Environmental Stewardship
The Core of What We Do
Renewable Energy Group is committed to enabling sustainability by producing and delivering renewable, low-carbon transportation and other fuels. Our commitment blends environmental stewardship and profitable solutions — resulting in many stakeholders, including our vendors, customers, shareholders and the environment, benefitting from the positive impact of our cleaner fuels.
Making a Difference Right Now
Our fuels stand out among today's alternative options for their ability to allow fleets to reduce harmful emissions easily. There is no need to wait on future technology or infrastructure. Diesel vehicles can run on renewable diesel, UltraClean BlenDTM, and other biodiesel blends without modification. Our fuels are available across North America and Europe and are more cost-effective than many other clean energy solutions. The low-carbon profile of our products helps fleets and their customers quickly and efficiently reduce their carbon footprints and meet their carbon reduction goals.
From Waste to Fuel
REG has always supported a “Food THEN Fuel” sourcing philosophy. REG makes fuel from a variety of raw materials, known as feedstock, including animal fats, vegetable oils and used cooking oil. Many of these feedstocks are byproducts of different processes, such as meat production for human consumption, plant crush for animal feed production, and cooking. The growing world population will require ever more protein generation, resulting in additional fat and oilseed byproducts. Our production serves as a valuable outlet for these byproducts and waste streams and turns these resources into renewable fuel that makes the world a cleaner place.
We routinely work with providers to identify new sources of low-carbon feedstock. We have invested in world-class technology to produce the highest-quality fuels from diverse feedstocks. This feedstock flexibility differentiates us as a biofuel producer and reduces the risk associated with increased feedstock demand to create fuel with a lower carbon profile.
Improved Culture
Continuous improvement is a key focus of our operations and has been a significant driver of our success. Our efforts have resulted in production growth through prudent use of resources. This culture of continuous improvement has allowed us to grow organically with relatively low investment, resulting in 37% production capacity increase, or 166 million additional gallons, from 2016 to 2020.
These results are products of our established company culture. We have several employees at various REG locations who are trained in Six Sigma, advocating for and implementing process improvements. The company maintains a special award issued four times per year to recognize employees for ingenuity and continuous improvement that lead to enhanced profitability and better resource management. These and many other efforts are recognized routinely.
Innovative Applications
We are also developing additional ways to allow our consumers to utilize more of our clean fuels for their operations. Some of our efforts include:
- Enabling diesel vehicles to use 100% biodiesel year-round, including deployment in all of our own delivery fleet trucks
- Offering higher blends of biodiesel, up to 100% biodiesel, into the heating oil market, providing cleaner home heating solutions
- Pursuing additional uses for our heavier fuel products like REG Bio Residual™ Oil, including application in the marine fuels market
- Successfully completing testing related to renewable aviation fuels and continuing to consider economically viable projects
2021 ESG Report
Our 2021 environmental, social and governance (ESG) report reflects on the practices we have integrated into our business objectives. Our cleaner fuels are creating a better, more sustainable world, and at REG we believe our operations should do the same.