Leave it to Sir Richard Branson to lead in any business he undertakes. Virgin group has pledged to invest profits from all of its transportation related companies to the development of renewable fuels and green modes of transport for the next decade.
Virgin Group has established a separate company called Virgin Fuels to develop ethanol production facilities in the US. This $100 million dollar investment will be used to take advantage of ethanol for multiple modes of transport. Virgin Fuels is a precursor of the larger Virgin Green Fund, which will invest several billion dollars in renewable energy development over the next several years.
Working with GE Aircraft Engines, Virgin has announced that they will begin testing various bio-fuels for use in Virgin Atlantic aircraft. A Virgin 747 jumbo jet will fly between the UK and Amsterdam on test flights. The aircraft will be flown without passengers or cargo on non-commercial test flights. Virgin and GE intend to discover which of a variety of test fuels will generate maximum fuel efficiency while containing the jet's emissions and carbon footprint. Interestingly, ethanol won't be among the tested fuels because it doesn't burn well at high altitude, low oxygen environments.
Branson and Virgin are highly sensitive to environmental impact, having been the first airline to allow passengers to purchase carbon footprint offsets for an extra charge on their air tickets. Virgin is combining the marketing and PR value of the carbon offset premium with hard engineering of the 747 tests.
Branson has a long history of being a prime mover in any business he is involved in. He also has a way of making his business ventures "very cool". I think this bio-fuel exercise demonstrates why. Bio-fuels and fuel conservation get a lot of marketing talk from other airlines. Virgin is making it real. Customers see this and actively work to support Virgin businesses because of it.
Eric
Add Freightdawg.com to your social bookmarks!
Comments