustainability.<br />
The main initiatives that have<br />
been implemented are related to the<br />
modernization of its fleet with more<br />
efficient vehicles, and the creation of<br />
programs to optimize distribution processes<br />
and reduce distances traveled. These<br />
actions help to improve the quality of<br />
life for drivers, minimize the risk of<br />
highway accidents, reduce freight costs<br />
and, primarily, mitigate environmental<br />
impacts related to the emission of pollutants.<br />
Since 2005, the market has been<br />
adopting as a standard tank trucks with<br />
a greater capacity of 30 tons. Having<br />
observed this trend in 2008, Copagaz<br />
invested approximately R$ 6.48 million<br />
(US$ 3,7) in the purchase of 18 new tank<br />
trucks of this specification, bringing<br />
about a reduction of approximately 392<br />
trips a year on the central-western route<br />
in Brazil alone.<br />
In a forward-looking and preventive<br />
fashion, Copagaz inaugurated a<br />
policy of fleet modernization in 2001<br />
whereby its vehicles would have to be<br />
replaced every six years. This target for<br />
truck replacement has not only been<br />
implemented successfully, but it has also<br />
been exceeded, considering that, as of<br />
now, the average age of fleet vehicles is<br />
three years. Beyond this, the new fleet<br />
purchased at the start of 2005 is part<br />
of the generation of Euro 3 electronic<br />
engines, which in Brazil means that they<br />
102<br />
<strong>Global</strong> <strong>Compact</strong> <strong>International</strong> <strong>Yearbook</strong> <strong>2010</strong>
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