Students and Teachers
EDUKATU
Akatu has been operating EDUKATU — Brazil’s first free conscious consumption learning platform — since 2013. Designed for elementary and junior high school teachers and students (aged 6 through 15), the platform provides a space for schools, teachers and students to share ideas and offers exclusive fun and interactive content — readings, infographics, games, videos, lesson plans and learning pathways — on waste, water, energy, food and the SDGs, among others. Being digital, Edukatu reaches the 4 corners of Brazil, contributing to the education of children in every one of Brazil’s regions in both public and private schools alike, wherever they may be located. Together with local government education departments, Akatu provides teachers face-to-face or online technical guidance and training for conscious consumption and sustainability. Find out more about Edukatu.
350,000 + people impacted
160,000 + students reached by awareness-raising activities
16,000 + teachers trained
7,000 + schools reached
PIONNER SUPPORTER
Akatu provides us with tools to work with the human dimension of sustainability in a way that is well-structured and can be easily scaled up. The focused and planned work we have done in these cities has been extremely important, enabling Braskem to take conscious consumption to communities in the areas surrounding our operations.
Lúcia Rodrigues, member of Braskem’s Corporate Social Responsibility department (2019)
Support for content development and platform maintenance
Support for project dissemination
PRIORITY PROJECT — ENERGY EFFICIENCY
Throughout the 2016 school year, Akatu took the Priority Project — Energy Efficiency to schools in 10 cities: Itanhaém, Guarujá, Francisco Morato, Limeira, Rio Claro, Tatuí, Registro, Andradina and Votuporanga, in the State of São Paulo; and Três Lagoas, in Mato Grosso do Sul. The aim of the project was to raise awareness and mobilize teachers, students and the community for the conscious consumption of electricity. The project included face-to-face activities in schools, contents created for the Edukatu platform and the Everyday Energy Challenge, in which more than 2,800 students and 260 teachers created projects on energy efficiency. As well as actions in schools, Akatu developed awareness-raising activities to promote the conscious consumption of electricity in 42 NGOs and with staff of the state power company Elektro, training them to work with the community.
We believe that education is the best pathway through which people can transform and improve their lives. We need more environmentally-conscious individuals if we are to have a fairer society, stronger economy and balanced environment.
Felipe Zanola, manager of R&D and Energy Efficiency, Elektro (2016)
2,311 teachers trained
2,500 people from NGOs reached with awareness-raising activities
500 Elektro staff reached with awareness-raising activities
10,000 people (students, parents and school staff) impacted
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SUSTAINABLE SCHOOLS CHALLENGE
The aim of this pioneering initiative was to encourage public schools to submit action plans to promote conscious consumption and education for sustainability activities. The five best projects — one in each region of the country — were approved in 2019 and implemented in 2020 under the supervision of Akatu. Examples of activities included: the construction of a composting bins and implementation of an agroecological vegetable garden; installation of rain gutters and cisterns to harvest rainwater; bioconstruction and ecodesign workshops and reuse of waste; workshops for the production of homemade soap; and installation of voluntary waste drop-off points. The projects included training for teachers and activities to raise student awareness of conscious consumption and sustainability. The challenge was part of a global initiative coordinated by the Japanese organization, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), and the One Planet Network (ONU), and funded by Japan’s Ministry of the Environment. Other countries besides Brazil participated in the initiative, including Namibia, South Africa, Uganda, Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan, the Philippines, Vietnam and Suriname. In Suriname, Akatu acted as a consultant for the development of activities.
248 action plans submitted
5 schools awarded funding
R$225,000 in funding
We are really pleased with Akatu’s performance in the Sustainable Schools Challenge. The winning plans are really interesting and we hope they will help the schools make the transition to more sustainable lifestyles.
Simon Gilby, researcher at the IGES
FABER-CASTELL SCHOOL PROGRAM
In 2004, Akatu took part in the Faber-Castell School Program — one of the brand’s longest-lasting initiatives — holding conscious consumption workshops for elementary and middle school teachers from both public and private schools. Akatu also created a special conscious consumption calendar that came with educational resources and a text about conscious consumption. The kit was distributed to 6,000 schools.
