The Power of veggies

Evin Shoap / senior photographer The National Outdoor Leadership School-sponsored bus runs on the renewable energy of the sun and vegetable oil.

Learning about the outdoors, celebrating leadership and being environmentally conscious were the purposes behind the National Outdoor Leadership School’s (NOLS) vegetable oil- and solar-powered bus that rolled into JMU Friday morning.

The bus uses renewable energy instead of petroleum, refueling at restaurants wherever used vegetable oil is readily available. The solar panels provide power for auxiliary electronics, such as audio/visual equipment, lights and computers. The bus also contains a rock climbing wall on its side.

The NOLS on the Road: Finding Tomorrow’s Leaders bus tour has been traveling around the country since August, attempting to bring environmental awareness to different communities. The tour is sponsored by Silk, the makers of organic soy milk.

The idea of powering vehicles through renewable sources such as vegetable oil is not entirely new. The diesel engine originally was designed to be powered by peanut oil. Bruce Palmer, the director of admission and marketing for NOLS, said that vegetable oil has many benefits, such as burning in an environmentally sound way and using it as a waste product being recycled. "We found [the bus] to be a fairly effective project," Palmer said.

Many of the tour stops since August have been at universities.

"We’re trying to bring elements of a NOLS education to college campuses," Palmer said. College campuses also have had positive reactions to the bus and alternative energy projects. Matthew Copeland, a marketing supervisor on the tour, said, "The best stops we found have been college campuses." Copeland emphasized the importance of JMU because of the location in the Shenandoah Mountains.

Ashley Lewis, a marketing representative for NOLS, who also is participating in the tour, said that this is the first time NOLS has done any promotional work; however, it has been advocating the use of alternative energy.

"People tend to want to protect the places they live," Lewis said. She learned about NOLS through a summer camp she attended, and ended up taking one for a month. "It’s such a great experience," Lewis said.

The NOLS tour will go on until June, having completed its trek around the nation. Its next stop will be Charlottesville, continuing around Virginia until heading north to Princeton, N.J. Future plans have not been determined after this year’s tour ends; however, there is talk about converting other buses to be powered by vegetable oil.

More information on the bus and additional events can be found online at www.nols.edu/bus.