Conventional wisdom holds that small and medium-sized manufacturers, their profit margins perenially squeezed, simply can’t afford environmental management. Viviana Rocco has found otherwise. A civil engineer with the Montevideo, Uruguay consulting firm Seinco, she led a team that monitored the environmental practices of small manufacturers in the Uruguayan capital as part of a wastewater project funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Coaxed by a moratorium on fines, companies cooperated. Following some simple recommendations, a core group of about two dozen firms cut key contaminants in their wastewater, such as grease, lead and chrome, by two-thirds or more in less than four years. In many cases, managers found Rocco’s suggestions helped save money by reducing water and electricity use. Some managers also found that best practices helped stimulate exports by addressing concerns of buyers abroad. EcoAméricas correspondent Bill Hinchberger spoke with Rocco recently in Brazil.
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