A round-up of the latest business news, including United Airlines, Viridor and Heathrow.
United Airlines became the first US air carrier to use sustainable aviation biofuel for scheduled flights when flight 708 from Los Angeles International Airport took off on 11 March. The airline has agreed to buy up to 57 million litres of sustainable biofuel from AltAir Paramount over the next three years. Sourced from non-edible, natural oils and agricultural wastes, the fuel expected to emit 60% less carbon than fuel produced from traditional petroleum. At the end of last year, British Airways shelved plans to open a facility in Essex that would have produced aviation fuel from household waste.
Meanwhile, Heathrow has revealed plans for a WebPortal to consolidate freight loads, and decrease the number of lorries and cut emissions on roads around the airport. The portal, which Heathrow describes as the UK’s first geographically specific system of its kind, will enable subscribers to exchange and share information about any spare capacity on their vehicles. When a match is found, operators will be able to negotiate a price to use it.
Waste company Viridor has installed rooftop solar arrays at six of its sites in south-west and south-east England. The systems have a combined size of 841kWp and were installed by Solarcentury. The solar energy firm designed bespoke systems to optimise the energy generation capability at each site. Because of local grid capacity constraints, the array installed at Bridgwater, Somerset, for example, includes an export limiter. This slows its energy generation capability if necessary. In 2014, Solarcentury completed the installation of an array at Viridor’s former landfill site at Westbury, Wiltshire, with the panels mounted on recycled railway sleepers.
Unilever has agreed a $200m, five-year deal with US-based TerraVia (formerly Solazyme) to supply renewable algae oils for use in personal care products. Alan Jope, personal care president of Unilever, said: ‘The decision to use algae oils is fully aligned with the Unilever sustainable living plan and with our goal to grow the business while reducing our overall environmental footprint.’ The oil will be produced at a TerraVia plant in Brazil.
