Above: Dr Lienne Carla PiresBelow: 3M Curauá Bath Sponge: a greener innovation Pictured bottom: 3M headquarters in Brazilwe have a huge potential for the development of technologies for prevention, treatment and disposal.This is a great opportunity for the government and private sector to collaborate and share experiences on this matter. The philosophy of "the 3Rs" and eco-efficiency are also very important in managing a company's environmental impacts. Some industries and production sectors have noticed direct cost reduction when they optimise the manufacturing processes, generating less waste and maximising the use of natural resources. Consequently, these actions increase profit margins.3M was an early adopter of these strategies. In the 1970s, 3M established a corporate programme called Pollution Prevention Pays (3P). 3P is based on the belief that a preventative approach is more effective, technically sound, and economical than conventional pollution controls. End of pipe practices require natural resources, human energy, and usually are costly operating systems that only constrain the problem temporarily; they do not eliminate it. And conventional controls only constrain the problem temporarily; they do not eliminate it. 3P is different, because it reduces consumption of resources by preventing pollution up front - through product reformulation, process modification, equipment redesign, and recycling and reuse of waste materials. 3P encourages employees to find ways to prevent pollution and save 3M money. At 3M Brazil, projects proposed and developed by the staff have prevented more than 10,000 tons of waste. This initiative saved more than US$30 millions for the company during the past 11 years.It is a successful programme and 3M is extremely proud of its employees work to make pollution prevention an integral part of its operations. The 3P project criteria and categories are periodically reviewed in order to make the programme more inclusive and three-dimensional. The more employees participate, the more comprehensive the project scope becomes (outside the boundaries of the company) and the greater impacts will be prevented.Besides the environmental and economic gains, the programme is also an important tool to help the company achieve its environmental goals. 3M has been setting environmental goals since 1990. Currently, the company has five environmental goals around waste, energy, volatile organic compound (VOC) and greenhouse gas emissions reduction and water stewardship. The goals and 3M's progress towards achieving them are monitored quarterly and reviewed every five years. In 2010, 3M Brazil met and exceeded all its environmental goals reducing VOC emissions indexed to output by more than 50 per cent, reducing waste indexed to production by 23 per cent, improving energy efficiency by 33 per cent and reducing water use by 16 per cent. 3M's environmental goals have evolved over the years, incorporating other aspects of sustainability, such as social and economic indicators. Thus in 2010, 3M established its first set of Sustainability Goals. For a multinational company with operations in more than 60 countries, this means understanding the relationships between all supply chain players and ensuring responsible action more efficient.We are facing economic challenges and stressed socio-environmental conditions. These conditions require multiple actions focusing on a remediation action so as to prevent the midpoints and endpoints, within a global consensus governed by and assisted by an international social environmental agency partner.As a respected nation with a positive economic growth, despite the ongoing economic crises in other parts of the world, Brazil is becoming a leader on crucial global issues, which makes us even more responsible for what captivates our country: our People, our Soil and our Biodiversity. nABOUT THE AUTHORDr Lienne Carla Pires joined 3M Brazil in 2004 as Product Stewardship, responsible for LCM development, implementation and application. Since 2010 she is in charge to drive environmental sustainability from business and supply chain perspective, designing specific projects in 3M Brazil. Additionally, Dr Pires contributed to UNEP- LCInitiative Programe from 2007 to 2010. She has a Master's degree in Pollution Control Systems and a doctoral degree in Life Cycle AssessmentSUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT - RIO+20 043

Economic Growth 2.0W hen I was born, we were 3 billion people on this planet. A child born today is one of seven billion and by the time this child will turn 18 in 2030 more than three billion more people will have entered the middle class. This can be good news, but not if we continue business as usual: the world will need at least 50 per cent more food, 45 per cent more energy and 30 per cent more water by then. But a child born today will see supplies of natural resources diminish and prices go up by then; and it will increasingly feel the consequences of climate change. These are the challenges we address in the new report of the Global Sustainability Panel, of which I had the honour of being a member. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched this Panel and invited us to prepare a long-term vision in view of the Rio+20 sustainable development conference in June in Brazil. And our recommendation is clear: only a sustainable growth model can ensure a decent life in the 21st century for the children born today. We have named the report ''A Future Worth Choosing". And we still have a choice: instead of going on with the costly business as usual, we can invest now in a smarter, greener future. We all want a world where the economy grows while environmental and social impacts diminish and the climate is protected. Of course, as the world recovers from the financial crisis, our focus is on growth and jobs. But which kind of growth and which kind of jobs? Restructuring is unavoidable, so why not choose a path that makes long-term sense; " We all want a world where the economy grows while environmental and social impacts diminish and the climate is protected "Connie Hedegaard, EU Commissioner for Climate Actiona path that replaces overuse with sustainability?Anyone can see that we cannot deal with the challenges of the 21st century with a growth model from the 19th and 20th century. But a new mindset is emerging. Since 2004, one trillion dollar was invested in clean energy globally, according to a recent study. This market is set to double, or even triple between 2010 and the end of this decade. In Europe alone, more than 300,000 new jobs were created in the renewables sector in just five years; and it is estimated that meeting the EU's 2020 climate and energy goals would result in another 1.5 million new jobs.Many good ideas are already out there. Businesses do not need telling that resource efficiency means business. Procter and Gamble introduced a detergent designed to work in cold water and thereby reducing the amount of energy needed to wash clothes. The Danish shipping giant Maersk aims to cut energy consumption by half thanks to new, bigger container ships and reduced sailing speeds; and Umicore reckons almost 100 per cent of the precious metals it uses for its production have been retrieved from secondary materials. It pays off to be resource-efficient, as these few examples show. The good news is that going sustainable does not have to happen at the expense of economic growth. Going sustainable is about maintaining and improving our quality of life while ensuring pollution does not undermine economic growth. It is about more intelligent ways of producing, and it is about smarter cities with cleaner air and less pollution, less noise and less congestion. It is about building Credit © European Union, 2012044 global voices