ESG Practices and Energy Production in Brazil

The chapter will focus on the social and environmental challenges the energy sector faces in Brazil, which companies are adopting more progressive practices, and whether these solutions are according to the challenges discussed by these companies’ stakeholders. For this reason, we analyzed the sustainability reports of 11 energy-generating companies located in different regions of Brazil, reviewed relevant media articles and conducted additional interviews with executives from companies as well as stakeholders from the community, NGOs and finance professionals, to trace the views of various agents on the matter. That made it possible for us to establish the top socio-environmental themes of the sector, in which the dominant issues were “Biodiversity”, “Climate change”, “Water resources”, “Energy”, “Waste”, “Impacts on the community”, “Health and safety of the workers”, “Transparency, ethics and compliance”, “Human Rights” and “Diversity and Equality”. Our approach also allowed us to identify more “progressive” solutions companies implement, blending these ESG challenges with their business practices.