The governments of Brazil and Paraguay signed the [+] Itaipu Treaty on April 26, 1973, seven years after starting the negotiations to divide the hydraulic potential of the Paraná River. The document provided for the creation of Itaipu Binacional entity, which occurred a year later, to be responsible for the construction and management of the plant.

The company is governed by the Treaty and its three annexes, additional diplomatic acts and binational normative framework. Although it has its own legal basis, the company seeks to be aligned as far as possible to existing legal paradigms in the two partner countries.

The Brazilian and Paraguayan governments have equal rights and duties, being represented by Centrais Elétricas Brasileiras (Eletrobras) and the Administración Nacional de Electricidad (Ande). The highest company’s governance body is the Supervisory Board, followed by the Executive Board of Directors, both composed of Brazilian and Paraguayan members in equal numbers, and representatives of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs on the Board.

The management model established by the Internal Regulations is the Planning and Corporate Control System. The current business plan incorporates the concepts of management of the Balanced Scorecard methodology to consolidate indicators and their targets. The plan was built with the help of various stakeholders, based on situational scenarios, having a five-year horizon, but is subject to annual review or as determined by the Managing Directors.

In order to disseminate and incorporate the culture of sustainability among employees, the Sustainability Management System was implemented in Brazil, in 2012. Through the “Sustainable Itaipu” website, available on the intranet, and the realization of “Sustainable Dialogues”, the initiative discusses and identifies areas for improvement and synergy between the actions undertaken by the company.

Aimed at achieving the corporate vision in 2015, a tactical and operational review of Itaipu’s Business Plan including various sustainability-related topics and issues was held in conjunction with employees. As a result, 43 projects were proposed, 15 of which were considered priorities, which should be implemented in the short, medium and long term.

These proposals, already backed by the Directors were sent to the Corporate Project and Sectorial Offices to be structured according to the methodology of the Itaipu Project Management (Minibok) in order to obtain greater precision as to the steps, deliverables, costs and stakeholders of each project. The other approved projects will be implemented as the availability of resources and business needs.

Seeking to consolidate its position as a world leader in corporate sustainability in 2015, Itaipu underwent spontaneously the evaluation by the Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol of the International Hydropower Association (IHA), an organization that promotes sustainable hydroelectricity and acts as consultant and observer of all UN’s activities related to water, energy and climate change.

The step of interviews and field visits by the evaluators was held in October and an evaluation draft report was delivered late last year for comments from Itaipu. The evaluation process should be completed in 2016 and its results will support the decision making related to strategic actions of the economy in economic, environmental and social issues. Itaipu joined IHA in June 2006 and had been preparing for this evaluation since 2010.