As Americans shuddered at fast rising gas prices this summer, 15 Dartmouth students traveled 10,000 miles across the nation and back promoting environmentally friendly transportation in the Big Green Bus, a 37-foot vehicle fueled almost entirely by vegetable oil.
After the group completed each day's journey, they met up with Dartmouth alumni, ultimate frisbee players and family friends who hosted the group overnight.
The seven members of the group who were approved to drive the bus divided the journeys to their next destinations, which ranged from two or three hour stretches to the overnight journey from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, to Seattle.
The bus ran primarily on vegetable oil, the same liquid used to fry eggs at the Hopkins Center's Courtyard Cafe, but it also used diesel fuel, or the more environmentally friendly biodiesel fuel, to heat the engine. It ran at about seven to eight miles per gallon on the vegetable oil, only a mile less efficiently than on diesel fuel.
According to Lorraine Ferron '05, one of the students who rode the Big Green Bus, vegetable oil pollutes the environment less than gasoline.
"Unlike diesel fuels, vegetable oil doesn't introduce any new carbon dioxide into the atmosphere when it's burned," Ferron said. "If we limit the amount of carbon dioxide we're adding, that can reduce the dangers of global warming."
"We'd explain that the bus ran on vegetable oil, and they wouldn't believe us, so we'd explain it again," she said. "Just even hearing people say, 'Huh, I had no idea,' felt like we were making a difference."
During the group's stop in Ann Arbor, Mich., the "bussers," as they call themselves, arranged for a spot at an environmental fair that the city holds each year. There, they met other college students who were petitioning to pressure car manufacturers to produce more environmentally friendly cars.
At one point on the trip, a start-up biodiesel manufacturing plant operated by recent college graduates donated vegetable oil and sold biodiesel fuel to the group.
The group's daily activities, which were designed to promote alternative fuels, included singing and dancing for up to 200 people, setting up an informative table in a public place or selling a booklet the group wrote about the benefits of alternative fuels.
"One of the themes of the trip was that everyone can change the world, so we encouraged our audience to come up with ways that they could change the world, focusing on energy consumption," Ferron said.
The group, many of whom play ultimate frisbee at the College, also promoted their sport, giving clinics after their environmental presentations.
The bus' journey, however, did not pass without a few problems. As a result of an old tank used for the vegetable oil, the bus had constant filter problems. And the group's trip was delayed for a week when the bus broke down in Moose Jaw, forcing them to replace the bus's engine after it overheated in North Dakota. The group took advantage of the time to finesse the details of their trip.
Despite the setbacks, Ferron remained confident that the journey spread a positive message.
"I don't think you can see your influence right away," Ferron said. "I think we'll see it later."
