Terça - feira, 10 de Setembro (Tuesday, September 10)

At 8:45AM, Toni picked us up at the San Diego Hotel.  Traffic bustled as we drove the 2 – 3 km to Ipe’s small headquarters.  The prior night was cool, which allowed us to drive with the windows open.  The cacophony of traffic noises in the background reminded me of the city’s heart beat.    

Guilherme’ (a.k.a. Bill) was waiting for us at the front gate when we arrived.  (He assists Itamar with educating local schools about Ipe’s mission.)  Formal introductions allowed us to meet Camila (Itamar’s wife), Luchino, Alene (our other intern), Paulho, and Anna.  As we settled in to start our day, children’s voices filled the Ipe courtyard.  They arrived and the courtyard immediately hummed with youthful Brazilian energy.  Guilherme’ started shared the 2 dozen examples of Ipe’s sustainability with the children, while we sat at a round table in the back of the property to begin our day.   I watched from afar as the local school children listened.  They were enthralled by everything they were told.  The future of Brazil is in their hands and now is the time to instill an environmental awareness.  

   

This blog entry would have to be another 8 – 10 paragraphs in order for me to share with you all of Ipe’s goals, objectives, and future ideas.  (Throughout the course of the day, I took 12 pages of notes.)  Here is a sampling of what we discussed:

• Ipe has a small group of paid employees, who work in concert with a network of 5,000 – 7,000 people in the community, and some businesses, who share Ipe’s passion about sustainability, conscious consumerism, and recycling.
• Ipe’s main programs are Recicla Cerrado (recycling), 5 Special Senses, “I Plant Culture”, Adopt a Collaborator, and Atelier.
• Ipe has the vision, passion, drive, and will to succeed.  IBM’s CSC will be partners in getting some processes and ideas off the ground.
• Uberlandia’s population will triple in 10 – 12 years.  By 2017 or 2018, there will be one million people living here, on the Brazilian cerrado.  (There are 5 major landscapes in Brazil: the Amazon rainforest, the Pantanal, the sertao, the cerrado, and the Mata Atlantica.  Ipe wants the city, along will all of it’s’ inhabitants, to embrace Ipe’s mission.

  

          

After a long, productive day, Toni drove us back to the hotel.  From 7:30PM 1- 10:20PM, all of the CSC teams met with our program consultants to present a recap of what we had accomplished during the 1^st two days. 

Please continue to follow my journey as I share my experiences in this blog.  Feel free to post comments whenever you would like.   Thanks for coming along via 21^st century technology.

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