Future+Projects

 = **Future Projects** =

**Virgin Fuels **
 *  Sir Richard Branson has joined the growing ranks of global warming activists by committing $3bn (£1.6bn) to tackle climate change. The billionaire has pledged all profits from his Virgin air and rail interests over the next 5 years to combating rising global temperatures ([|The Guardian, 2006]). However, the estimated $3bn will not go to charities and will be invested in a new branch of Sir Richard's ever-expanding Virgin conglomerate, VIRGIN FUELS. Much of the investment will focus on biofuels, an alternative to oil-based fuels made from plants ([|ETA, 2011]).

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[|YouTube, 2011]

**Virgin Atlantic: Low-carbon fuels**
 *  Sir Richard has backed a new process devised by a British biochemist that ferments the carbon monoxide from steel mills to produce low-carbon jet fuel. The smoke stacks at steel and aluminium mills and coal-powered power stations produce millions of tons of carbon monoxide, which the new process passes through a mixture of water and a bacterium in order for the carbon to be fermented into ethanol. Once refined, the ethanol can be blended with kerosene to power commercial aircraft engines.

**Virgin Galactic**
 * 'It is enormously exciting.' Branson says. 'Barack Obama is now effectively trying to hand space travel over to the private sector, and Virgin Galactic is the leader in enabling members of the public to go to space. The initial stage will be to send people into sub orbital space travel ([|Daily Mail, 2010]).' From there Galactic will go into orbital space travel and build hotels in space.


 * 'Man’s natural instinct is to keep trying to improve themselves. Our engineers will keep pushing themselves. They're already looking at seeing whether we can’t go from New York to Australia in half an hour by hopping a spaceship out of the earth’s atmosphere and then straight back down again.' says Branson ([|Big Think, 2007]).

**Virgin Strauss Water **
 * Virgin Strauss Water will utilize the Virgin brand, under a 30 year agreement, to market, sell and service Strauss Water's products, initially in the UK and Ireland. The joint venture operations will benefit from the products, technologies and the water expertise of Strauss Water and its existing operations, which have operated in the UK since 2004. The venture is expected to be operational in the UK in 2012, with additional countries targeted for expansion at a later stage ([|Virgin.com, 2011]).

**Virgin Media: Free London Wi-Fi**
 * Virgin Media plans to offer Londoners free Wi-Fi access in parts of the capital, with the first phase of the rollout expected soon. The communications and media provider hopes to reuse its existing underground and broadband cabinet infrastructure to deliver the Wi-Fi service[| (Zdnet, 2011]).

**Marussia Virgin Racing**
 * Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group will continue to pay money to the team currently known as Virgin Racing under the terms of a new deal once its name is taken off the chassis next year. Virgin branding will remain prominent on the car as its involvement becomes more equivalent to that of a regular sponsor. ([|The Telegraph, 2011)]