Ithaca Biodiesel Cooperative

As our mild winter rolls on and spring seems to be quickly approaching you might be getting excited to start using biodiesel. So are we! The gears are turning behind the scenes and we’re doing so much to make sure that we can provide you with a clean and certified fuel. We’re meeting with the Town of Ithaca Planning Department to work on our full site plan, dreaming of a clean and streamlined shop, and of course getting pumped up for our big fundraiser and membership drive on March 11.

You might be wondering how our community can support us so that we can open our doors as soon as possible. The answer is simple…

Give the gift of biodiesel!

In order to pay for our start-up costs like paying design professionals, purchasing equipment, and modifying a new facility to meet our necessary design standards, we have a goal of at least $100,000 to raise. Since we’re a cooperative corporation we won’t be asking for recurring donations from the community. We plan to be a self sufficient business after this initial round of requesting gifts. We just need some help getting on the road…

So if you’re interesting in donating to our start-up campaign, independently of whether or not you will purchase a membership during the month of March, then please make a secure gift payment through Paypal. 

Your support today will ensure energy security tomorrow.

We believe that our cooperative can have an impact on the world, and we look forward to starting an even greater ripple effect of alterantive fuel and energy in and out of our community as we prepare to set up a great new shop. Not only do we think that biodiesel can make a difference, we know that being a cooperative allows us to be part of a necessary movement to shift economic power to local, democrative companies. Supporting us supports you!

Hear what political economist Gar Alperovitz has to say about worker owned cooperatives on Democracy Now!

Support Ithaca Biodiesel Cooperative at a screening of a new, local documentary! From our friends over at Empowered:

“Wednesday, December 7, 7-9pm
Cinemapolis, 120 E. Green St., Ithaca, NY
Tickets are $10, $8 for IGBA and Sustainable Tompkins members

Join us for an encore Ithaca screening featuring tabling by local sustainability groups and renewable energy installers. Since our community sneak peek screening at the end of September, we have refined the film and added lots of animations so even you’ve seen it, there’s lot’s of new stuff to check out!

The screening will be followed by a special “Women Power” panel discussion including director Shira Golding Evergreen and some of the local innovators featured in the film – Gay Nicholson of Sustainable Tompkins, McKenzie Jones Rounds of Ithaca Biodiesel, Gwendolyn Barr of Weaver Wind Energy, Annie Koreman of Sierra Club Finger Lakes Group and Lexie Hain of Enfield Energy and Snug Planet.”

We hope to see you there!

Well, we’ve gone ahead and made ourselves a little bit more official. We just elected the new members of the Board of Directors! Congratulations to Brian Buchman, Joe Fisher, Marina Gershon, Jamie Jones-Rounds, McKenzie Jones-Rounds, Michael Tokman, and Greg Tolbert, the new members of the Ithaca Biodiesel Cooperative Board. Stay tuned for more details about some pretty cool people who are making a big difference in our community.