Pacific Biodiesel
Pacific Biodiesel, based in Kahului, Hawaii and with an additional location in Honolulu. Pacific Biodiesel was founded in 1996 in response to serious environmental and health concerns surrounding unmanageable quantities of used cooking oil at the Central Maui Landfill. Pacific Biodiesel, along with its sister company, Pacific Biodiesel Technologies, has since developed and built 12 biodiesel plans in the U.S. and Japan which run on local feedstock.
Pacific Biodiesel, which operated the first retail biodiesel pump in America, now produces and sells approximately 1 million gallons of ASTM standard biodiesel annually in Hawaii. The company’s efforts result in keeping 13,000 tons of waste oil out of Hawaii’s landfills while reducing the state’s carbon emissions and resulting in less petroleum imported onto the islands. Ninety cents of every dollar of revenue for the firm stays in the state of Hawaii. Pacific Biodiesel’s wholly owned subsidiary, Cleanway, runs a fleet of trucks on three of the four major Hawaiian islands to collect and recycling cooking oil and trap grease.
The firm’s 35 employees enjoy 100% employer-paid health insurance, a 401(K) plan, an annual bonus, training, and opportunities for advancement. Employees receive significant discounts for using biodiesel in their own vehicles, and their firms trucks run on biodiesel. Pacific Biodiesel is actively engaged in community outreach locally as well as industry-wide: founders Kelly and Bob King partnered with Willie and Annie Nelson and Darryl Hannah in 2007 to create the Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance to provide education and outreach on sustainable, community-based practices for biodiesel production.
Founder Bob King was named by Fast Company Magazine as one of the “5 Social Capitalists Who Will Change the World” in 2010.
