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Tom Fitz
Posted by Tom Fitz
Tom Fitz
Tom utilizes over eighteen years of manufacturing experience to help companies c
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on Wednesday, 12 October 2011 in Insights

A Man Worthy of his Name

Richard Branson’s Quest for Clean Fuel

To become knighted by the royal family means an individual has achieved excellence in several facets of their life.  Richard Branson was bestowed the honor in 2000 for his “services of entrepreneurship”, and has recently partnered with two companies to innovate a technology that can be his best creation ever -this one focused on preserving the environment.

Sir Richard’s company, Virgin Atlantic Airways, has partnered with LanzaTech and Swedish Biofuels to create a new jet fuel by capturing, fermenting and chemically converting waste gases from industrial steel production.  Although currently in the pilot stage, the partners plan on commissioning a larger demonstration facility this year with plans of starting a commercial operation in China by 2014.

It has been estimated that the process could be applied to 65% of the world’s steel mills, and potentially to metal processing and chemical industries in the near future. 

Many companies start with the little rocks, the quick wins, when looking to reduce CO2 emissions.  Sir Richard went for the biggest boulder he could find.  I personally think steel mills, metal processing, chemical industries, and the aviation industry as a whole are some of the worst violators of CO2 emissions.  The new fuel will not only burn cleaner, thus reducing its carbon footprint by half, but it’s also derived by capturing the non eco-friendly stack gases and converting them into jet fuel. 

This is a win-win in my book!

Tags: innovation, entrepreneurship, waste management, waste, waste reduction, Richard Branson, clean fuel, innovation
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Tom Fitz

Tom utilizes over eighteen years of manufacturing experience to help companies create value and competitive advantage by: conceiving & instituting environmental sustainability programs, re-engineering operations and optimizing processes to reduce operating costs, developing long and short term capital expenditure strategies, and designing world class equipment modules. These skills have been applied in the personal care, cosmetics, food & beverage, household goods and pharmaceutical sectors at companies including Unilever, Clairol, Burt's Bees, Wyeth, Bristol Myers Squibb, and numerous third party contractors.



Prior to founding Green Frontier, Tom worked at Burt's Bees for five years, the last three as Vice President of Sustainable Engineering. In this position, he led the company's environmental sustainability program that reduced non-product water usage by 35%, decreased the amount of solid waste diverted to landfill by 75% and flat-lined electricity usage despite sales growth of 55% and tripling the amount of space being occupied by the company in the three year span. Additionally, he was responsible for developing the company's three year capital expenditure strategy and executing the annual spending plan. Before working at Burt's, Tom worked as a process engineer at various personal care and engineering companies. He holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Clemson University.
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