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LIFE stands for Lasting Initiative For Earth. It is the perfect reference to the most noble of legacies we can ever leave to future generations. The tiny blue dot in our logo represents the remaining fraction of the still well-preserved natural areas. The challenge at hand is to preserve the biodiversity of our Planet so life can continue and the only way to reach such a broad and important objective is by scaling up individual’s success stories.

Supported by the United Nations through the “Convention on Biological Diversity” and by the Brazilian Government through the Ministry for the Environment, LIFE Institute is a Brazilian non-profit organization created in July of 2009 in a joint effort by Fundación AVINA, O Boticário Foundation for Nature Protection, Posigraf and SPVS (Society for Wildlife Research and Environmental Education). Today other institutions have also come on board, further strengthening our initiative.

LIFE Institute is responsible for managing LIFE Certification which qualifies and recognizes public and private organizations who promote biodiversity conservation and sustainable development initiatives, thus ensuring the protection of the ecosystem integrity and its perennial ecological processes of cycling water, nutrients, flow of energy and so on.

Providing tools that enable the reconciliation between biodiversity conservation and business production requirements is a crucial endeavor in our world today. However, values associated with ethics, scientific knowledge and sense of priority are not easily transformed into practical means to promote sustainability and social responsibility.

It is clear then that we need to create new alternatives, able to reverse the history of biodiversity loss and to put a stop on the dividing view that keeps “natural resource conservation” apart from “models of development”.

However, though still in an isolated, tentative manner, a new way of interpreting the use of natural resources has emerged and is currently being supported at different levels worldwide. The recognition of the importance of the ecosystem services for the balance of the Planet has already become a concern for governments, corporations, and institutions in the Third Sector. It is clear that the destruction of nature needs to be stopped in order to mitigate social and economic losses, which will only get more severe and intense as time goes on.

Business interests and biodiversity conservation, until recently considered opposing themes for the most part, have just started to come together in an efficient, powerful process. The creation of LIFE Certification is closely tied to the conviction that a program committed to life and to the future requires new initiatives to improve the relationship between business and biodiversity.

O Boticário Foundation for Nature Protection Maria de Lourdes Nunes Executive Director		Posigraf Giem Guimarães General Director
Fundación AVINA Miguel Milano Representative for Southern Brazil and Pantanal		SPVS (Society for Wildlife Research and Environmental Education) Clóvis Borges Executive Director

Learn more about LIFE Institute and LIFE Certification.


2010	Junho/2010 Partnership the event Ecosystems Services for Corporate Decision Making, in São Paulo. Maio/2010 Participated of the FCE Pharma e FCE Cosmetique, in São Paulo. Partnership with NurnbergMesse Brasil Partnership with WSI Partnership with the STCP. Participated the Ethos International Conference, in São Paulo. LIFE Institute´s Executive Secretary, Maria Alice, was participant in workshop information “Business Strategy and the Biosphere: Scaling Market Solutions to Ecosystem Challenges”. Participated the event “Sourcing with Respect”, in São Paulo. Participated the Event LIDE, with Marina Silva. Abril/2010 Partnership with Guyra Paraguay: LIFE in Mercosur Partnership with the Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development (CEBDS) March/2010: Meetings with experts to fine-tune norms and regulations Meeting with Board’s and the Fiscal Council’s roles Instituto LIFE has officially joined the Earth Hour 2010, the movement is a symbolic action against climate change that has been promoted by WWF worldwide since 2007. February/2010 Work with norms about LIFE Certification. January/2010 Completion of Phase 1 - Pilot Audits A whole new team came on board and is hard at work! January 6-8: Participated of the 2nd “Cities and Biodiversity” Meeting organized by the City of Curitiba the Ministry for the Environment and the “Convention on Biological Diversity” (CBD) of the United Nations, on. On the last day of the meeting, Mr. Miguel Milano , LIFE Institute Board of Directors' Vice-Chair announced the creation of LIFE Certification. January 7: Itaipu Binacional Power Plant officially joined LIFE Certification. LIFE Institute made the announcement at the gala dinner offered to participants of the 2nd “Cities and Biodiversity” Meeting. Attending were several authorities, including Curitiba Mayor Beto Richa, , Mr. Jorge Samek, Itaipu’s General Director, and Mr. Ahmed Djoghlaf, CBD’s Executive Secretary. LIFE’s Vice-Chair Miguel Milano and LIFE’s Executive Secretariat Maria Alice were in Brasilia to meet with representatives of the Ministry for the Environment, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and CFW. They were also in Rio de Janeiro to meet with representatives of Petrobrás, CEBDS and Funbio.

