“Everywhere I go, I’m deluged with business ideas, however, ideas for products that will help our society address the problem of climate change just can’t come fast enough. Climate change poses a serious challenge to business, and business must be part of the solution.

Some companies have already implemented new standards focused on the need to reduce, reuse and recycle, but change is not progressing nearly fast enough. We will need advanced technologies and clean energy alternatives in order to meet our goal of cutting carbon emissions in half, which is what we must do to slow the process of climate change. But we haven’t developed a fraction of the new products our society needs to avoid disaster: ultra-efficient water heaters, improved refrigeration and freezers, advanced building materials and rainwater harvesting – the list is long.


Some terrific products have, however, already emerged. Smart windows that can automatically increase or decrease translucency to maintain comfortable temperatures. Super-efficient LED lighting. Energy-saving improvements in building design. Sensor technology that helps us to use scarce resources more wisely.

Next-generation hybrid cars that emit less pollution are already in use. Entrepreneurial ventures are developing technologies that capture carbon from the burning of coal and natural gas. Parabolic mirrors, deployed in Africa’s deserts, are providing green electricity. Many such excellent schemes have been evaluated by Virgin’s Investment Advisory Committee. We see real opportunities in this field, and have invested in a few.

One of the keys to saving our environment is to create cleaner fuels that do not emit carbon dioxide when burned. For a biofuel to be a viable alternative to gasoline, there must be massive amounts of feedstock available – the raw material needed for the manufacturing of the liquid fuel – and the finished product has to be equal in price to, or cheaper than, traditional fuels. The primary types of feedstock for the production of renewable fuel are sugarcane and corn (the latter is the source of most ethanol sold in the United States). In Asia, tapioca, potatoes and other starches can also be used”.