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Future of Fuels

Future of Fuels

With world energy consumption set to rise by around 40 percent between 2012 and 2030, our energy system is changing fundamentally, making companies’ decisions about fuel more complex and important than ever before.

While clean and renewable transportation technologies are gaining ground, petroleum will remain the backbone of our useful fuel resources for decades to come. In light of this, companies must make smarter decisions about their current choices among fuels, which often will be choices within fossil fuels.

Increasingly, energy resources are being tapped from unconventional sources—from the Arctic’s icy frontier to the abundant U.S. shale once thought too difficult to extract—creating more pressing climate, human rights, and other sustainability challenges. Yet, until now, companies have not had an authoritative resource to weigh the sustainability trade-offs of their current fuel decisions.

BSR’s Future of Fuels is filling that gap. This ambitious initiative—with leading experts from the private, nonprofit, public, and academic sectors—will help global companies understand the greatest sustainability impacts of their transportation fuel system, and what they can do about them.

Resources

Media and Events

Through a series of research papers and facilitated discussions, we are identifying and addressing key trade-offs throughout the value chain, covering the spectrum of sustainability challenges that are linked to this great energy transition.

It is our aim to guide business in reducing the impacts of the decisions they are making today, and help them collaborate with government and civil society to ensure a low-carbon future.

BSR Team

2013 Stakeholder Forum Series

From spring to fall, we will host a series of special-invitation forums to discuss developments and opportunities around improving the lifecycle sustainability impacts of transportation fuels. At these events, we will identify sustainability efforts that need to be redoubled, gaps that deserve greater attention, and opportunities for linking agendas.

  • Stakeholder Forum on Fuel Sustainability Opportunities: In-person meeting, May 2, 2013, San Francisco. Register now.
  • Virtual Roundtables: Four-part series, June and July 2013, teleconference. Visit our events page for more information and to register today.
  • Stakeholder Forum on System Transformation: In-person meeting, September, Washington, D.C.

For more information

Please contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Join the Mailing List

Subscribe to the Future of Fuels mailing list.

Participating Organizations

  • Coca-Cola
  • GE Foundation
  • JP Morgan Chase
  • Nike
  • Shell
  • Suncor
  • U.S. Department of Defense
  • UPS
  • Volvo Group
  • Walmart

Contributors

  • Adam Brandt, Stanford University
  • Garvin Heath, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
  • Yasuhiko Kamakura, International Labor Organization (ILO)
  • Chris Perceval, World Resources Institute
  • Richard Plevin, UC Berkeley
  • Jimmie Powell, The Nature Conservancy
  • Matthew Rudolf, Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels
  • Renelle Sagana, U.S. Department of Defense
  • Aaron Sanger, Forest Ethics
  • Assheton Stewart Carter, Equitable Origin