SUEZ with Brazil for 80 years for SUEZ with Brazil ready for the resource revolution S944s Suez – com o Brasil há 80 anos / Élida Gagete. São Paulo: Quintessência Pesquisa e Texto, 2018. 126 p.: il, color. Reprodução em aquarela de Renato Palmuti. Edição bilíngue: português e inglês. ISBN: 978-85-53018-00-0 1. Água - Tratamento. 2. Água - Abastecimento. 3. Águas residuais – Purificação. 4. Indústria. 5. Meio Ambiente I. Gagete, Élida. II. Título. CDD 628 Summary 11 In The Future 160 Years Ago 14 Secular trajectory 19 On The Path Of Growth 26 Civilize! 30 “We are no longer an exclusively agrarian country” 32 Brazilian Water Company – Empresa Brasileira de Água 37 A New Era 42 Drinking water 48 A long partnership with Brazil 52 Water and sanitation 56 Industrial consolidation 63 Change To Survive 68 Breaking paradigms 72 Death and life of urban waters 80 Diversify and Grow 91 The Country Of The Present 96 Big opportunities: oil, mining and pulp 100 Learning, legacy and betting 104 The new SUEZ and the Brazilian contribution 106 Horizons and perspectives 111 Resource Revolution 118 With Brazil for 80 years 122 Timeline 124 Bibliography and Image Credits ater is essential for life, there is no doubts, saying industrial segments, solutions that make the difference this, is already almost an old cliché. But we processes more productive and more sustainable. Wmust be attentive to the ever-pressing need to preserve the quality of water resources so as not to jeopardize Today, there is a little of our work in each Brazilian our own humanity and all the planet's biodiversity. region, as it can be seen in this publication that, with Doing so requires more than goodwill and catch phases - just pride, we offer to our partners. it requires technology, work, and constant innovation. Good Reading! SUEZ does just that. In almost 160 years of history, we have followed several revolutions: in the nineteenth Jean-Louis Chaussade we were protagonists of social revolutions, developing CEO SUEZ various technologies aimed at public hygiene. In the twentieth century we faced the immense challenge of providing the big cities with urban solutions for comfort and health, as well as supporting industrial activities in an effort to combine production and preservation. We realize then that, in the XXI century, we are facing another revolution, the resources revolution. The resource revolution was engendered in the first discussions on the sustainability issue, just over 30 years ago. At the time, dozens of nations of the world, led by the UN, placed in their political and economic agendas the need to preserve natural resources. Since then, we have made great strides, but we still have a long way to go in this revolution that is just beginning, in search of an economy that is circular, concrete and collaborative. In 2018, the 8th World Water Forum will take place in Brasília, just as SUEZ celebrates 80 years of presence in Brazil, a country that plays a very important role in balancing the global environment. During all this time, we have followed the cycles of evolution of the Brazilian economy and we are proud to offer, especially for the 8 9 In The Future 160 Years Ago The colibri is a hummingbird found in Central and South American. Three of the four existing species live in Brazil. Colibri are large compared to other hummingbirds, normally 12 to 14 centimeters in length, and have bright green plumage, a long and rounded tail and a straight beak. In the culture of the Guarani people, one of the most representative ethnic groups in the Americas, the colibri is an expression of the sacred; a manifestation of the god Tupã or his divine messenger. The natives believed that each human being has a colibri-soul that dwells in the heart, Tupã’s territory. In modern societies, the colibri has also become a symbol of environmental balance. It is a great pollinator, due to the time spent flying from flower to flower to extract nectar. In a single day, a hummingbird can ingest up to three times its own weight. As a result, the hummingbird’s existence is directly linked to the preservation of trees and shrubs. Many plant species also depend on hummingbirds. Hummingbirds can access flowers with an elongated, tubular nucleus that protects flowers by going where insects cannot reach. In the southern region of Brazil alone, over 200 species of plants are pollinated exclusively by hummingbirds. Similar to the colibri, SUEZ’s mission is to preverve and recycle natural ressources to guarantee the environmental balance of the planet on a daily basis. he world discovered the word sustainability in collection of domestic and industrial solid waste, and 1987, when the UN published the Brundtland recovery and recycling of secondary raw materials, TReport. Entitled Our Common Future, the among other activities. document indicated the urgent need to change patterns of production and consumption to preserve In the 1930s, the first company related to the