Petrobras University, a teaching institution established by the Brazilian oil company to train its employees, is going to put into operation, next year, a pilot course for the training of executives in the social and environmental area.
The United Nations (UN) invited Petrobras to test a program for the training of responsible leaders in these two areas and is working together with the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) in the creation of a teaching methodology for the project.
According to the international communications director at Petrobras, Izeusse Dias Braga Júnior, after being tested at the company, the method should be placed at the disposal of business schools all around the world.
The pilot course will be turned to executives at the oil company and will be given at Petrobras University, in Rio de Janeiro. EFMD, which is working on the project together with Petrobras, is coordinating the socially and environmentally responsible manager program for the UN.
Petrobras was chosen for the project as the company has been operating in the area together with the UN since 2003. Three years ago the company signed the Global Pact, established by the UN in 1999 to attract companies from all around the planet.
Currently, 3,000 companies from 100 countries have already adhered to the Pact. Petrobras University was selected last year to integrate a group of 20 teaching institutions to work in the training of globally responsible leaders.
In October 2005, this group, chosen among 1,200 companies and 350 schools that were candidates, delivered to the secretary general of the UN, Kofi Annan, a report containing proposals in the area, among them the modification of the curriculum of business schools, with the inclusion of training turned to social and environmental responsibility.
Apart from Petrobras, the team also includes companies from the United States, Spain, the United Kingdom, South Africa and France. Among the schools are institutions from China, Pakistan, South Africa, England, France, Spain, the United States, Canada as well as Dom Cabral Foundation, from the southeastern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais.
Braga is the Petrobras representative in the group. According to him, the report considers a globally responsible leader one who is a transformer of the society in which he lives and operates, one who promotes business actions that are compatible with sustainability of the environment.
The document requests that company leaders do more than what is required by the laws of their countries in the area. "The objective is to make our business leaders integrate environmental and social matters into their business," stated the manager.
Petrobras, for example, takes into account the work developed by its suppliers in the area before closing a deal. Petrobras University, where the business leader pilot teaching program will be implemented, is responsible for the training of all the employees and collaborators at the company, from refinery operators to high executives. Each year, approximately 40,000 people are trained at the institution, said Braga.
Afforestation in the Amazon
In 2005, Petrobras invested US$ 235 million in social and environmental programs. One of the projects developed is in the city of Coari, in the northern Brazilian state of Amazonas. There, in the region called Urucu, in the middle of the Amazon rainforest, the company produces 56,500 barrels of oil and 9.7 million cubic meters of natural gas, as well as developing an environmental program for afforestation. The company plants 1,000 saplings of plants native to the Amazon per day.
The president at Petrobras, José Sérgio Gabrielli, accepted, at the beginning of this year, a UN invitation to become a member of the Global Pact Council, which includes 20 people from all around the world.
The group was established to define the future of the Global Pact. The principles of the Global Pact, according to Braga, are in the Petrobras social program. According to the international communications manager at the organization, they are ten and are based on four fundaments: respect to human rights, to the right to work, to the environment and to the fight against corruption.
Anba