The brand from Pará slow fashion Da Tribu launched, on December 10th, a new collection, the guide, with innovative and sustainable pieces made in TEA (Amazon Rubber Fabric).
The new pieces, with a limited edition, include a bag that transforms into a backpack and scarves, signed by Reg Coimbra and Bruna Bastos, designers from Jambo Estúdio from Pará.
The collection was conceived based on the changes caused by the coronavirus pandemic: "We asked ourselves what people were looking for and we strongly noticed a reconnection with the space in which they live, with the house, for example", says the creative director of the brand, Tainah Fagundes.
Another interesting point of the pieces is the multiple uses. The backpack can also be used as a bag, and the scarf, in addition to housing potted plants, can be used as a basket for objects and fruit. “We were interested in thinking about these developments, and that's why we called Reg and Bruna to conceive the design of the products, as well as the prints”, says Tainah.
Other partnerships in the collection include the Costuraê collective – a project that brings together seamstresses from the Guamá and Terra Firme neighborhoods in Belém – and the Pedra Branca community on the island of Cotijuba – which produced the TEA and has been a partner of Da Tribu for more than three years old.
The sustainability of parts
The Nortear collection emerged from a common interest between the brand and Jambo Estúdio. “There had been a common interest and admiration for some time. Da Tribu and Jambo are played by women from the Amazon, entrepreneurs, who think in a similar way and who believe in the power of partnerships”, says Reg Coimbra.
A survey of the universe of the brand and its consumers, market trends and the fashion area was carried out to propose new products with the Amazon Rubber Fabric (TEA), whose specific machinery was built with resources of the emergency notice of the Partners for the Amazon Platform Acceleration Program, launched to help female entrepreneurs in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis. The fabric was developed in partnership with researchers from UnB (University of Brasília)
The parts are made of TEA and reused truck tarpaulins, with over ten years of use, representing at least 1 million kilometers traveled.
“The canvas was dyed and treated to be softened. It's a time to reframe and stop producing excesses, betting on timeless products with a longer shelf life”, defends Da Tribu creator Kátia Fagundes, about the concept of the collection, which also permeates the entire trajectory of the brand, with the constant use of recyclable materials, renewable raw materials and investment in the relationship with communities in the capital of Pará.
Before TEA, Da Tribu developed pieces with rubberized threads with latex, in partnership with Comunidade Pedra Branca. Now, the expectation is that, with the new machinery, production will increase and bring more financial return. “We saw that production is much higher, we had a very high demand and this impacts our financial world within the community”, says Corina Magno, producer of threads and fabrics at Comunidade Pedra Branca.
Representative of Brazil in the final stage of the second edition of Entrepreneur with Impact Award can, the tucum, represented by entrepreneur Amanda Santana, was second out of six semi-finalists and received a $10,000 prize to boost the business.
First place went to the project Ecocitex, from Chile, which received 20 thousand dollars. And in third place, public choice, was the project closing the cycle, from Mexico, which received the 5,000 dollar prize.
The winners stood out among 614 participants from Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay. The award was announced at a virtual meeting, which brought together the semi-finalists and a jury composed of references in entrepreneurship, social innovation and impactful business in the region.
Tucum focuses on the commercialization of traditional art from indigenous peoples and riverside dwellers in Brazil, working with indigenous organizations and initiatives in training and training with the purpose of promoting, valuing and disseminating Brazilian cultural diversity.
With 10 years of experience in the Amazon, the project fosters the autonomy of indigenous peoples, promoting income generation and autonomy, settlement in the territory, maintenance of culture and traditional knowledge and the recognition and appreciation of artisanal production.
“Many people are still amazed by our business, which is unusual in uniting indigenous peoples to the digital environment. This award is a very important recognition, which shows that we are on the right path. We want to break paradigms and prejudices. Mercado Livre is a partner in our journey, supporting, offering content and providing security for us to continue with renewed energy on this journey. And with Empreender com Impacto, it comes to strengthen this network of impact and the small entrepreneurs who are yet to come”, says Amanda Santana, creator of Tucum.
O Entrepreneur with Impact is part of the sustainability strategy of the Free Market and, in Brazil, is articulated by the Giral Viveiro de Projeto Consulting, and featured content produced from the market intelligence of the Free Market and the extensive experience with entrepreneurship and social innovation of Semente de Negócios – accelerator that has been active in the development of innovative businesses since 2011 – and Coalizão Éditodos – a group of organizations from the black entrepreneurship ecosystem, which works collectively to promote entrepreneurship at the base of the pyramid.