2009	November- December/2009 Participated of the 3rd “Business and Biodiversity” Meeting organized by the Secretariat of the “Convention on Biological Diversity” in Jakarta, Indonesia between Nov 30-Dec 02. The event was attended by 220 representatives of governments, non-governmental organizations, multilateral organizations and businesses from 30 countries. LIFE Institute was represented by Adriana Leal Vasconcellos, Posigraf’s Quality Manager and Ricardo Gomes Luiz, Strategic Partnerships, Society for Wildlife Research and Environmental Education (SPVS). The event in Indonesia was a preliminary working meeting for the 10th Conference of the Parties (COP-10) of the “Convention on Biological Diversity” to be held in Nagoya, Japan, in October 2010. Mr. Clovis Borges, LIFE Institute’s Chairman of the Board, made a presentation on LIFE Certification at ExpoManagement, an event organized by Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV), and at HSM Sustainability Forum, both in São Paulo. October/2009 Started restructuring of LIFE’s team. Advanced the development of LIFE Certification’s norms and regulations. September/2009 LIFE Institute’s Executive Secretary Andrea Drapier participated of CBD Meeting in Montreal, Canada. Participated of the VI Brazilian Congress on Protected Areas (CBUC) sponsored by O Boticario Foundation. July/2009 July 17: LIFE Institute and LIFE Certification were officially launched at an event held in Curitiba, attended by Mr. Ahmed Djohghlaf, Executive Secretary of the “Convention on Biological Diversity” of the United Nations, Ministers Carlos Minc (Environment) and Paulo Bernardo (Planning), the Acting Mayor of Curitiba, Luciano Ducci, and other government officials as well as representatives from the business, academic and Third Sectors. June/2009 Members of the Academic community, organizations in the Third Sector and businesses in general were invited to become members of LIFE Institute’s Board of Directors and its Fiscal Council. May/2009 • The technicians involved in “Project LIFE” worked to conclude the preliminary version of LIFE Certification Regulations. The Statutes for LIFE Institute were concluded and approved by the Founding Organization Members. Technicians from the Ministry for the Environment received reference materials about LIFE Certification methodology and the process for constituting LIFE Institute. April/2009 • Support for “Project Life” from the Brazilian Government ─through the Ministry for the Environment─ and the UN ─through the Convention on Biological Diversity─ became official. March/2009 • New partners joined in the “Project LIFE” team: Zig Koch, UNILIVRE (Free University for the Environment), Brazilian Biodiversity Fund (FUNBIO), MPX Energia and Positivo Informática. February/2009 • Legal procedures for the founding of LIFE Institute were initiated. Andrea Drapier was named Executive Secretary with the responsibility to officially launch LIFE Institute and LIFE Certification. January/2009 • Work with the Brazilian Ministry for the Environment intensified. Work on the preliminary version of LIFE Certification Regulations began.

2008	December/2008 “Project LIFE” was presented to Brazilian Biodiversity Fund (Funbio) and to Brazilian Ministry for the Environment seeking their official support and additional alliances. At the same time, representatives from the Founding Organization Members traveled to Montreal, Canada to present the Project to the “Convention on Biological Diversity” (CBD) of the United Nations. CBD is an international organization that brings together governments from over 180 countries to draft policies and strategies for reducing biodiversity loss on the Planet. November/2008 The campaign to introduce “Project LIFE” to the business sector was intensified aiming to seek even further alliances and to obtain effective support for the creation of LIFE Certification. October/2008 The name and logo of “the pro-biodiversity certification” were created by Master Comunicação Advertising Agency. The brand “LIFE” was created which later turned into “LIFE Certification”. LIFE Institute was soon after officially created to manage the Certificate. The City of Curitiba Mayor Office gave its official support to “Project LIFE” by offering governmental support to the four Founding Organization Members. September/2008 The proposal for creating “the pro-biodiversity certification” LIFE Certification and founding LIFE Institute was presented to the City of Curitiba’s Secretary for the Environment aiming to build alliances and obtain the official support for the initiative. New partners joined in the team: Master Comunicação, Paraná Technology Institute (TECPAR) and BDO Trevisan to help design LIFE Certification. August/2008 Based on these preliminary studies, the planning phase was started to address the initial design of “Project LIFE” as well as the development of strategies to engage new partnerships. A variety of professional consulting services were hired during this phase to conduct feasibility studies and product development, laying the groundwork for what would later become LIFE Certification. March-May/2008 The work group focused on evaluating studies and publications on “Business and Biodiversity”, especially those issued by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and by the high-level conference on Business and Biodiversity held by the European Union in Lisbon, Portugal in November of 2007. February-July/2008 During this phase, the work group focused on studying other Certification programs and voluntary tools used to get businesses involved in environmental activism. January-February/2008 A work group of technicians from Fundación AVINA, O Boticário Foundation for Nature Protection, Posigraf and SPVS was formed. They started analyzing the objectives and topics under the “Convention on Biological Diversity” of the United Nations to identify possible ways to get businesses involved in actions intended to mitigating loss of biodiversity. The group also looked into Brazilian Government programs promoting the conservation of the country’s natural heritage.

2007	The four Founding Organization Members began talks aiming to create an Environmental Certification as a tool to promote biodiversity conservation.

Life Institute offices are within the Free University for the Environment (UNILIVRE) campus in Curitiba, southern Brazil.

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