Beginning in 1962, BP began its leading stance in environmental research at the corporate level. Its studies on air pollution and alternative energies helped facilitate the worldwide notion that the future of the energy industry was going to be heavily centered around these topics. In 1998, BP became the first energy company to set targets on its internal emissions control to a goal of 10% below their 1990 levels by the year 2010. Two years later, to further its goal in becoming a leader in environmental awareness, it redesigned its 80 year old logo to represent a helios, which symbolizes energy in all its forms.
BP Alternative Energy invests in the fuel and power of the future. Their portfolio covers a wide range of new energy technologies, from large-scale commercial businesses in solar and wind power to first-in-class projects in promising new areas, such as advanced biofuels, energy conversion, and carbon capture. BP's role is to incubate and establish major growth businesses, helping to fulfill their purpose of meeting the world's demand for increasing volumes of secure, green and affordable energy. With investment running at $1.5 bn a year, their business demonstrates the scale of BP's commitment to the new energy sector.
One example of this commitment is the establishment of the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) at the University of California, Berkeley, in partnership with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This $500 million dollar research effort was formed under the direction of the new Secretary of Energy in the Obama Administration, Steven Chu. The EBI will initially focus its research on biotechnology biofuels - that is, turning plants and plant materials, including corn, field waste, switchgrass and algae, into transportation fuels.
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