Mensage from the CEO

The year of 2021 was special for all members of the Campo Limpo System because it marked two decades since the foundation of inpEV.

Along these 20 years, we have established a reverse logistics program that ensures the proper environmentally-friendly disposal of empty crop protection packaging, acknowledged worldwide, which has become a reference for other sectors. This successful trajectory of the Campo Limpo System, which is the result of active participation from all links of the agricultural chain, has taken us, in the year of our twentieth anniversary, to the 26^th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), in Glasgow (Scotland), a summit of global outreach.

In the month of December, we surpassed the 650,000 ton milestone of empty packaging properly disposed of during our history. In 2021 alone, the total reached 53,600 tons. This result is the consequence of the high capillarity our reverse logistics program has and of our commitment towards maximum efficiency. In 2021, we continued moving forward with the Integrated Management Program of the Receiving Stations, started in 2019 after the evaluation and recommendation by the inpEV Board of Directors, in which the manufacturing industry and representatives from the distribution channels and rural producers participate. We finished 2021 with 52 receiving stations managed by inpEV and, in three years, we achieved savings amounting to around R$ 5 million, thereby reducing the System participation costs for all members of the chain. Process standardization also increased by 26% the productivity of these units and, of the 52 receiving stations, 36 have already been ISO 9001 certified for quality management, a number that has increased year after year.

Along these two decades, we have also become an example of circularity as we developed, in a pioneering and disruptive way, the first high performance and safe packaging and sealing system using recycled resins, thus reinserting these materials into the manufacturing industry itself and extending their life cycle. The results of this production adopting the circular economy model are reinvested in the System itself, which contributes towards its self-sufficiency, which increases steadily and is currently around 70%.

Always betting on innovation, in 2021 we delivered other solutions that will directly contribute towards the evolution of the Campo Limpo System. We have developed a new press that offers the potential of leveraging productivity of the receiving stations by around 65%, and we have made headway in our traceability automation project, which grants speed to operations and allows us to track the empty containers up to their final disposal. Currently, 27 receiving stations have already adopted this model.

Besides the positive impact that the existence of the System has on the environment - over 899,000 tons of CO₂e that were avoided into the atmosphere between 2002 and 2021 –, we always strive to go further. Our new receiving stations are being built according to sustainability principles and now have ecoefficient solutions, such as auto-generation of renewable energy and water reuse. With the Campo Limpo Environmental Educational Program (PEA), we share content on solid waste management, circular economy and climate change with future generations. Since 2009, PEA has impacted 2.1 million public school students across the country.

Still regarding our social-environmental pillar, we have once again mobilized ourselves in support to families in a vulnerable condition in the communities where our units are located. As part of the National Clean Field Day (DNCL) celebrations, we collected over 230 tons of food, donated to more than 13,000 families. It is our social-environmental responsibility, one of our values, that compels us to participate in movements such as the United Nations Global Compact. This year, once again, we continued to disseminate to our stakeholders the ten principles of the compact, related to human and labor rights, the environment and fight against corruption.

It is worth pointing out that, during this second year of the covid-19 pandemic, our emergency committee that monitors all cases at the 411 receiving units remained active and we continued to adopt all prevention and awareness measures with all inpEV workers as well as with all other System professionals, farmers and other audiences we interface with. In December, 100% of all Institute workers had completed their vaccination cycle and, currently, we are encouraging and following up on booster immunization.

All the lessons learned and our achievements along these 20 years are now documented in the Campo Limpo System Museum, recently inaugurated in the city of Guariba (SP), where the pilot-projectthat gave origin to our reverse logistics program started. However, we want to continue this legacy and are certain that, with the engagement of all links of this chain, the Campo Limpo System will continue to evolve, supporting more and more Brazilian agriculture and generating positive impacts for society and our planet.

João César M. Rando
inpEV CEO