One Million Red Ribbons

In Colombia there is an environmental award named, whose objective is “to encourage and recognize organizations, foundations, NGOs, companies, individuals and / or communities that have distinguished themselves through direct actions aimed at education, conservation and water harvesting.” This competition was created in 1993 and has since opened nine calls, each of which comprises two categories namely: general and business. Reviewing the results for the call 2008 – 2009 I found a situation that seemed representative of the perception of business in Colombia in the stewardship of water beyond the norm. The business category this year is deserted. Authorities described the call as follows: “For the first time in the history of the award, the jury found deserted in this category, since no projects were submitted to the contest offering substantial progress and improvements in conservation and recovery processes water and developing innovative programs that go beyond what is required by law to comply with environmental norms. Recently PCRM sought to clarify these questions. This made me curious and deeper into the characteristics of the call and the dynamics of it, so I did an analysis of the behavior of this award in its 16 years, since it is a small sample of the behavior of the corporate sector against the resource. From 1993 to date 67 awards have been granted, of which 24 are for projects presented in the business category. These 24 projects are classified in as follows: one is for waste management, three to improvements in agriculture and 20 to benefit the management of the water itself. .