NRDC and World Wildlife Fund have joined Boeing, some of the world’s leading airlines, and Honeywell’s UOP, a refining technology developer, to establish the “Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group” which will accelerate the development and commercialization of sustainable new aviation fuels. The group’s charter is to enable the commercial use of renewable fuel sources that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while lessening commercial aviation’s exposure to oil price volatility and dependence on fossil fuels. All group members subscribe to a sustainability pledge. Airlines supporting the sustainable fuels initiative include Air France, Air New Zealand, All Nippon Airways, Cargolux, Gulf Air, Japan Airlines, KLM, SAS and Virgin Atlantic Airways. The group has announced two initial sustainability research projects to assess the sustainability of producing biomass fuels from jatropha and algae. Congratulations to NRDC’s Liz Barratt-Brown, Senior Attorney (read Liz’s blog on this topic), Nathanael Greene, Senior Policy Analyst, Debbie Hammel, Senior Resource Specialist, Deron Lovaas, Vehicles Campaign Director, and Cai Steger, Corporate Projects Manager, on this important new initiative.