Environmental Management Program

To support the Latin American financial sector in encouraging better international practices for introducing environmental considerations into their own activities, Capacity Building International – InWent and the INCAE's Centro Latinoamericano para la Competitividad y el Desarrollo Sostenible - CLACDS, partners in the Ecobanking Project, developed the Environmental Management Program for the Latin American Financial Sector.

The project's purpose is to support the Latin American financial sector in keeping current about the practices that major international banks use to deal with environmental issues. The intention is to help them assimilate the analysis criteria and the world's leading operating instruments so they can incorporate an environmental perspective into their diverse functional areas. This way, this sector should be able to increase its ability to create value for its customers and the countries in Latin America based on taking greater advantage of the big business opportunities that open up when they achieve proper integration of environmental and financial aspects.

In the first stage, six young executives from financial organizations in Brazil , Colombia , Costa Rica , Guatemala , and Paraguay were selected to begin in July 2002 a training program for bank leaders in Germany and organizations supporting banking research and the environment in Switzerland .

Four executives did practicums at four financial institutions in Germany and Switzerland . Two executives worked on research into European bank environmental guidelines and trends.

To consolidate the experiences and research compiled by the participants, a publication entitled Ecobanking: Options for Sustainable Banking (Spanish) was produced outlining some environmental considerations that could contribute in some fashion to the Latin American financial sector by improving their understanding of the positive nature of the relationship between environmental performance and their organizations' financial performance.

Several organizations contributed to this program's development. In order of participation and commitment, we would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to:

The organizations in charge of program development coordination and logistics: InWent for its economic support and coordination in developing the program in Europe, as well as for the scholarships awarded to the Latin American executives, the Zentralstelle für Arbeitsvermittlung, and especially Mr. Thomas Bücker for his convincing negotiations with German banks; and CLACDS for coordinating and developing the program in Latin America.

The financial entities that supported the executive training in Europe: Banco Ribeirao Preto, S.A (Brasil); Suleasing Internacional (Colombia); Banco Nacional de Costa Rica (Costa Rica); Fideicomiso para la Conservación (Guatemala); and Crédito Agrícola de Habilitación (Paraguay).

The organizations in Germany and Switzerland that made training possible for the Latin American executives: Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau - KFW (Germany); Dresdner Bank (Germany); Allianz Versicherung (Alemania); the United Nations Environment Programme and its Finance Initiative – UNEP FI (Switzerland); The Swiss Federal Technological Institute - ETH-UNS (Switzerland), and the Socially Responsible Investment Unit of the Union of Swiss Banks – UBS (Switzerland).

Finally, the people who conceived the idea and made this program a reality: Demetrio Polo-Cheva (InWent); Lawrence Pratt, and Edgar Alonso Rojas (CLACDS).