Social and Environmental Responsibility

In 2009 the Organization and Union of Cooperatives of the State of Minas Gerais (OCEMG / SESCOOP-MG) created the project “Day C – Day of Cooperating” as a way to encourage mining cooperatives to develop various activities and local initiatives, individually or in groups , prioritizing voluntary work and demonstrating the sector’s capacity to act socially. Expocaccer embraced the idea from the beginning and carried out several actions in partnership with the cooperatives Sicoob Coopacredi, Coopa and Unimed Patrocínio with the objective of contributing to educational institutions, public agencies and hospitals.

All of the years the Expocaccer release and participate of several beneficent events of entities that depends of the financial incentive of the local companies for the promotion of social works.

Quarterly, the students of the project, “Highlight Student”, from the Municipal School Maria Isabel Queiroz Alves (CAIC), are benefit from basic food baskets, which are delivered as a way of recognizing their good school performance. These students also have the opportunity to visit Expocaccer, as well as farms of cooperative partners of the project with the aim of knowing and learning more about coffee growing.

Conceived in 2001 by former collaborator, Ronan Cunha, the campaign, formerly called “Happy Christmas”, is one of the main social responsibility actions of Expocaccer today. The campaign consists of collecting, from the Patrocínio’s population, employees, cooperatives and clients of Expocaccer, basic food baskets to be distributed to needy families and welfare institutions in Patrocínio and region. In 2001, the year the campaign started, 800 kilos of food were collected. In the last edition, in 2018, the campaign ended with 9 thousand kilos of food, serving more than 500 families.

In 2003, the Expocaccer, in partnership with the National Institute of Empty Packaging Processing (INPEV) and EPAMIG (Minas Gerais Agricultural Research Company), implemented the Empty Packaging Processing Center in Sponsorship. The central receives packages of pesticides and the like already used to be recycled or to receive a final destination in a way that does not compromise the environment, preserving nature and human health. Among the awareness programs, the National Day of Clean field, held since 2005, stands out. This event has become a tradition for the Patrocínio center, as it is the day when it opens its doors for the visitation of the Patrocínio’s population and from the region, especially for the school community, receiving students and teachers to provide them with greater knowledge on the preservation of the environment and on the correct destination of empty phytosanitary product packaging.

It is a platform of different actors (producers, coffee brands, local and global environmental ONGs) whose efforts have resulted in the founding of a legally independent organization with a highly specialized team to promote environmental development through restoration, climate-smart agriculture and efficient water management water resources. Based on initial support from UICN – International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Nespresso, the main coffee brands, Nestlé and Lavazza, and Expocaccer have joined together to sign a 5 years commitment to support the Conscious Producer Investment Program, that brings together these three work fronts in a coordinated manner, aiming at improving the supply and provision of ecosystem regulation services (water health, soil, carbon stock, among others) in order to achieve climate resilience or shielding of a landscape or territory. . In the pilot area, “Córrego Feio”, in Patrocínio, the Consortium plans to invest in the protection of natural ecosystems found in approximately 124 properties along the basin, the only one to supply the largest coffee producing municipality in Brazil and a serious case of scarcity and water conflict.