In 2020, the Program sought to add to the growing demand of the impact entrepreneurship ecosystem in Brazil, supporting entrepreneurs in strengthening commercial strategies, in efficiently and sustainably accessing markets and in leveraging its benefits to society.
“Empreender com Impacto seeks to empower Latin American entrepreneurs who generate social and environmental benefits through their businesses, so that Tucum's victory is quite symbolic, not only for the importance of the Amazon for Latin America, but for the fact that it contributes to generation of income and for the conservation of the forest by valuing traditional knowledge” says Laura Motta, Sustainability Manager at Mercado Livre.
New platform
This month Tucum launched a marketplace that aims to bring together stores belonging to indigenous groups that produce handicrafts and with which it has been working in these 10 years of operation.
The first three stores are from Galeria Amazônica, a store owned by the Waimiri Atroari Community Association, by Meprodjá – Arte Kayapó and by Tecê-AGIR, Arte das Guerreiras de Rondônia. Tucum continues to be one of the stores on the market place, and sells handicrafts from other groups until they are prepared to have autonomy with their own stores.
“These initiatives have been working with crafts for a long time and now they want to position themselves online. And Tucum will be that platform, which will make it possible for them to realize this dream”, evaluates Amanda Santana. All photos, essays and media were taken by indigenous groups. “The whole process was done by them, we wanted them to feel what working online is like and realize that it's all up to them. We provide support whenever necessary.”
In October, Tucum began a distance learning experience with indigenous leaders: the program Training of Indigenous Managers in the online sale of handicrafts. The initiative was built on the premise of preparing these leaders to make their sales on any online platform, whether on Tucum's marketplace, on its own website or on social networks such as Facebook and Instagram. These first three stores are the result of this work.
Tucum's new platform brings a map of Brazil where it is possible to visualize all the ethnic groups that work with the project, the location of handicrafts and the impacts caused, among many other data. “We invite everyone to buy in the forest through the Tucum platform and realize the positive impact that this causes”, celebrates Amanda.
CBKK S/A, a new company focused on investments that translate into socioeconomic and environmental impacts at the origin, led by businessman Stefano Arnhold (ex TecToy), announced an agreement and association with the chocolatier Amazonian Cesar De Mendes in the company Mendes chocolates.
The objective is to scale the production of the factory based in Pará, targeting the national and international market for fine and sustainable chocolates. De Mendes was already being sought by other investors, but there was no synergy found now with CBKK.
“This negotiation started more or less in August, and the importance of this relationship is mainly due to the expansion of what we already do. We are going to intensify the social and environmental impacts, which has always been a major focus of our company. Today we have a direct impact on around 3,500 people and on 300,000 hectares of forest. This pleases us, but at the same time bothers us, because there is so much to do. The Amazon is a giant region. The depredation of the forest happens at a high speed, we need to have answers. And the expansion of De Mendes' scale of action with the arrival of CBKK helps with that,” says César De Mendes.
The association brings an ambitious goal: to directly impact 50,000 people and contribute to the conservation of at least 1 million hectares of forest by 2025.
Marcello Brito, ex-Agropalma and now CEO of CBKK S/A, highlights that the association is the sum of a lot of market knowledge with forest and cocoa knowledge that only the chocolatier It has.
“After 25 years of work in Pará and in the Amazon in general, I realize that the Amazon is a place that has everything but, at the same time, it needs to resolve legal processes. In the case of De Mendes, we are adjusting all the legislation, plant regularization, application of good manufacturing practices, implementation of blockchain production control and traceability systems for all cocoa, and a carbon calculation system for we mitigate the emissions of the entire operation,” defines Brito.
