Our firm originated from Lutzenberger's desire to promote concrete actions, turning ecological speech into practice.

Vida was created in 1979 and in that time already practiced the recycling of industrial wastes. At the beginning it was a small factory in the town of Bento Gonçalves - Rio Grande do Sul - Brazil, which turned the bark of acácia trees that came out of the tanning industry into organic fertilizer.

Among its important landscaping projects and contracts, mostly public and some industrial gardens, was the Guarita-Park in Torres, Rio Grande do sul, an important beach resort. It became one of the "post cards" of the State.

During the same year, Lutzenberger founded Tecnologia Convivial, which, besides landscaping and effluent treatment, offered consultancy to industries.

He did many consultancies and in two municipalities he installed sewage treatment plants with floating waterplants, one in Porto Alegre, one in Pelotas, both cities of the Brazilian State of Rio Grande do Sul.

In the 80ies, he helped several firms in the leather industry to restructure their shops in such a way as to get a clean effluent and recycling of some of their inputs.

In an attempt to reverse the conflict with the local ecological movement, the cellulose factory Riocell, located in front of the city of Porto Alegre, on the other side of the river Guaiba, invested strongly in reducing the environmental impact of its activities. Its efforts impressed Lutzenberger and he began looking at it more closely. Later, he became consultant to that company, inicially implanting an ecological park in the area reserved to the treatment of its effluents and setting up a recycling plant for its solid wastes, sludge, ashes and lime. Riocell is today one of the cleanest pulp mills in the world.

As a consultancy and a contractor the firm now has a good staff of employees, experts and equipment.

In the 90ies, Tecnologia Convivial and Vida fused into one firm, joining efforts. Today, the staff of Vida Produtos e Serviços em Desenvolvimento Ecológico follows its founders ideals, operating in several regions of Brazil and also in foreign countries, always seeking to broaden its horizons.