Article by Emi Kubota '08, For the Bottom Line, April 4, 2007. 

First of all, a big ‘bravo’ to Juliana Almeida '08, all-star CBS student hailing from Brazil to bless our hallways with an abundance of energy and enthusiasm for sustainable international development through business and markets. With the help of Larcy Cooper (Social Enterprise Program) and Professor Alp Muharremoglu (Decision Models Professor), Juliana led 17 other students on a Chazen/Social Enterprise Renewable Energy Study Tour of Brazil, focused on ethanol and carbon markets. Not only were the meetings with ABN-AMRO, Bioenergy Development Fund, McKinsey-Brazil, Brazilian Mercantile & Futures Exchange, Bandeirantes Landfill, Itaipú Binacional Hydroelectric Plant, EcoSecurities, and PetroBras, informative and educational, but Juliana also managed to show us around her native country of Brazil in style. From the famous churrascarias of São Paulo to the magnificence of Iguazu Falls and the beautiful beaches of Rio de Janiero, we got a taste of some of the best Brazil has to offer. 

One of highlights of the São Paulo company meetings was the Bioenergy Development Fund – a private equity fund that invests in ethanol producers. Brazil is one of the world’s leading producers of ethanol, but the market is currently highly fragmented. The leading producer, Cosan, which recently went public, holds a 10 share of the market and is significantly larger than the next largest producer. Many of the smaller producers lack professional management and the industry could benefit from the consolidation that a private equity run would bring. BDF is hopeful that Cosan’s IPO is indicative of strong exit options for their portfolio companies by either going public or being acquired by a large energy companies. Unfortunately, Cristiane Piza '00, a principal of the fund, could not be present because of other commitments. Itaipú Binacional is the largest hydroelectric power plant in the world and has been called one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. It is a joint project between Brazil and Paraguay that harnesses the immense power of the Paraná River to supply 20 of Brazil’s electricity and 93 of Paraguay’s. It has an installed generation capacity of 14 GW, which is slightly larger than the demand for electricity in New York City (11 GW in 2003). 

We arrived in the town of Foz do Iguaçu the night before the tour of the hydro plant around 3 am and our not-so-loved tour guide made sure we would be ready to leave at 7:15 am. The inside of the plant was a hard hat zone, requiring closed-toe shoes and long pants. When we got to Rio, we visited EcoSecurities, Corcovado, Pão de Açúcar (Sugarloaf Mountain), samba parties in the historic downtown area, and, of course, the famous Ipanema beach. EcoSecurities is a global company that works within the framework of the Kyoto Protocol to develop and trade carbon credits. Although not required to reduce their emissions by the Kyoto treaty, developing countries have an incentive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through Kyoto’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). EcoSecurities works with factories, farmers, and waste treatment facilities to develop methodologies that the UN approves to create Certified Emission Reductions (CERs), which they can then sell to industrialized ("Annex I") countries, or those that have committed to reduce emissions to 6-8 below 1990 levels between 2008-2012. 

Apart from the great learning experience we had that afternoon, we also got a great view of Rio’s amazing mountains and beaches from the EcoSecurities office. Again, thanks to Juliana for organizing such a fun, rich experience for all of us.