The CEO of CBKK also highlights the intention of moderate scale due to the profile of the business, a factory for the production of fine chocolates. “What we are going to do is use all our skills to seek out consumers who value this type of product, in Brazil and abroad. If we grow too much, we will already have to use planted cocoa, and we will be just one more producer competing with the giants. We want to keep the spirit of the business, to be the chocolate producer that has this specificity of working with indigenous communities, quilombolas and small producers. ”
De Mendes highlights the importance of accumulating experience to consolidate this association: “What we are today is the sum of everything we have already done. Having participated in the PPA Acceleration Program was excellent in this process. Through connections, through shared knowledge. It was very important for us to mature as a business, to understand our role and to be able to see ourselves as a sustainable business. ”
“We are very happy with the celebration of the partnership between De Mendes and CBKK, because our main objective with the Acceleration Program is to help the startups to develop and attract investments,” declares Mariano Cenamo, director of new businesses at Idesam and coordinator of the Acceleration Program at PPA. “Without a doubt, De Mendes is taking an important step in its journey, and we are certain that the company will have significant growth in its capacity to generate a positive social and environmental impact in the Amazon.”
Integration of new Amazonian communities
De Mendes currently works in partnership with around 32 communities and with five cocoa pre-processing bases. The association with CBKK will allow the work with other indigenous territories, quilombolas and riverside dwellers.
Among the partners that will soon join the process are the Suruí, Ashaninca and Huni Kuin (Kaxinawá) Indians. Riverside communities in Amapá, close to Mazagão, too. Through a partnership with the Orsa and Jari Foundations, the work will extend to the surroundings of the Jari River.
De Mendes has had a relationship with a community in the Jari region since 2014, when he discovered a unique, unlisted variety of cocoa that gives rise to one of the chocolate bars produced by the company today.
“These regions were not chosen randomly. Indigenous communities have come to us. We have about 20 indigenous communities in the state of Amazonas, in the Maturacá region, to visit. The Indians have a great knowledge of the forest and also the mobility in their territories. They are excellent partners in the search for cocoa. We are so lucky that these communities look to us for partnerships, and with the alliance with CBKK, we will be able to advance a lot in this direction”, he says.
With the covid-19 pandemic, the chocolatier works on the design and assembly of an audiovisual tutorial on cocoa pre-processing training, which he usually performs with the communities in person. There will be online support and, as soon as possible, visits will be scheduled in loco. This process will allow for the expansion of the number of assisted communities.
CBKK has ambitious goals to impact the origin of business
Composed of executives or businessmen who in their trajectories were touched at some point by the Amazon, CBKK S/A has among its members people who worked in systems that sought a choice of environmental, social or socio-environmental sustainability.
Marcello Brito, the company's CEO, comes from the agribusiness area, having worked for 25 years in Pará, and participated in several multi-stakeholder initiatives in Brazil and abroad.
All CBKK members are also Conservation International in Brazil advisors. And from this action came the concern to act to boost the socio-biodiversity economy in the region.
“We have a challenge ahead of us: participate in 100 to 120 deals from now until December 2030. Small businesses, in which we can have 50%, 10%, 5% of participation, or have no participation at all, but be a service provider. Or an intermediary with philanthropy. It doesn't mean being a partner in all these businesses, but having a link with them, strengthening them,” defines Brito. To get on CBKK's radar, these businesses must also have an impact at the origin, in the communities.
“We have defined a region for this: the Amazon biome, coastal regions with mangroves or investments 'in water' – for example, the development of algae farms in communities located on the Brazilian coast. ”
CBKK is also partnering with a company linked to agroforestry systems, with extensive experience in Brazil and abroad, with the expectation that the supported businesses will have the concept of agroforestry system around them.
“It is a model that has not yet been explored, we have a lot to learn in terms of knowledge, plant health, root interaction between plants, nutritional interaction. But this is the future of modern agriculture,” ponders Brito. “Nothing against soy, corn, rice, which are part of the bioeconomic process. But what else can we do besides the traditional bioeconomy to generate something different for the Amazon? Time is running out and we are losing the war there, and losing seven to zero. ”
Unsurprisingly, logistics and access to Amazonian socio-biodiversity products are among the biggest challenges for high-impact businesses operating in the northern region.
One of the solutions found to minimize this bottleneck was the establishment of a partnership between Costa Brasil, Lothar Logística, Idesam and Climate Ventures, with the objective of promoting, in a sustainable way, the access of Amazonian socio-biodiversity brands to the national market.
The partnership is part of the movement Amazon at home, Forest standing, which today brings together 16 sustainable brands operating in the Amazon, most of them accelerated by the PPA Program.
THE Costa Brasil is a large company specializing in multimodal transport. It operates throughout the Brazilian territory, delivering customized solutions according to each demand, seeking agility, security and economy.
