AES Brasil operates focusing on the sustainability concept, using in an adequate manner the renewable and non-renewable natural resources, promoting environmental awareness of the communities in its area of operation and minimizing the impacts made by its activities on biodiversity.

An example of such stance is the methodology proposed by AES Tietê for the development of aforestation and reforestation projects within the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) range. Such methodology, approved by the UNO (United Nations Organization), makes carbon credit generation and trade viable, through reforestation of Permanent Preservation Areas (PPAs) that can be acquired by the Kyoto Protocol signatory countries with reduced greenhouse gas emission targets.

In 20 years, there is potential for the removal of approximately three million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. Currently, 1,8 thousand reforested hectares around the reservoirs of the Tietê, Pardo and Grande Rivers are part of the project.

AES Tietê has two flora and fishing management programs. In the former, whose nursery is in the hydropower plant located in the city of Promissão, one million seedlings of about 120 Mata Atlântica indigenous species, occurring on the banks of the Tietê River, are produced. The plantation is made on the edges of the power plants reservoirs, considered Permanent Preservation Areas (PPAs) belonging to the company, within a 5,7-thousand kilometer and 10-thousand hectare area. In 2007, 120 hectares were reforested on the edge of the reservoir of the Água Vermelha hydropower plant, spreading through the municipalities of Mira Estrela, Macedônia and Cardoso, and 80 hectares in the hydropower plant located in Ibitinga. From the beginning of the project, in 2000, the reforested area has amounted to 1,8 thousand hectares – approximately three million seedlings of indigenous species planted – and it is the Project of the methodology elaborated by the company and approved by the UNO, for the generation and commercialization of carbon credits from the reforestation of protected areas.

The fishing management program relies on two fish breeding units, in Barra Bonita and in Promissão (both in the State of São Paulo), that produce 2,5 million fries of seven indigenous species from the Tietê River to repopulate the power plants’ reservoirs. The species - pacu-guaçu, curimbatá, dourado, pirancajuba, tabarana, piapara and lambari – can be seen in the piracema, a migratory movement in which the fish swim back to the riverheads to spawn.

The Orchard Program, a partnership between the state government of São Paulo and private companies, in which AES Eletropaulo has been a member since it started, in 1999, has as its main objective to promote the environmental and landscape recovery of the Pinheiros River banks, using unemployed workers who, qualified for the activity, start relying on a source of income. The Program has a center in which are carried out activities of environmental education for people in general. The Urban Orchard has already recovered 16 kilometers of the left bank and six kilometers on the right bank of the Pinheiros River. The environmental education center attends to approximately two thousand visitors per month, and more than 1,3 thousand people have received professional gardening empowerment to participate in the labor fronts.

Tree pruning is a preventive action to avoid accidents involving the population and to reduce disruptions in energy provision caused by the contact of tree branches on the electric grid. In 2007, in order to improve and expand pruning inspections and to tighten its relationship with the community, AES Eletropaulo created the Green Line (0800 72 42 424), a channel for direct communication with the company through which the organized civil society can clarify doubts, give suggestions and make possible complaints about the quality of the pruning service. AES Eletropaulo has also created the Urban Aforestation Guide that carries information on the appropriate species – small and medium sized, concepts of urban aforestation projects and pruning techniques and guidance. This material is available from the company Website (www.aeseletropaulo.com.br).

At AES Sul, there is the mapping of the whole electric system that makes it possible to clearly see where actions are required, according to the interference rate, before carrying out the pruning. With the implementation of the Asset Management Pruning program, it has been possible to operate in an integrated manner, associating the referral of the application for forest licensing with the needs for pruning in the company grid, speeding up the process and making it more efficient.