Who’s Who in Green: Sir Richard Branson
May 29, 2009 · Print This Article
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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If Sir Branson wants to do something about the environment, there is a strategy that is more powerful than cap-and-trade: Cap-and-Restructure: An Alternative Strategy for Carbon Emission Problems.
The bonus is that it is also applicable to most environmental issues. If you have a connection with Sir Branson, have him check the following website. The strategy could change the world as we know it.
A Structural Solution for Global Warming and the Environment