Three years ago, Mike Rechlin decided to turn his Sustainable Development class into a project course in order to implement and promote sustainable development instead of merely studying it. This year, they are looking at alternatives to gasoline and decided to convert a biology department truck to run on straight vegetable oil, or SVO, after studying the pros and cons of bio diesel and SVO.
Rechlin quoted the standard definition of sustainable development from a UN report: “Sustainable Development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.”
Amber Dahlin / photo
Amy Baldauf and Steve Bailey work on projects in class
Junior Sam La Piana said, “Part of the reason I’m in this class is because I heard we were [converting the truck], so I jumped on that.” Those who weren’t directly involved did research and talked with dealerships and other groups that have converted vehicles to run on bio diesel, which, La Piana said, is a similar process. Steve Shedd is serving as a technical advisor to the students, but Rechlin said that the students are doing everything.
Since conversion, two differences in the truck stand out. One is the gas tank with pump and filter which sits right behind the cab in the truck bed. It holds twenty gallons of SVO which go through a simple filter before being pumped through the fuel lines to the engine. The other difference is on the dashboard to the right of the steering wheel: La Piana installed a small switch which the driver flips up for vegetable oil or down to purge the engine by sending some vegetable oil through to get it warmed up.
La Piana said, “I see it as kind of a gateway thing.” Now that they have done it once, they know how it’s done and inexperienced students can do it. He added, “People have a lot of fries at the Pub, but we still don’t produce that much grease. It might stack up over a while, but I don’t know if we’re going to have every vehicle on SVO very soon.” Also, if a vehicle is only going from one side of the science center to the other, for example, La Piana said that you wouldn’t have time to turn the switch and get it warmed up, so it may not be a practical step for vehicles that run short distances on campus.
In addition to the truck-conversion project, small groups of students in the sustainable development class are doing individual research projects. These include studying food composting and solar panel installation, researching alternatives to pesticides and herbicides, and monitoring energy use in dorms and computer labs. One of the weekly sustainability speakers shared that it costs $120 in energy to keep a computer on overnight.
Amber Dahlin / photo
Modifications are made to the engine
When freshmen Amy Baldauf and Steve Bailey monitored food left on trays in the dining hall, they were disgusted by the amount on each tray that went to waste. Bailey said that food left over is dehydrated to form a pulp and then sent to Facilities where it is disposed of. The partners also visited the Saint Louis University campus’s “Fresh Gatherings” dining program to learn about food waste and eating with a conscience. The program is one of several on the campus, and is centered around organic farming, local buying, and nutrition. Baldauf said, “It’s not only about being green but also being healthy.” The program is also small-scale, so it would be feasible to do similar things at Principia. Trey McCartt, the Assistant Director of Operations in Dining Services, is planning a follow-up trip to SLU, and Baldauf and Bailey are hoping to host a campus-wide no food and beverage waste day.
Another group dug through three days’ worth of Principia’s trash, weighing in at around 3 tons, and separated everything recyclable into designated bins. Freshman Nick Tosto said that 16.8% of the trash was recyclable, though freshman Christian Richardson said that there weren’t as many recyclables as they expected to find. The things found most were to-go boxes – which cannot be recycled – pub cups, and paper towels. They also found a large volume of library books, unopened packages of skewers and candy, and two pairs of good quality shoes – all things which could be put into a share box – among other things. The four windshield wipers they found will serve as borders on the poster they’re compiling about their project. In order to waste less, Richardson tells students, “Use Cambros … and don’t get bottled water,” referring to a blind taste test conducted by eco-heads in which more students preferred tap water to bottled.
On Buffers Day the class is hosting “Free Rides and Free Fries.” Sophomore Katie Heuffner said that they’ll be exchanging rides in the SVO truck for free fries at the Pub, which are the main source of the oil that fuels the truck.
Rechlin said, “We go through numerous definitions of sustainable development in this class, and we always include the first sentence of our text book: ‘To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, today is big with blessings,’ … I think there’s something for us at Principia as a Christian Science school that’s a little special.”
