‘The Big Green Bus’ is a program through which 13 lucky Dartmouth students have the opportunity to go on a 12,000 mile road trip around the country on a retrofitted 1987 greyhound bus that is powered by waste vegetable oil and solar power. This is the fourth bus that Greyhound has donated to Dartmouth College for the cause; and according to the crew, it is the most efficient one that has been retrofitted to date. The program’s mission is to help create a future that sustains people, the environment, and the economy. It promotes awareness and enthusiasm for sustainability through the sharing of information and innovation. On August 3rd, 2011, the crew made a pit stop at the Rio Las Vegas to provide an informative tour of the bus, demonstrations on how they test the oil before filling up the tanks and how efficient certain light bulbs are, and excellent advice on how to be sustainable in our everyday lives. Many of our community’s sustainability leaders were present for the tour, including local agency staff, educators, advocates, and one of our favorite community champions, Tom Axtell, General Manager of Vegas PBS!
The bus is retrofitted to model a sustainable home. Here are some things the crew has done to make their bus ‘green’ inside and out.
- Solar Panels ,donated by SunPower, power all of the computers, refrigerator, projector, lighting, television, air conditioning and veggie pumps.
- Deep Cycle Batteries ,provided by EcoDirect, are wired in a series parallel combination to make a 24-volt system that provides two days of autonomy without discharging the batteries more the 60%!
- A 4000-watt Xantrex XW series inverter ,donated by EcoDirect, takes the 24 volt DC current from the batteries and converts it into a 110 volt AC current to power all the appliances inside.
- A 40-watt Sun Frost refrigerator on board is the most energy efficient fridge on the market. (Incandescent light bulbs are 40-watts)
- The plywood floor is sustainably harvested in accordance with Forest Stewardship Council standards and comes from a well-managed forest and is documented from forest to customer. In addition to that, the leftover EcoTimber flooring from Bus #2 makes up the cabinets in this bus.
- All the table tops donated by IceStone are made from recycled glass and concrete.
- The grease filters that were provided by Rosedale Products purify all the vegetable oil donated.
- Computer cases made from 100% recycled material were generously donated by Greensmart.
- Reduced carbon emissions each year by 243 million pounds, the equivalent of 247,000 barrels of oil
- Retrofitted equipment with energy and water-efficient upgrades
- Saved 72 million gallons of water annually in Las Vegas while increasing capacity by 40%
- Replaced millions of light bulbs with energy efficient lighting, saving more than 50 million kWh each year
- And particularly close to the Big Green Bus’s heart, Caesars recycles more than 640,000 gallons of waste vegetable oil annually
In sponsoring the Big Green Bus tour, five Caesar Entertainment resorts will serve as tour stops and vegetable oil refueling stations.
The ultimate driver of direct human impacts on the environment is human consumption. Everything that we do impacts the earth via food, energy, water and waste. By living a sustainable lifestyle, we can drastically decrease the amount of greenhouse gases we emit into the atmosphere, save many endangered species from extinction, protect our fresh water supplies, and improve our overall human health standards. It only takes a little effort to live in a responsible manner as to not hurt the planet that supports our existence.