Heading for Brazil

Discover the second stop of our 360 world tour.

To celebrate our 360^th anniversary, we're continuing our unique world tour. Our second stop: Brazil!

How do we make sustainable housing affordable?

Follow our reporter Charlotte Kan to find out! In São Paulo, she met up with our customers and our teams, who work every day to make the world a better home.

SUSTAINABLE AND AFFORDABLE CONSTRUCTION IN BRAZIL IN 360 SECONDS

With over 22 million inhabitants, the São Paulo metropolitan area is actively committed to providing sustainable and affordable housing.

In order to meet this challenge, Saint-Gobain is raising awareness among its partners and customers, and offering innovative materials and solutions geared to local needs. These include drywall, which stands out for its performance combining strength, flexibility and affordability.

TO GO FURTHER

5 questions for... Javier Gimeno, CEO Latin America Region.

See how to transform 4 containers into a sustainable house!

Focus on Saint-Gobain Research Brasil in Capivari: a showcase for Saint-Gobain solutions!

THROUGH THE LENS OF CHARLOTTE KAN

Immersion in Brazil: our journalist reflects on her trip.

See her inspiring encounters here!

The biggest challenge? Changing mindsets

Olá! I loved every minute of our trip to São Paulo—a vibrant megacity of 22 million, pulsing with life & energy.

As the largest city in the Southern Hemisphere and Brazil’s economic powerhouse, São Paulo is a metropolis of extremes. What strikes first-time visitors is its sheer scale (1,500 km², larger than some European countries)—with endless skyscrapers stretching beyond the horizon.

However, what's also striking is inequality, the city’s sprawling favelas - over a third of Paulistanos live in informal settlements. A major challenge is access to decent, safe and affordable housing.

Solutions to #MakingTheWorldABetterHome do exist.

Faced with a huge demand for more homes, innovation and lightweight materials can speed up the process. By reducing volume, weight, and waste, they also cut transportation needs—and therefore traffic and CO₂ emissions. This is critical in one of the world's most congested and polluted cities - the built environment accounts for nearly 40% of global emissions and up to half of global raw material extraction (World Green Building Council).

I quickly realized though, that if each market has special needs, it also has special blockers when it comes to change.

Construction seems to have remained a very traditional industry in Brazil. Now this is getting interesting: beyond sustainability, lightweight solutions – such as shifting from masonry to drywall - can accelerate the sector's transformation. This was illustrated by my encounter with a local star, Bruno Ethiel Correia Silva, proud winner of the latest edition of Master of Drywall, a successful reality TV show launched by Saint-Gobain to raise awareness around its benefits. He explained drywall completely changed his profession, by making the work less physically intensive, whilst also creating more jobs, attracting a younger workforce, thus addressing an acute labor shortage in the industry.

And this is the key takeaway from my stay in Brazil. The biggest and hardest challenge is changing mindsets.