SUEZ the environmental resources necessary for humanity’s Group to come to Brazil was the Brazilian Water survival on the planet. Company (EBA), which had French and Brazilian partners. EBA had built several water treatment and For the first time, the Brundtland Report defined a widely distribution stations in Rio de Janeiro, then the federal accepted concept for sustainability; integrating social, capital city, and in other important cities. economic and environmental dimensions. The report also provided the origin of the Triple Bottom Line concept, In the late 1950s, Degrémont came on the scene or triad of social responsibility, where businesses strive after winning a contract to design and build the Water to be economically profitable, environmentally friendly Treatment Plant (WTP) in the Brazil’s new capital, and socially responsible. All three bottom lines must be Brasilia, which was being built from scratch on the considered in order to be sustainable. “Central Plateau”. Degrémont would become the Group’s best-known company in Brazil and would The wisdom of nature is Since that time, many organizations have gained drive much of the structure, people and culture of the prominence in systematizing and disseminating social current SUEZ organization. such that it produces nothing and environmental positions, projects and actions. Many companies have sought to align themselves Also, part of this story, are other companies that were superfluous or useless. with these socially responsible goals. However, some at one time related to the Group, such as Lyonnaise des sectors and companies have increasingly become Eaux, Vega Ambiental, Aqualogy and Restor. Nicolaus Copernicus protagonists to the effort. (1473 - 1543 – Polish astronomer and doctor) In 2015, many of these companies and brands, in Like SUEZ. With origins in the 19th century, the French addition to around 40 others that were part of the based SUEZ Group is an important global player Group at a global level, were unified under the SUEZ in sustainable development, with a presence in 70 brand. SUEZ has thus positioned itself among the countries on five continents. The Group has over 90 leaders in the Brazilian environmental market with thousand employees who strive to develop and manage its businesses in line with sustainability. The group’s solutions for municipal and industrial water and waste. goals have continued to grow in importance as global populations, cities and production increase. In the water sector, SUEZ’s portfolio of products and services ranges from the captation, treatment and distribution of drinking water, collection and treatment of domestic sewage and wastewater reuse to the operation of desalination plants and infrastructure projects. In the waste sector, it operates in the 13 Secular trajectory The year is 1858. French diplomat and businessman then began a campaign of international expansion, Ferdinand de Lesseps creates the Compagnie becoming one of the world’s leading water treatment Universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez to drill and explore and services companies. the 160-kilometer channel between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea in Egypt. The work, which would last Later, two other movements contributed decisively for ten years, created trade routes between Europe and to SUEZ’s current organization. In 1971, Lyonnaise South Asia without the need to navigate around Africa, a acquired control of the Société Industrielle de short cut of some seven thousand kilometers. Transport Automobile (SITA) and, in the following year, Degrémont. SITA was born in 1919, when As soon as it was put into operation, in 1969, the Channel the Parisian municipality launched a competition revolutionized world trade. for the modernization of urban waste collection, that was won by the company, that developed the The Compagnie du Canal de Suez also innovated in first automotive vehicles that revolutionized waste relation to the social policy compared to other major management activities. SITA became the group’s companies at the time. Their employees received waste division and made important innovations, such benefits such as social protection and participation in as the construction of the first waste incinerators. profits, in addition to a kind of insurance retirement and health insurance. Degrémont, on the other hand, was almost as long- lived as SUEZ, having emerged as a small machine About a century later, in 1967, the Called Compagnie shop in 1870, in Cateau, northern France. Its founder, Financière of SUEZ acquired the Control of Lyonnaise Adalbert Degrémont, bequeathed his name to the des Eaux. The origins of Société Lyonnaise des Eaux business, but it was his son, Émile, who created in the et de l’Éclairage (Society of water and Lighting) refer early 20th century, the first water treatment product to 1880, period of the so-called second Industrial lines such as filters, purifiers and aerators.