The Cultivar Energia [Cultivate Energy] is a corporate social-environmental program, which has as its main objective the creation of community vegetable gardens in urban empty spaces underneath Copel’s power lines, in partnership with municipal governments, promoting the substitution of idle and underused areas for green and productive areas. Internally, it is consolidated as an auxiliary strategy to prevent irregular occupations and risk to the population. For the community, the main benefits are the environmental improvement of the urban space, the stimulus to food security, and the possibility of income generation.
The program converges with municipal public policies for urban agriculture and social inclusion, and strengthens a set of actions in favor of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations – UN, especially with regard to SDG 2 – Zero Hunger and Sustainable Agriculture; SDG 10 – Reducing inequality within and among countries, and SDG 17 – Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development. It also encourages dialogue between public agencies and between the company and the community in the search for and development of joint answers to social challenges and sustainable solutions for the cities.
In 2022, 445 families benefited. It is estimated that approximately 1,700 people are directly benefited and another 3,400 people indirectly, considering the average interactions of direct beneficiaries with third parties, who access food produced in the gardens through donation and sale. Currently, there are 12 vegetable gardens in 7 municipalities in Paraná.
