Forward-thinking businesses are partnering with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), the Roundtable for Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB) and Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) through a new global initiative called below50, to promote best-of-breed sustainable fuels that can achieve significant carbon reductions, and scale up their development and use.

Below50 is a collaboration designed to grow a global corporate market for sustainable low-carbon transport fuels (LCTFs).

Any company that produces, uses, or invests in fuels that are at least 50 percent less carbon intensive than conventional fossil fuels can join below50. Companies must publicly commit to the campaign, show evidence that supports their claim, and disclose their progress towards achieving this goal.

The companies and organizations driving the initiative include ABBI, Arizona State University, Audi, CGEE, Copersucar, DSM, DuPont, GranBio, the International Energy Agency (IEA), SkyNRG, Joule Unlimited, LanzaTech, LCFC, Novozymes, Pannonia, Poet, Red Rock Biofuels, RSB, SE4ALL and Yale University.

“We’re on the cusp of a clean energy future,” states Peter Bakker, president and CEO of WBCSD. “Below50 is accelerating that shift by scaling up the global market for sustainable fuels. It’s a huge growth opportunity that is expected to reach $185 billion over the next five years. Below50 brings together companies and organizations from around the world to help realize the ambition set in Paris at COP21, and in doing so, to unlock the economic benefits of the new low-carbon economy.”

The collaboration is designed to increase the number of companies using below50 fuels and demonstrate that these fuels make both good business and environmental sense. The campaign will create a marketplace for companies across the supply chain and host regional road shows to engage financers, policymakers and companies, as well as explore how to regionally scale sustainable fuel technology.

“The below50 campaign is a great example of a cross-sectoral business platform to drive growth and commercialization of sustainable technologies for low carbon transportation fuels, together with investors and policy-makers,” said Rob van Leen, Chief Innovation Officer of Royal DSM. “DSM recognizes that the complexity of the issues is too big for any one party to tackle alone. These types of partnerships are a necessity to drive societal change.”

With only 3-percent of current transportation fuels considered to be low-carbon, below50 offers an untapped market opportunity for businesses seeking to flourish in a low-carbon economy.