[Sustainable-biodiesel] Press Release from the 2008 Sustainable Biodiesel Summit

[Jason Burroughs]

Wow - great job, Emily!

Jason Burroughs
DieselGreen Fuels
Visit our website <http://www.dieselgreenfuels.com>
512-391-0569
512-992-8677



Kimber Holmes wrote:
>
> *******Media Alert******
>
> Contact: Rachel Burton
>
> Mobile: 919-444-3495
>
> Email: rachel at sustainable-biodiesel.org 
> <mailto:rachel at sustainable-biodiesel.org>
>
> Web: www.sustainable-biodiesel.org <http://www.sustainable-biodiesel.org/>
>
> 5 Years of Work Pays-Off Mainlining Sustainability into the Biodiesel 
> Industry.
>
> In a dramatic moment at this year’s Sustainable Biodiesel Summit, 
> (SBS) the National Biodiesel Board (NBB) CEO Joe Jobe and Board Chair 
> Ed Hegland announced the establishment of a “Sustainability Task 
> Force” to address and incorporate sustainable practices within the 
> biodiesel industry. SBS co-organizer, Emily Bockian Landsburg, of 
> Philadelphia Fry-o-Diesel was chosen to lead these efforts within the 
> NBB.
>
> Recent headlines have assailed biofuels for a lack of sustainability, 
> creating more social and environmental problems than solving them. 
> However, for the last 5 years the Summit, which draws biodiesel 
> professionals, policy-makers, and concerned consumers, has focused on 
> raising awareness of sustainability issues as they pertain to the 
> industry. Solutions-driven, the Summit is a forum for developing and 
> exchanging best practices to ensure that biodiesel has a positive 
> global impact on greenhouse gas reductions, air quality, energy 
> efficiency, biodiversity, environmental justice, and shared economic 
> development.
>
> “It’s critical that the NBB is tackling this issue head-on; no one can 
> afford to wait,” said Landsburg. “Biodiesel offers a tremendous number 
> of environmental advantages, and of course there are ways to improve 
> as well. In this day and age, we all need to be evaluating our 
> businesses through the lens of sustainability.”
>
> This year the SBS delved into on-going industry efforts to create 
> principles and potential grading systems that define sustainable 
> biodiesel practices, specifically highlighting the work of the 
> Roundtable for Sustainable Biofuels (RSB), and the Sustainable 
> Biodiesel Alliance (SBA). “It is a tribute to the success of the SBS 
> and the Alliance, that the NBB has recognized the importance of 
> sustainability for the well-being of the industry and the future of 
> the planet,” offered Kelly King, co-founder of the SBA.
>
> “It is so gratifying, on a business and personal level, to see the 
> fruits of several years’ evolution in the relationship between the 
> Sustainable Biodiesel Summit and the National Biodiesel Board,” said 
> Kumar Plocher, a long time grassroots biodiesel activist, and 
> president of Yokayo Biofuels.
>
> “Many people in the industry became involved with biodiesel not for 
> its own sake, but to realize these greater environmental and social 
> goals. Others who are involved for economic development reasons 
> understand that the real reason consumers choose this product is its 
> environmental and social qualities,” explained Rachel Burton, a 
> volunteer on the Summit Organizing Committee and co-owner of a million 
> gallon per year production plant, Piedmont Biofuels “Either way, 
> achieving these environmental and social goals is the key to industry 
> wide economic viability.”
>
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