Environmental Influences

I noticed that environment is a big deal to South American companies and the very way of life. Companies and individuals are careful about how much electricity and water they use, and are proud of being environmentally friendly.

In Chile, we visited an avocado packaging plant called Avomex. Avomex used many natural resources in its processes and was a great example of how to use resources to become more efficient. They built cracks into their floors for excess water from processes to run off into. Once the water is in the cracks, it follows a track to storage. The water then goes through a water treatment process and is released back into the community cleaner than it was before. By being conscious of their processes, this company has created a system allows them to reuse and recycle water. They also use natural sunlight to light up several of their storage rooms in the packing facility.

The natural environment played a huge role in the architecture and atmosphere of Brasilian business. Companies used natural resources in their processes, made special efforts to contribute back and be environmentally friendly, and designed their site around beautiful natural surroundings.

For example, this group of us are on the site of Banco Itau, a large and prestigious Brasilian bank. This pool of water with fish, fountains, reeds, and surrounding greenery was in the middle of the company site. It was beautiful!

The atmosphere around Banco Itau was extremely busy and people rushed about everywhere. This pool added value to the company simply because of its beauty and sense of peacefulness. If I was an employee at the company, I would find peace in stopping here around lunch and just look, take in the beauty, and regroup. It was refreshing! It was calming. This is a definite pro of integrating natural beauty into your business--boosting employee morale.

We visited a cosmetics company, Natura, who used environment not only to beautify its corporate site, but in its production. This company produces natural cosmetics--everything is organic. It prides itself in being very environmentally friendly and natural. Natura stresses its triple bottom line which includes responsibility for profit, employees, and environment/community.

Natura wants to be a sustainable business and has incorporated environmentally friendly processes. Natura's suppliers use biodiesel. Water used in their processes is sent to a water treatment station to help save and reuse water. The garbage goes to a facility to be recycled.

All of their products are natural. Natura is the first company in the world to use organic alcohol in their perfumes, which they have done since 2007. It costs the company double the money to use the raw materials necessary, but the organic alcohol is better for the environment. They have begun to sell product "refills" because it is better for the environment.

Their site was beautiful as well. Their plant was located in the middle of a very large, very green, and very open area. There were natural looking creeks and lots of plants and flowers located between their facilities. Behind the plant, was a huge forest! We looked straight into a mountain covered in green trees as far as the eye could see.

There are some benefits to being environmentally conscious. It can be a competitive advantage for a company to sell organic products, especially in this current consumer phase to "go green". It can be advantageous for your workplace to have a pleasant and pleasing appearance for your employees and to impress investors. Investors, customers, and the general community also like to hear that the company considers other ends besides profit and company self-interest. It can be valuable to invest some time, money, energy, and considerations into the environment, and actually reap respect and monetary benefits in the form of investment or expanded customer base.

Past a certain point, however, being too environmentally "friendly" becomes more and more costly without reaping a large enough benefit. Natura spends a lot of money trying to be environmental and increase its image, but without adding any real value to the consumer, and therefore some of their expensive and costsly practices add little value to the company.