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The Gerdau Group believes that an organization's economic development must be accompanied by efficient actions targeting the environment, the community, and employees.
With this conviction, we invested R$ 44.5 million to monitor the technological evolution of air, water and soil protection equipment and in support of environmental education programs during 2004. This policy is part of the Environmental Management System (EMS), a set of pro-active and preventative actions that ensure excellent environmental practices and the preservation of nature. The EMS allows the Group to monitor and manage the actions of the units, while seeking continuous improvement.
Furthermore, iron scrap is used to produce approximately 40% of the steel made in Brazil. As a result, the manufacture of Gerdau steel has a reduced impact on nature due to the limited use of natural resources. For society, the activity of scrap collection decreases the volume of waste disposed of in landfills and generates approximately 40,000 jobs related to scrap collection, with more than 2,000 small and medium entrepreneurs dedicated to this activity.
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| To optimize the use of water |
A unique experience in Latin America. The Monitoring of Environmental Changes in Streams Project (Monalisa), supported by the Gerdau Group, contributes to the preservation of the Sinos River Basin, one of the main water reserves in the state of Rio Grande do Sul.
Volunteers traverse the streams and brooks located in 22 cities to identify, evaluate and record the water collection and outlet points. More than 1,200 kilometers are being investigated, a job that will result in a database to serve as the technical foundation for the management of natural resources. Through the initiative, the users of the water are identified and the impacts of the activities developed at the basin are diagnosed through field research and satellite mapping. All of this work is designed to reduce the possibility of the raw material
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becoming scarce in the future. The project is conducted by the Sinos River Basin Monitoring Committee (Comitesinos).
The field studies are the foundation of the Monalisa Project to monitor environmental changes in streams |
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