Big Green Bus Rolls Into Fairfield

Liza Powell, 2, sure liked the Big Green Bus.

Liza liked it so much that she wanted to travel on it to a birthday party Saturday afternoon.

But Sue Ellen Powell, her mom, told Liza the 40-foot bus powered by vegetable oil was going to be at the Sherman Green parking lot for a couple more hours. "This was the first bus she's ever been on, so she was thrilled," Powell said, holding Liza in her arms.

Powell, who lives in Black Rock, was impressed by the Big Green Bus as well, but for reasons different than Liza's.

"I give the young people a lot of credit," she said of the 13 Dartmouth College students who are taking the Big Green Bus on a tour around the country this summer. "To travel that long, while doing it on the used [vegetable] oil and the solar-powered air conditioning and refrigerator...I think green is great, and Liza loved it because it was a bus."

Powell said she'd heard vehicles could run on used vegetable oil, but didn't know vegetable oil could power a large bus on a cross-country trip.

David Garczynski, 20, one of the Dartmouth students on the bus, said the 11-week, cross-country trip, which will cover 11,000 miles and 31 states, started last Sunday at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. and would end at the school Sept. 6. Between now and then, the Big Green Bus will visit spots as far west as San Francisco, making stops along the way to educate people about sustainable transportation and environmentalism.

Garczynski said the bus, a 1998 model donated by Greyhound last month, was converted to run on vegetable oil by Dartmouth students and has a 290-gallon tank. He said the bus gets the same miles per gallon (six to seven) as it would get on diesel fuel and that the vegetable oil is donated by sponsors of the trip and restaurants along the way. A lot of vegetable oil that filled the tank before the trip came from Dartmouth's dining halls, said Jen Fownes, a recent Dartmouth graduate.

The Dartmouth students usually don't sleep on the bus during their 11-week trip; they stay in the homes of Dartmouth alumni and friends and family members, Garczynski said.

The Big Green Bus, now on its seventh annual summer tour, began when ultimate frisbee players at Dartmouth wanted to travel to tournaments on sustainable transportation, Garczynski said.

It was easier to get used vegetable oil when the Big Green Bus started its summer tour in 2005 because used vegetable oil was viewed by restaurant owners as a waste product and they had to pay a company to take it off their hands. But now, used vegetable oil is viewed as a commodity, and companies will pay restaurant owners for it, Garczynski said. "In that regard, it has become a little more difficult to find vegetable oil," he said.

But Garczynski said students aren't worried about running low on vegetable oil, saying they had their 290-gallon tank topped off in New Hampshire by AMENICO, one of the tour's sponsors, and were confident they could find vegetable oil when they need it. One of the Dartmouth students on the tour has the job of identifying restaurants and places along the route where students can fill up, Garczynski said. The bus also includes four Dartmouth engineering students, two of whom converted their cars to run on vegetable oil while they were in high school.

The Big Green Bus still emits carbon dioxide but at a much lesser amount than it would if it ran on diesel fuel and the fuel comes from plants so it's not contributing to the removal of fuel from a longterm storage system the way diesel does, Garczynski said. "It's cleaner emissions and the source we take it from is much cleaner," he said.

Fownes said, "Anything you're burning will release CO2, but diesel's releasing carbon stored in oil for millions of years." Fownes said emissions from vegetable oil also have fewer amounts of sulfer dioxide, which she said is detrimental to the environment.

Only vehicles that travel on diesel fuel can be converted to travel on vegetable oil, Garczynski said.

The Big Green Bus starts its daily voyages on diesel fuel, but after a few minutes it converts to vegetable oil. In the last few minutes of the trip, the bus converts back to diesel fuel. On a seven-hour trip, only 12 minutes are powered by diesel fuel, Garczynski said.

Four solar panels on top of the Big Green Bus power all of the electronics inside, Garczynski added.

Each annual trip by the Big Green Bus has a theme, and this summer's theme is "sharing people's success stories" in sustainable living, Garczynski said.

"Basically, we share success stories, and they'll be up on our web page as we slowly start to get them up there," he said. "It turns out everybody has a story. It's fascinating to hear what everybody's doing. You meet people concerned and doing things in their own hometowns, and it's refreshing."

Garczynski, who's entering his senior year at Dartmouth in the fall, said he became interested in sustainable living due to growing up in Atlantic Beach, N.Y. and being exposed to the environment as a child. "It's a product of my upbringing and being aware of the things around me," he said.

Fownes was pleased with the turnout at Sherman Green Saturday afternoon. She said the first few days of the trip were rainy, but Saturday's weather was perfect for people to be out and about.

Each year, the Big Green Bus has a different group of Dartmouth students, and the ones on the tour this year will choose who goes on the summer 2012 tour after receiving applications and conducting interviews, Garczynski said.

First Selectman Michael Tetreau visited the Big Green Bus on Saturday afternoon and was impressed by the Dartmouth students' efforts. "These guys are doing great work. They're doing a phenomenal job," he said.

The Big Green Bus will be at the Connecticut Audubon Society's Center at Fairfield, 2325 Burr St., on Sunday from 10 a.m. to noon.