“100 aircraft flying on biofuels can save 500,000 people from poverty,” said Peter Bakker, Chief Executive Officer of TNT, to a packed room at the Aviation and Environment Summit in Geneva, discussing how TNT is using biofuels . TNT is running a project to produce aviation biofuel from jatropha.

To produce the jatropha sustainably, TNT hired 17,000 farming families in Malawi, who are living at the poverty threshold, to plant 24,000 jatropha trees in addition to their normal farming activities. The jatropha plants do not compete with food crops and are grown on degraded land without using irrigation, and the jatropha nuts can be crushed to produce oil that is converted into jet fuel. TNT plans to expand this to 250 million plants, which researchers believe would produce enough fuel for 100 planes.

It was an exciting example of the practical implications of producing and using sustainable biofuels, while generating development benefits.