Running on biodiesel, Blue Sky Shipping bridges the carbon gap between businesses and consumers.

As a greater number of companies consider the size of their carbon footprint, Charles Whitwam wants to offer a solution: switching the fuel used for shipping their goods to 100 percent biodiesel (B100).

In June, Whitwam and two business partners bought Blue Sky Shipping, a company started in 2003 by Bay Area entrepreneur Lance McCardle to collect waste grease from area restaurants and brew all the biodiesel it needs to fuel the company’s delivery trucks.

“It was completely founded for the sole purpose of creating bluer skies by having this shipping company run completely off of B100,” Whitwam says.

Blue Sky’s four-truck fleet currently uses about 300 gallons every two weeks, Whitwam says. Over the past three years, that amounts to about 12,500 gallons of fuel, and a reduction of 196,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions.

Whitwam says business has been brisk since he and his partners purchased the company. “What we’ve done since then, from June until now, is we’ve exceeded the sales that Blue Sky did all of last year,” Whitwam says.

In 2005, the company brought in $37,000,Whitwam says. This year, Whitwam estimates it will reach $80,000 to $100,000.