Viva green.(Trade Talk)(Viva Trust Fund)(Brief Article)

Sustainable development, the idea that economic growth need not destroy the environment, has found a champion in Latin America in Swiss business mogul Stephan Schmidheiny. The 56-year-old philanthropist, environmentalist and business leader announced in Costa Rica the creation of a new trust fund of US$1.1 billion in stock to finance community development, natural resource management and education projects in the Spanish-speaking world.

Schmidheiny is creating the Viva Trust Fund from his own personal fortune. More than 70% of the fund--$800 million in stock--is coming from the transfer of all of Schmidheiny's shares in GrupoNueva, his Costa Rican conglomerate of construction, forestry and industrial companies that operates in 17 Latin American countries. The other $300 million in stock is being donated from other holdings in his personal investment portfolio.

The fund will receive its liquid capital from dividends generated by GrupoNueva, which employs 15,000 people throughout Latin America and generates annual sales of $1 billion. The AVINA Foundation, Schmidheiny's 12 year-old sustainable development initiative, will manage Viva Trust.

"By doing what I am doing, I hope to have the chance to experience in my lifetime [that] ideas like Viva spread," Schmidheiny says.

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