Balfour Beatty has been featured on BBC News this morning, discussing its concerns around the sustainability credentials of HVO fuels in light of claims that the ‘green fuel’ contains virgin palm oil and is being fraudulently labelled.
In the interview, Jo Gilroy, Director of Sustainability at Balfour Beatty echoed concerns uncovered by the BBC’s investigation, explaining that the company’s policy of not using HVO fuels is due to the complex and vague nature of the supply chains in this area. She highlighted how there is limited information on where the raw materials come from, how they are manufactured into the end product and who's doing the work.
Commenting on how the sustainability of HVO fuels is assessed, Jo said: "We just are not able to get any level of visibility over the supply chain of HVO that would give us that level of assurance that this is truly a sustainable product.”
In 2024, Balfour Beatty published it’s updated position paper on the use of HVO fuels, setting out that while the company is committed to phasing out diesel and other fossil fuels across all operations as quickly as possible, it is imperative that proper governance and due diligence on alternative fuels including HVO is followed to ensure that any solution adopted is sustainable in the long term.
The business identified that as supplies of HVO from sustainable sources is currently limited, there is a strong likelihood that a sharp increase in demand could drive an increase in palm oil derived HVO or palm oil used as livestock feed alternative, contributing to further global deforestation.
You can read the full article on the BBC’s investigation here and listen to Jo comments on BBC Radio 4 from 05:38 here.
Image: Jo Gilroy, Director of Sustainability at Balfour Beatty
