The Virgin Group has dramatically scaled up its involvement in combating global climate change by making a massive commitment to invest $3billion in renewable energy over the next ten years. This commitment will be delivered through a number of different channels:
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Doing what we do best
We are launching successful new businesses that will help create renewable energy sources. Virgin Fuels is the first one off the blocks; and it's already made a $100 million US dollar commitment to build new ethanol plants in the US. Watch this space for some exciting new investments that will help explore cutting-edge opportunities to reduce the level of carbon emitted into our environment.
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Mobilising our staff and customers
We are launching a fun and simple campaign that makes it easy for staff and customers to understand how they can get involved and help fight climate change.
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Investing in “social businesses”
With this, all proceeds go back into further work to preserve our environment and support economic development. For example, Virgin Unite is currently reviewing opportunities for micro-production of bio-fuel in villages and townships in South Africa. Projects like this will not only protect the environment, but also create jobs and have significant health benefits. We are also becoming increasingly active at an operational level within each company. It is in our nature to want to be as efficient as possible. We try to protect and preserve the environment in which we operate - at the very least, we comply with relevant legislation and monitor our compliance. We aim to minimise the environmental impact of our day-to-day operations, and to address long-term, sustainable improvement beyond short-term fads and gimmicks.