This document summarizes activities at the Green Office of the Federal University of Technology of Paraná in Curitiba, Brazil. It discusses hosting biodiversity meetings to share knowledge and seeds for urban agriculture. The Green Office engages students and community members in organic gardening and composting. Participants visit local urban gardens, attend workshops on topics like composting and herb cultivation, and an organic market is held monthly. The goal is to promote sustainable practices and facilitate knowledge sharing between experts, farmers and city residents interested in home food production. A new partnership now provides weekly deliveries of organic baskets from a producers' cooperative.

1. Biodiversity meetings:
Sharing Knowledge and Seeds for
Urban Agriculture
RCE CRIE CURITIBA – BRAZIL
GREEN OFFICE
Federal University of Technology of Paraná -UTFPR
Eloy F. Casagrande Jr, PhD
RCE 2015
Conference of the Americas
Grand Rapids, MI

2. Localization of Paraná State
and Curitiba
RCE CRIE CURITIBA BRAZIL –
First to be created in South America in 2007
Curitiba – capital of the Paraná State
South of Brazil – a city famous for its urban planning
Curitiba urban area - 434,967 km²
Population – 1,8 million

3. Green City:
33 parks =
19,25 km²
4,42% of the
total area of
Curitiba
The Brazilian city Curitiba awarded the
Globe Sustainable City Award 2010

4. First integrated public
transport of Brazil
Became a model for
many cities around the
world

5. Flowers’Street
First pedestrian road
of Brazil - 1973
Oscar Niemeyer Museum

6. Universidade Tecnológica Federal
do Paraná, Escritório Verde
Curitiba, PR, Brasil
Green Office of the UTFPR / RCE
CRIE Curitiba: Sustainability,
Innovation and Community - 2011
teractionmore on: www.escritorioverdeonline.com.br

7. Context: Despite the fact that
environmental impact of buildings
becomes more apparent, still many
difficulties to implement sustainable
architecture and construction
engineering, with renewable energy
generation and “zero” waste,
specially in a developing country.

8. Project: A didactic green building to approach external community to the
university. It was build in partnership with 70 companies and is also
responsible for the development and implementation of the environmental
management program of the university campus.

9. Design role: to promote green building principles as tool for sustainable
development education and to facilitate interaction between teachers,
students, researchers and community as whole.
HOUSE OF RCE CRIE
CURITIBA
Regional Center of
Expertise for
Sustainable
Development Education
UNU – United Nations
University
Award Best Practices
2012 - Korea

10. 2013: RCE CRIE Curitiba and
the Green Office
Aims to create a space for dialogue
between agriculture experts,
organic farmers and city dwellers
who seek to cultivate their food in
the home environment, improving
its quality food and helping to
preserve some cultivated and
known species
"Biodiversity meetings: Sharing Knowledge and Seeds
for Urban Agriculture“

11. First step
Getting undergradute
students involved
Preparing a Green
Roof

12. Harvest...

13. Doing garden maintenance
with master degree students

14. Master degree students engaged in the
project
Preparation of urban garden in the
Green Office

15. Second part of
the project –
The urban
gardens visits
Learning from
the community
Home of Mr.
Keizo

16. Second part of the project –
The urban gardens visits
Mr. Keizo collecting mown grass
from neighbors for composting and
distributes vegetables

17. Visiting Casa da Videira (Vine´s House)
Three families have created their own
backyard vegetable garden
Around 3 tons of organic waste
collected in the neighborhood is used
per month on a plot of 200 square
meters

18. Organic urban
market takes
place one
Saturday a
month in the
Green Office
It allows people
to exchange
experiences

19. Organic urban market
Dr. Rene Seifert
Teacher and Baker!

20. Different open courses are
offered to the community such
as composting, earthworm
breeding, cultivation of
strawberries and tomatoes
Short course on growing lettuce, spices and medicinal herbs without
pesticides in small boxes knowing by “capillary gardens” – a Styrofoam
box that serve to transport fish and are discarded by Japanese restaurants
in town.

21. Distribution of
native seeds
of tomatoes
Short course for growing
organic strawberry
Partnership with Paraná´s
State Institute for Small
Farmers Technical
Assistance
Group dynamics
Short course for growing organic
tomatoes

22. Environmental Education – Kids are learning
worm composting in the Earth Day

23. In 2015, began a new
phase of the project in
partnership with an NGO –
House of wine
We call it "Relational
Food", with the distribution
of three types of organic
baskets that are delivered
weekly to UTFPR employees
who come collect in the
Green Office
Products come from a cooperative
of organic producers of a small
town located 60 km from Curitiba
and who have difficulties in
marketing their products

24. Thank you
eloy.casagrande@gmail.com