17,000 teachers impacted
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CAPACITY BUILDING FOR TEACHERS FROM THE GRUPO MARISTA
Between 2005 and 2007, Akatu developed a project to provide capacity building on conscious consumption for teachers from the Grupo Marista. Teachers and coordinators from the group’s schools in four cities — Vila Velha (ES), Natal (RN), Recife (BH) and Belo Horizonte (MG) — took part in talks and workshops to learn how to be “multipliers” of conscious consumption and take the theme to the classroom to raise student awareness. Together with the schools, Akatu examined the best ways of incorporating conscious consumption and sustainability into curriculums. School staff, students and parents also participated in the talks and Akatu’s awareness raising activities.
5,600 people (students, parents and teachers) reached by awareness-raising activities
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Our partnership with Instituto Akatu in implementing a large-scale education for conscious consumption program made a decisive contribution to providing an up-to-date response in the development of new generations for sustainable and environmentally responsible development.
Dr. Manoel Alves, CEO of the Grupo Marista (2007)
EDUCATION FOR CONSCIOUS CONSUMPTION AND SUSTAINABILITY
This pilot project was developed between 2008 and 2010 to define the best education for conscious consumption and sustainability methodology to use in public schools across Brazil. The target audience was junior high students, which is a phase of life in which children begin to form their values and make autonomous consumption choices. Akatu visited schools in Rio Grande do Sul, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso, Rio Grande do Norte and Roraima, training educators (teachers, education coordinators and school principals) and developing tailored projects and educational activities addressing conscious consumption themes such as water, waste management, solidarity economy and social inequality. All the actions taken to the classroom were monitored and evaluated by Akatu.
15 schools
206 teachers trained
3,000 students reached by awareness-raising activities
10,000 people from the school communities impacted
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Young People and Communities
“PRANKING FOR GOOD CITIZENSHIP”
Between 2004 and 2008, Akatu developed the initiative “Pranking for Good Citizenship – Conscious consumption” in partnership with Campinas State University (Unicamp). In the five editions of the event, Akatu trained seniors and teachers in themes such as conscious consumption and sustainability so that they could develop actions in the community with freshmen. Over the five-year period, students from more than 30 courses were involved in the project, addressing themes such as conscious consumption, waste disposal, full use of food and replacing disposable products with durable items. The project received an award from the Fundação Educar DPaschoal.
5,000 +
students participated
students participated
150,000 +
people from the community impacted
Actions included:
- working with local recycling cooperatives, increasing the amount of waste received by almost 50%
- workshops showing how to make toys from recycled material and puppet theatre in children’s institutions
- communications campaign about recycling and full use of food
- distribution of 8,000 mugs in the college dining hall to reduce the use of disposable plastic cups
With this work it is possible to raise freshmen’s and seniors’ awareness of their social role, promoting interaction between students and engagement in the community.
William Kenji Tanaka, coordinator of the “Pranking for Good Citizenship” initiative (2004)
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SUSTAINABLE HOME
In 2020, with the support of CPFL Energy (through Brazil’s energy agency’s Energy Efficiency Program) and Consórcio PCJ, Akatu led the Sustainable Home project. Created to showcase sustainable technologies and construction methods, the Sustainable Home promotes environmental education and receives students and educators. In addition to structural repairs, the layout of the Home was redesigned to display new educational resources on themes such as the rational and safe use of electricity, water efficiency, proper disposal of waste and respect for the environment. The game-based and interactive activities encourage reflection, dialogue and visitor engagement, stimulating the adoption of sustainable practices.
The Sustainable Home was conceived to allow visitors to experience replicable sustainable practices, thus fostering the discussion of habits that save electricity and water at school and in the home.
Paula Salomão Guimarães, energy efficiency analyst at CPFL Energy (2020)
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THE CO2 REDUCTION CHALLENGE
In 2017, in partnership with Dow, Akatu created a challenge designed to engage technical college students in creating projects that help Brazil achieve the goal of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions, thus helping to slow global warming. Teams of teachers and students enrolled in Environment Studies and Chemistry courses at technical colleges in Salvador (BA), Campinas and São Paulo (SP) submitted projects in the following thematic categories: water, energy, food, waste, and transport and logistics. Over R$30,000 was awarded in prize money to support the implementation of the winning projects, which focused on the use of conscious consumption as a tool to reduce emissions.