Through the partnership signed, Costa Brasil undertakes to carry out weekly cargo transfer franchises on the Manaus-São Paulo and São Paulo-Itajaí routes, as well as storage in Manaus, São Bernardo do Campo, Guarulhos and Itajaí. It is also responsible for the handling service (labeling and packaging of products).
This logistical arrangement is, in itself, a great advance for businesses that generate a positive impact in the Amazon, facilitating access to products, reducing freight and speeding delivery, as the products are stored in the southeast of the country.
“Costa Brasil has sustainability as one of its pillars, which is why our commitment to the environment is constant. We are happy to support the Amazon at home project, Floresta depé, which is increasingly contributing to a sustainable Brazil,” says Sérgio Thomaz, CEO of the company.
The partnership also includes the preparation of a study and logistical assistance for the chain of each entrepreneur, as well as investment in sustainable cargo stations in general (containers), in actions to promote the sustainable chain, provision of tools/systems for freight optimization, among other points.
For the coordinator of the Acceleration Program at PPA and director of new business at Idesam, Mariano Cenamo, Costa Brasil brings a lot of value to the Program, contributing with excellence and an enormous network of transport and logistics, storage and distribution of products, placed at the layout of startups.
“This year in particular, it was evident how important it is to master these operations to place impact products from the Amazon in more competitive conditions in the markets of southern and southeastern Brazil. We are building a series of storage, transport, distribution and warehousing solutions that are already available to businesses, and we hope that in the future the solutions will tend to grow more and more. ”
Search for logistics and marketing solutions
The partnership is an unfolding of the realization of the Lab Amazônia: Challenge of Logistics and Marketing of Sociobiodiversity Products in the Amazon, carried out by Climate Ventures, Idesam and Plataforma Parceiros pela Amazônia, and which brought together in Manaus, in June of last year, around 40 representatives of organizations and companies for the design and subsequent prototyping of solutions.
With the pandemic, several of the Amazonian businesses found themselves compelled to implement or increase e-commerce. The brands, companies and organizations, some of them participating in the Lab Amazônia, came together and created the movement Amazônia em casa, Floresta em pé, boosting visibility and commercialization for the brands. And soon came the celebration of the logistics partnership.
Ricardo Lothar, from Lothar Consultoria, who participated in the Amazon Lab and has been helping to build solutions, believes that the arrival of Costa Brasil as a partner and operator of this block of Amazonian brands represents a milestone and a paradigm shift in the non-existent relationship between large companies in national logistics and small impact entrepreneurs in the region.
“Costa Brasil will create a virtual logistical treadmill between the Amazon and the South and Southeast of Brazil, with a warehouse, tax suspension until the final sale and free time lengthened storage, allowing the Amazon product to be available to large consumer centers, with prompt delivery, without burdening the entrepreneur during the brand and product consolidation phase. Lothar Consultoria, as a voluntary partner of Idesam and PPA, fulfilled its role of guiding logistical solutions and prosperity for impactful businesses in the Amazon, regardless of their size. The Amazon is a solution, never a problem. ”
Business and Indicators Curatorship
The partnership also establishes that Climate Ventures and Idesam will curate sustainable businesses able to integrate into the arrangement, build social and environmental impact indicators and systematize a database resulting from individual logistics consultancy carried out, seeking to ensure transparency and monitoring .
For Floriana Breyer, from Climate Ventures, it is very significant that Costa Brasil has accepted the challenge of overcoming Amazonian distances and opening up space in its operation to transport and store cargo for these entrepreneurs. “They understood that, much more than products, they transport standing forest and social benefits. Partnerships like this one could scale the Amazon movement at home, Floresta standing and bring the Amazon closer to Brazilians, helping to consolidate the bioeconomy as a vector of sustainable development in the region. ”
Vitor Galvani, also from Climate Ventures, highlights the importance of building indicators to demonstrate that the value of Amazonian products goes far beyond flavors and beauty, as they contribute to keeping the forest standing. “A partner of Costa Brasil's size can support us in reducing logistical costs and delivery time for products to the southeast of the country. This will directly impact the increase in sales of Amazonian brands. In addition, this partnership will bring benefits in reducing the carbon footprint in the traditional logistics that the projects used, as we will prioritize the maritime modal in an optimized way. ”
