Background

I make great tequila. Distillation of alcohol is a skill passed down from my grandmother, who made Mexican moonshine. While studying how I could make my alcohol company more planet friendly and produce hand sanitizer from the waste traditionally thrown away, I stumbled upon the similarities between distillation of alcohol, and distillation to make ethanol, learning quickly that alcohol is ethanol.

Hello! A very bright light turned on in a room full of tequila drinkers.

Biofuels Just a Distillery by Another Name

The process of producing ethanol, whether it’s beer, wine, whiskey, or fuel ethanol, is dependent on yeast, a single cell organism. So not to complicate matters, much of the product that was thrown out as being waste during the production of spirits can be used to produce sanitizing products, such as hand sanitizer, and biofuel — to assist in powering our delivery trucks.

Taking the Pledge Of Sustainability

The process of reviewing a business’s impact our planet is something that I strongly believe every company should include within its business plan. Why?

Today’s consumers demand accountability.

Investors have always demanded effective use of resources.

In today’s era, I think that business leaders who take a pledge of sustainability will find that they not only benefit from reducing their impact on the environment, but that review process will create new revenue streams from bio-products that were traditionally tossed out, or resources which were not efficiently used.

Taking a moment as a business leader to reflect can benefit both your bottom line and the one thing we all share — this planet.

The author Jessica Contreras is the founder/CEO of Fuego Fino, Inc., an alcohol importation and distribution company, who currently has a crowdfunding campaign on WeFunder.