Sustainable development

D1 is committed to enabling developing countries to benefit from growing energy crops for the production of biodiesel.

Developing countries have millions of hectares of land that is currently classified as marginal, waste or degraded. This includes land that was farmed in the past, but has fallen out of production and is no longer suitable for growing arable crops. Much of this land is suitable for growing energy crops such as jatropha. Rural poverty and unemployment are huge problems in the developing world, and energy crops offer the scale to impact poverty through providing farming jobs and rejuvenating agriculture and the communities that depend upon it.

Energy agriculture gives farmers and communities access to valuable cash crops. Countries will be able to produce biodiesel for their own transport and power generation needs, reducing dependence on expensive imports. Surplus production can be exported in volume to developed markets. Energy crops have the potential to restore balance to the agricultural trade between the developed and the developing world.

We believe that our primary biodiesel feedstock, Jatropha curcas, is an energy crop with a positive environmental and social impact, and that it can be produced sustainably in volume and at low cost in many developing countries. In particular, jatropha can be grown on land where other crops struggle and with lower irrigation requirements. It need not therefore displace food crops. Moreover, inedible oils are not subject to the same demand pressures as food oils.

We are committed to the sustainable development of jatropha and other commercial energy crops.