General Motors do Brasil - Chevrolet Logistics Center

About the Program
In their Mogi das Cruzes site east of São Paulo, Brazil, General Motors Company (GM) employees are working to conserve and protect native species while working with local schools to increase environmental awareness. Their main conservation objectives include enhancing habitats that benefit birds, monitoring of bird species, increasing environmental awareness and sharing sustainable initiatives with employees and the local community. This last objective includes activities for schoolchildren about water and the importance of trees and pollinators.

Practices and Impacts

• The team maintains an on-site garden to provide foraging, nesting and habitat for resident and migratory birds. Employees have observed and recorded multiple species like the forktailed flycatcher, chalk-browed mockingbird and canary of the woods.
• The team constructed an insect hotel and planted a variety of native and exotic plants to attract pollinators.
• Two employees work to record pollinator species on the office grounds. They document the names of species, date(s) spotted and whether the species is native. GM provided an educational opportunity for children to participate in the construction of mini insect hotels and gave a lecture about the importance of pollinators.
• From 2015 to 2019, an environmental education program was held with 165 students from public schools in Mogi das Cruzes. Environmental lectures with themes regarding sustainability, nature preservation, waste segregation, natural resources conservation and green fields preservation were presented.
• The team hosted high school students from E.E. Irene Caporali at the facility's effluent treatment plant and taught them about the importance of wastewater treatment to human health and the environment.
• GM welcomed elementary school students to the site for a lesson about the importance of trees and led the children in a species identification activity. The team intends to replicate this educational opportunity annually.
• In addition to employees, contractors and consultants Alfag do Brasil, Itayá and Verzani e Sandrini collaborate on GM's projects.