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Who’s Who in Green: Sir Richard Branson

May 29, 2009

Sir Richard Branson is a billionaire British entrepreneur, founder of the Virgin brand of over 360 companies that span diverse areas of business including travel, entertainment and lifestyle. But the tycoon, with a net worth of approximately $2.4 billion USD, is no longer content to sit back and enjoy the typical excessive billionaire lifestyle.

After decades of conspicuous consumption, Branson began to worry about the mark he was making on the world – and to clean it up. That earned him a spot on TIME Magazine’ ‘Heroes of the Environment’ list.

He told TIME,

“There’s a frightening potential scenario out there that means that anybody who’s in a position to do something must do something. In particular because I’m in one of the dirty businesses, the airline business, I’ve got all the more responsibility to do something.”

Branson is a great-nephew of Sir Peter Scott, the naturalist who helped found the World Wildlife Fund, but despite this heritage and a long-held interest in environmentalism, Branson wasn’t always devoted to being green.

The former global warming skeptic’s transformation began in 2005 when he decided to build an oil refinery after Hurricane Katrina in response to what he saw as a need for more oil refining capacity. He was dissuaded when he got a phone call from Ted Turner who asked him, ‘Why not build a refinery for clean, rather than dirty fuel?’ Turner invited Branson to fly to Washington and meet experts, where he took copious notes on biofuels and proceeded to put serious corporate investment into it.

His first green investment was seven biofuel refineries in the western United States, and many more soon followed. Soon after, Branson committed all the profits from his transportation businesses over the next 10 years, estimated to reach $3 billion, to combat global warming.

He has since become the archetype of the powerful green entrepreneur, funding innovative clean fuel programs and flying one of his Virgin Jets partly with biofuels to demonstrate one way the airline industry could reduce its gargantuan carbon footprint. His ‘Virgin Earth Challenge’ is offering a $25 million prize to the first person or organization to come up with a way of scrubbing greenhouse gases out of the earth’s atmosphere.

Asked by The Independent whether his environmentalism was just an attempt to promote the Virgin brand, Branson replied,

“People do things for different reasons, not just one. I have about 10 different reasons for doing this. One is to tackle climate change. Another is to develop a clean fuel industry.

“But I would also love to have Virgin recognised as the most respected brand in the world. If it can be a leader in tackling global warming, and that enhances the brand, that’s fine. It will enable us to tackle the problem all the sooner.”

Richard Branson’s Green Score: 49,357

Photo credit: David Yellen

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Virgin’s Green Fund Gets $199M

July 6, 2008

We swoon over Sir Richard Branson. /swoon. The billionaire ‘British adventurer’ (that term again!) pledged to invest $3 billion in alternative energy projects over a decade back in September ’06, and he’s pulled in his first round of funding to the tune of $199 million. He set up the Virgin Green Fund (VGF) as a way to make investments in renewable energy and resource efficiency.

From the Financial Times:

VGF has raised $199m from Virgin and institutional investors in its first close, according to a filing with the US Securities & Exchange Commission. The fundraising followed a global roadshow and a second round of investment, targeting a similar size of funds, is expected. Virgin has a minority stake in the VGF management company.

The presence of a UK local authority pension fund among VGF’s investors comes as British pension funds are allocating an increasing proportion of their assets to so-called alternative investments.

VGF is close to finalising a deal worth more than $40m to buy DuraTherm, a Texas-based petroleum and metal recycling business, from its founding shareholders. The transaction would mark a rare leveraged buy-out for the clean technology sector.

It’s so refreshing to see sickeningly rich people use their money and power to do something good for the world, instead of just building a ridiculous collection of yachts and automobiles.

Link [Financial Times]
Photo credit: David Yellen

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EarthFirst Blog Week in Review March 17 – 21

March 24, 2008

ef-weekinreview1.jpgWell we are just shooting up faster than Bio-tech corn here at EarthFirst! We’ve added a bunch of hot new writers (Professor Scott Herring and token Swede Anders Porter) and features (Mr. Cranky Green!) and are getting more hits than Tony Soprano during tax season. We’ve covered Green Fire Works, a terrifying robotic pack mule, and celebrated World Water Day like eco-rockstars! We also have two EarthFirst birthdays coming up under the Aries symbol; our wide-eyed editorial intern and writer Caroline turns 23 on the 28th and our fearless leader Jordan will rock out on the 27th when he turns…old. Yippee-Ki-Yay!

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