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    Brazil Begins Awarding Building Efficiency Labels

    Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

    Earlier this year I posted about Brazil’s trailblazing initiative to provide energy efficiency labels for buildings.  Well, the National Institute of Metrology, Standardization and Industrial Quality (Inmetro) has just announced that first five Brazilian buildings were given the labels in the form of steel plaques about the size of an A4 sheet of printing paper.  […]

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    Ecological Cities as Economic Cities

    Saturday, June 27th, 2009

    From the World Bank: New Urban Development Program to Promote Ecologically Sustainable and Economically Viable Cities The World Bank today launched a new urban development program that supports cities in developing countries in their move towards greater ecological and economic sustainability. Called Eco² Cities – Ecological Cities as Economic Cities, the program recognizes that successful […]

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    Alcohol Abuse Growing Among Brazilians / Crece consumo abusivo de álcool entre os brasileiros

    Wednesday, April 8th, 2009

    Abusive consumption of alcohol is increasing among Brazilians, and Brazilian women are drinking more. That’s two of the findings from the Health Ministry’s (MS) 2008 version of the Surveillance of Risk Factors and Protection from Chronic Diseases by Telephone Survey (Vigilãncia do Fatores de Risco e Proteção Crônicas por Inquérito Telefônico – VIGITEL), and the […]

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    Parana to Tetra-Pak: Fulfill Your Commitments

    Wednesday, March 4th, 2009

    Just seven months ago Paraná’s Environment Secretary, Rasca Rodrigues, was singing the praises of aseptic packaging producer Tetra Pak for its implementation of a deal negotiated in 2007 concerning the firm’s responsibility for the waste problem in the state related to its packaging. Now he’s charging them with failing to live up to their commitments. […]

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    A Wind Map for Alagoas

    Wednesday, January 14th, 2009

    A wind atlas has been delivered to the government of the northeastern Brazilian state of Alagoas that was developed by the Curitiba-based Institute of Technology for Development (Instituto de Tecnologia para o Desenvolvimento – Lactec) in cooperation with the Federal University of Alagoas (Ufal) and the firm Camargo Schubert.  [Click on the image at right […]

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    Recycling Used Motor Oil Packaging in Brazil

    Thursday, December 25th, 2008

    In past posts I’ve discussed how recovery of used motor oil is still in its early stages in Latin American nations such as Brazil and Colombia.  But that’s only part of the waste problem generated by the lubricants we use in motor vehicles.  There’s also the packaging that the new motor oil comes in, the […]

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    Outlook for “Green Jobs” / Prognóstico para “empleos verdes”

    Monday, December 15th, 2008

    While the idea of creating a “green economy” with “green jobs” has been around quite a while, it really started to gain serious consideration as the climate change debate heated up,  and recently moved front-and-center during the US presidential elections and the debates about how best to respond to the global financial crisis (here, here, […]

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    Update: Tetra Pak & Aseptic Packaging Recycling in Paraná

    Sunday, August 17th, 2008

    I’ve been asked by a reader whether the deal negotiated last year between Paraná environment officials and aseptic packaging producer Tetra Pak has produced the results desired/expected. Funny you should ask that (maybe it’s not a coincidence?) — the two just issued a progress report. To refresh memories, the two-year “plan of action” agreed between […]

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    Getting Tough About Lamp Take-Back

    Saturday, August 9th, 2008

    Brazil [as have several other Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) nations] has been wrestling with the issue of proper disposal of fluorescent lamps for some time now. This becomes quite apparent just by browsing the Temas download list of laws and regulations regarding batteries and lamps — there are numerous lamp entries for Brazil, and […]

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    World No-Tobacco Day in LAC: Brazil Targets Teens, Adopts Brutal Images

    Saturday, June 7th, 2008

    How did Brazil celebrate World No-Tobacco Day (May 31)? With assaults on tobacco and smoking from many sides, and some of them hard-hitting. This year’s theme selected by the World Health Organization (WHO) for this year’s Day was “Tobacco-Free Youth.” Most of Brazil’s activities followed the theme directly. One was a new publicity campaign of […]

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