Real Companies: Sustainable & Locally Sourced
By — — Posted in Companies that Care, Job Search Tips, Sustainable Business: CSR & Bcorps
Here’s another example of just one company devoted to sustainability practices in their business.
They’ve become so popular, they can’t meet demand and thus, maintain steady profitability while “doing good”, too.
Lyle Estill started Piedmont Biofuels in Pittsboro, NC out in the backyard just to meet his family’s fuel needs, but later, upon interest and demand of potential customers, then scaled up to become a cooperative. In time, they scaled up to be an industrial plant.
He said,
“We’re permanently out of fuel, we still can’t make enough to meet demand.”
“We make B100, which means 100% bio… a renewable fuel made from waste that can be put in any diesel engine as a replacement for petroleum fuel. We collect oils, fats and greases from within 50 miles of the plant (to be sustainable, it must be locally sourced), and create the biofuels then sold and reused, put back within the same community.
We’re off the petroleum grid, we’re not attached to war, spills in the Gulf, pipeline eruptions or anything that has anything to do with the oil industry, that has nothing to do with us.”
– Lyle Estill- Co-Founder
Piedmont Biofuels, Pittsboro, NC
From the documentary: “Real Value” – Economics, Sustainability, Social Entrepreneurship
Real Value is an award-winning economics documentary that delivers a refreshing meditation on how business can be used to create value beyond profit; connecting motivational stories from social entrepreneurs working in agriculture, apparel, insurance, and biofuel, with the captivating science behind our perception of value from world-renowned professor of psychology and behavioral economics, Dan Ariely.
The film serves as inspiration for any business owner, entrepreneur, or customer who is looking to better understand what happens when a business puts people, planet, and profit on equal footing.
