Sustainability report 2019

58 Driven by the increasing focus on the deforestation in the Legal Amazon*, volunteers from AAK Brazil wanted to show their concern and help raise awareness in local schools about the importance of reforestation. As awareness of deforestation increases in Brazil, schools are making efforts to better educate children about the rich nature and biomes found in the Amazon. In order to contribute to this movement, AAK employees are sharing their knowledge and becoming agents of sustainable change in their local communities. In September 2019, AAK volunteers visited a primary school nearby the AAK factory to conduct a workshop with children of different ages. With the theme of “Hands on Nature”, the goal of the project was to demonstrate the fragility of nature and to emphasize that we must take care of it. Showing is often better than telling when teaching people about plants, conservation, how harvesting ZRUNV DQG KRZ LW LQÀXHQFHV WKH ODQG .QRZLQJ WKDW WKH children needed a practical experience to absorb all the information, the AAK volunteers helped the children SODQW ÀRZHUV DQG WUHHV WKDW ZLOO HYHQWXDOO\ SURYLGH IUXLW in the schoolyard. “Planting trees felt like the most natural thing to do. Starting with us, the students can now go home to their families and talk about what they have learned, DQG HYHQ PRUH JHQHUDWLRQV FDQ EH LQÀXHQFHG E\ this movement”, says Alan Patrick Reinert, AAK Sustainability Team Member. At this point, the staff at AAK Brazil is very conscious about sustainability and how volunteering can make a difference. Work has also been ongoing with employees encouraging the planting of seedlings and trees with their own families, growing a sustainable culture that starts at home. AAK Brazil Teaching children about reforestation 58 *The Legal Amazon is an area where two of the most important biomes in Brazil meet (Amazon and Cerrado), offering great conditions to plant agricultural commodities like soy, corn and other grains.