Welcome to Springboard!
Wed, 04/30/2008 - 22:50
Welcome to Springboard Biodiesel, the new home for the world-class, industrial-strength, totally automated family of BioPro processors. As you can see on our website, Springboard recently acquired the BioPro product line, and we are excited about accelerating and further building upon the tremendous product development and marketing begun by the previous owners. In my short time here - 8 days - I have been amazed at the advocacy of our current users and the enthusiasm of those about to "jump in".
And jumping in is a great thing! Obviously its good for our company, but I strongly believe it's a good thing for our customers and a good thing for the country at large as we try and wean ourselves from an energy source that is dirty, diminishing and located in geo-political arenas that are challenged [in so many ways].
As this is, for most of you, my first opportunity to introduce myself, I thought I'd dive right in and do a reader's digest overview of "The Why" - why am I blogging at you now.
The main reason is that I am a big believer in biodiesel. It is a valuable piece of the sustainable, alternative energy portfolio this country must develop as soon as possible. I believe we are warming the planet, and if left unchecked our current pace of status quo environmental degradation (even excluding the feverish pace of growth in China, India and the rest of the world all of which are trying to catch up to Western benchmarks) will bankrupt us, economically, environmentally and socially.
However, despite the severity of the challenge, I believe that we can take steps to mitigate our harmful carbon and particulate footprints and reduce our economic dependence on foreign, unstable supply chains Biodiesel is a winning solution!. It's not the only solution, but it's a proven solution that works today! Because of its chemical properties, it has a vastly cleaner emissions profile than either Diesel 1 or 2 - currently being burned in 10s of millions of diesel engines - and with gasoline at $4.00/gallon and Diesel at $4.30 (last I checked in CA), and commodity prices continuing to soar, personal and small business biodiesel production made in a BioPro processor delivers the right alternative at the right time at the right price - about a buck a gallon!
Recently just about every story I've read about biodiesel has lumped it into the larger energy phylum "biofuels", which are generating a significant amount of real time negativity based on the belief and fear that US and global farmers are foresaking edible crops for energy crops. I do not argue that this is an issue, and if anyone has taken a look at recent commodity prices, it might be argued it's an issue someone should be monitoring. But while I am NOT an advocate of turning the world's farmlands into giant biodiesel "biobelts", I do know from the BioPro example that there are many feedstock sources for biodiesel, including waste streams previously ignored or dumped into landfills (there are 3 billion gallons of used cooking oil produced in this country annually - let's drive to work with that!), rendered animal fats and inedible, energy dense crops that can be grown in non-arable land, none of which impact the developed world's ability to help feed the developing world.
Certainly there is a lot of debate regarding this country's current energy policy. For the record, I think it's truly flawed (read Thomas Friedman's piece in the New York Times), but given the political nature of our energy policy, one thing is certain, it will change soon, and if we can continue to grow the sustainable, renewable biodiesel community, that community will be in a position to further influence and impact a successful renewable portfolio strategy.
I'm looking forward to hearing from and learning from you, as I and the rest of the Springboard team endeavor to make biodiesel processing as easy as the push of one Big Green Button.
Best,
Mark
CEO, Springboard Biodiesel
Welcome to Springboard Biodiesel, the new home for the world-class, industrial-strength, totally automated family of BioPro processors. As you can see on our website, Springboard recently acquired the BioPro product line, and we are excited about accelerating and further building upon the tremendous product development and marketing begun by the previous owners. In my short time here - 8 days - I have been amazed at the advocacy of our current users and the enthusiasm of those about to "jump in".
And jumping in is a great thing! Obviously its good for our company, but I strongly believe it's a good thing for our customers and a good thing for the country at large as we try and wean ourselves from an energy source that is dirty, diminishing and located in geo-political arenas that are challenged [in so many ways].
As this is, for most of you, my first opportunity to introduce myself, I thought I'd dive right in and do a reader's digest overview of "The Why" - why am I blogging at you now.
The main reason is that I am a big believer in biodiesel. It is a valuable piece of the sustainable, alternative energy portfolio this country must develop as soon as possible. I believe we are warming the planet, and if left unchecked our current pace of status quo environmental degradation (even excluding the feverish pace of growth in China, India and the rest of the world all of which are trying to catch up to Western benchmarks) will bankrupt us, economically, environmentally and socially.
However, despite the severity of the challenge, I believe that we can take steps to mitigate our harmful carbon and particulate footprints and reduce our economic dependence on foreign, unstable supply chains Biodiesel is a winning solution!. It's not the only solution, but it's a proven solution that works today! Because of its chemical properties, it has a vastly cleaner emissions profile than either Diesel 1 or 2 - currently being burned in 10s of millions of diesel engines - and with gasoline at $4.00/gallon and Diesel at $4.30 (last I checked in CA), and commodity prices continuing to soar, personal and small business biodiesel production made in a BioPro processor delivers the right alternative at the right time at the right price - about a buck a gallon!
Recently just about every story I've read about biodiesel has lumped it into the larger energy phylum "biofuels", which are generating a significant amount of real time negativity based on the belief and fear that US and global farmers are foresaking edible crops for energy crops. I do not argue that this is an issue, and if anyone has taken a look at recent commodity prices, it might be argued it's an issue someone should be monitoring. But while I am NOT an advocate of turning the world's farmlands into giant biodiesel "biobelts", I do know from the BioPro example that there are many feedstock sources for biodiesel, including waste streams previously ignored or dumped into landfills (there are 3 billion gallons of used cooking oil produced in this country annually - let's drive to work with that!), rendered animal fats and inedible, energy dense crops that can be grown in non-arable land, none of which impact the developed world's ability to help feed the developing world.
Certainly there is a lot of debate regarding this country's current energy policy. For the record, I think it's truly flawed (read Thomas Friedman's piece in the New York Times), but given the political nature of our energy policy, one thing is certain, it will change soon, and if we can continue to grow the sustainable, renewable biodiesel community, that community will be in a position to further influence and impact a successful renewable portfolio strategy.
I'm looking forward to hearing from and learning from you, as I and the rest of the Springboard team endeavor to make biodiesel processing as easy as the push of one Big Green Button.
Best,
Mark
CEO, Springboard Biodiesel
