João Pinheiro Nogueira Batista, the chairman of the board at Isolux Infrastructure (a highways and power transmission concessionaire) and vice-president of the Instituto Brasileiro de Governança Corporativa (IBGC, the Brazilian Institute of Corporate Governance), has always planned to dedicate himself to a social project after he retired. But last year, he decided not to wait that long. After being introduced to the Instituto Reciclar by its founder, the executive Cassio Casseb, Batista fell in love with the project. Ever since, he has chaired a nonprofit organization targeted at teenagers from the community of Jaguaré in the western zone of the city of São Paulo. The organization prepares youth to enter the job market.

"Reciclar is a mini (recycling) plant. On a smaller scale, it faces all the same problems as a private company", says Batista. Reciclar currently operates with professional management, an executive board that meets once per month, and a board of directors that holds quarterly meetings. Nogueira brought his expertise in public companies and corporate governance into the project, whose audits are now done by KPMG and which recently implemented a long term budget plan, complete with variable compensation policy.

The Instituto Reciclar educates an average of 15 youths per year, based on merit. They are selected by public schools based on their grades and behavior. The best students win the chance to be officially employed at the recycling plant.

More than 500 teenagers have been admitted to the project over the past 16 years — not all see it through it to the end – and 75% remain active in the job market in a wide range of occupations. Nogueira is proud to reveal that some of the young people that started out at Reciclar now occupy positions in large companies. "We are educating teens and promoting social inclusion by means of hard work and merit", he asserts.