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BIODIESEL IS
BEAUTIFUL: FUEL AS IF PEOPLE AND THE PLANET MATTERED
Just as
E.F.Schumacher proposed a system of Economics, as if People and the Planet
Mattered, we should align all our organising principles with this underlying
morality. Schumacher said: "I can't myself raise the winds which might blow us,
or this ship into a better world. But I can at least put up the sail, so that
when the wind comes I can catch it."
We are all now, as then, in the same boat!
It is important to build partnerships with those individuals who will share the
challenge.
There is a restless impatience with politics as it is - far removed from the
pursuit of the common good. The economic fallout of the financial crisis should
herald the end of the era of market triumphalism. We need a more demanding idea
of what it means to be a citizen.
We can only connect ourselves with fundamental values when there is a real,
tangible connection - how can we achieve this in an era of virtual lives and
virtual markets? We must devise new regulations and rethink the role of markets
in achieving public good.
Current UK regulations regarding biofuels do not take into account the real
lives of producers who struggle in the face of unfair market forces, subsidised
imports and counterproductive government policies. New regulations should
simplify the mechanisms - any fool can make things complicated!
Regulations should encourage the use of waste materials, low carbon processes
and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. It is perverse that producers
utilising waste materials such as used cooking oils, recycling and using energy
efficient processes and achieving significant emissions reductions should be
struggling to survive or forced to close. Meanwhile, the business as usual
approach of the multinational petroleum corporations and the government mindset
that underpins their gross profiteering continues with alarming hypocrisy.
Perhaps we shall achieve an active symbiosis with government agencies if we can
keep demonstrating the effectiveness and desirability of locally based, bottom
up economic development models. We are at what David Orr calls a "teachable
moment".
It is fundamental to question the mantra of economic growth on a finite planet.
Redefining progress is vital. Life cannot continue sustainably on the increasing
curve of production and consumption without material and moral constraint. We
should rely more on people power and our own mental and physical inventiveness,
rather than basing our futures on capital and energy-intensive technologies of
Western economic giganticism. We need a new economics related to human scale and
sustainability, with creativity of human work as basis for a sane and productive
society. Voluntary simplicity alone does not address how products or energy are
made, used or disposed.
Biodiesel is a sustainable fuel, made from used cooking oil by a small
workers co-operative.
It is not a silver bullet - but it is Golden Buckshot.
Electric vehicles may be a future option, but for now emissions from electric
vehicles are 100kgCO2/km compared to less than 40kgCO2/km for biodiesel.
Sundance Renewables is a radical social enterprise and a co-operative owned and
managed by its workers. We dont want to pull punches - there isn't time!
Paul Hawken is convinced that "business is the only mechanism on the planet
today powerful enough to produce the changes necessary to reverse global
environmental and social degradation".
We need a Green Agenda for Resilience in the face of Climate Change.
Our agenda as a green business is to continue to produce our goods and services,
putting care for the planet at the heart of our work. To survive as a business -
even a not for profit business, we need to be viable and that means more people
choosing to buy our biodiesel as we have invested in increasing production
capacity in order to supply more users.
Please support us - together we can
make a difference!
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