| In spite of the atypical 2005, with its smaller crop due to climatic factors and coffee’s own bienniality, Ipanema Coffees firmly maintained its social and environmental proposals and commitments, always searching for sustainability in its business. Its Social Balance is an accurate picture of its desire to continually act in the surrounding community, to create better work and life conditions for its employees and their families; 2006 is a promising year in which new social programs, such as the “Ciranda da Leitura” [“Reading Merry-Go-Round”], are expanding and gaining importance in the community. Of the more than ten social programs carried out by the Instituto Ipanema de Desenvolvimento Social, two of them, the “Community Kitchen” and the “Community Pharmacy”, are over three years old and a very solid, because of the many volunteers involved – among them a large number of Ipanema employees, but also in the continuous aid to the families involved. In the environmental field there are more than 120 hectares of recovered forests alongside the Furnas reservoir, as one of the goals of the “Ipe Amarelo” Reforestation Project. Animals and plants reinvigorated and bring back some almost forgotten species. “Ipanema entered 2006 with the will to continue expanding and to contribute to create the conditions required for a sustainable and long term transformation”, said Washington Rodrigues, president of the company. |