Dow published its 2025 Sustainability Goals and one of our commitments for the next decade is the construction of networks and partnerships to boost sustainable practices across different sectors. To achieve this goal, we will need to mobilize everyone.
Júlio Natalense, Sustainability Leader for Dow in Latin America (2017)
500 +
students impacted
students impacted
R$30,000 +
in prize money
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Company Leadership and Staff
EDUCATION FOR CONSCIOUS CONSUMPTION – WALMART
Between 2007 and 2012, Akatu developed a program for Walmart staff in Brazil designed to promote awareness raising, mobilization and engagement for conscious consumption. We developed tailored activities combining Akatu’s own methodology with the Conscious Consumer Test and design thinking, building the capacity of more than 1,000 staff to act as multipliers of conscious consumption. The participants disseminated the content learned on the courses and practices taught on the courses to their colleagues, raising awareness among another 82,000 staff in the company’s outlets in the South, Southeast and Northeast regions.
82,000 staff reached by awareness-raising activities
1,260 staff trained to be multipliers
500 + outlets involved
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PROJECT RATIONALIZE – BRADESCO
In 2016, Akatu helped Bradesco develop Project Rationalize, aimed at raising staff awareness of conscious consumption. More than 80 staff attended the workshops given by Akatu at Bradesco’s headquarters in Osasco (SP). Focusing on water, electricity and waste, the workshops were designed to train multipliers of conscious consumption. After the workshops, participants were challenged to disseminate and multiply what they learned with other staff working in the same area. The project also included an internal communications campaign with text-based content, videos and games.
83 staff trained to be multipliers
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MOBILIZATION OF SENIOR LEADERSHIP – GRUPO PÃO DE AÇÚCAR
Akatu developed a project involving a series of conscious consumption and sustainability workshops for directors and managers of the Grupo Pão de Açúcar. Held in 2010 in São Paulo, Campinas, Fortaleza and Brasília, the workshops aimed to mobilize and build the capacity of company leaders to identify opportunities for promoting changes in consumption behavior in the workplace and at home.
185 directors and managers mobilized
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CONSCIOUS CONSUMPTION OF MONEY AND CREDIT – HSBC
Between 2008 and 2009, Akatu visited HSBC agencies in six cities — Curitiba, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Goiânia, Salvador and Recife — giving awareness-raising talks and workshops to mobilize and train more than 150 staff to be multipliers of conscious consumption of money and credit. After the training, the multipliers disseminated the knowledge learned, raising awareness among other staff.
157 staff trained to be multipliers
1,600 + staff reached by awareness raising activities implemented by multipliers
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TRAINING OF MULTIPLIERS – MASISA
In 2014, Akatu provided capacity building on conscious consumption and sustainability for staff at Masisa Brasil. Twenty staff were selected to be trained to be multipliers. They received the following support materials created by Akatu specifically for Masisa: Reference Guide, including theoretical content on sustainability, conscious consumption and company business; and the Guide for Multipliers, a step-by-step guide on how to develop activities, disseminate contents and raise awareness about conscious consumption among other staff.
The enthusiasm of my colleagues and training multipliers only reinforces my conviction that companies have a huge opportunity to influence the transformation of our society.
Yazmin Trejos, Corporate Communications and Sustainability Manager, Masisa Brasil (2014)
20 staff trained to be multipliers
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CARING FOR THE WORLD PROJECT – PORTO SEGURO
Throughout 2011, Akatu developed a project directed at company staff and service providers designed to promote awareness raising and mobilization for conscious consumption. Focusing on workshops and communications campaigns, the project’s primary aim was to train staff working with home insurance to provide guidance to customers on the importance of conscious consumption, offering energy and water efficiency tips and information on sustainable eating.
151 staff and service providers trained as mobilizers
22,000 homes impacted
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