Imagine if your car's or truck's diesel could last you for a month.
Thanks to one local environmentalist, it's now a possibility here in Squamish. The concept has been around for decades although it's not standard practice in North America - installing a second fuel tank that runs strictly on vegetable oil.
"For every litre of diesel you burn, you create 2.2 kg of carbon dioxide," explained Scott Kerr. "Vegetable oil is carbon neutral."
The term "carbon neutral" naturally attracted the attention of local environmental organization Squamish Climate Action Network (CAN).
To help promote the concept and reduce carbon emissions themselves, Squamish CAN applied for a grant from Squamish Savings to make their favourite and oft-used vehicle as carbon-neutral as possible.
Thanks to the successful grant application, the Camp Summit bus should have a second vegetable fuel tank installed by Kerr and his partner Geoff Hill in the coming months.
"I'm so excited - it's going to be amazing," said Squamish CAN president Ana Santos. "I want to say a very big thank you to Squamish Savings for such forward thinking."
The organization received $8,000 to pay for converting the bus and preparing educational materials to promote the alternative fuel source.
"We'll also be making sure the bus is very visible," Santos said. "We're going to decorate it with some nice attractive graphics so that people know what they're looking at when the bus goes by."
About 4,000 people will see the bus when they use it every year. Camp Summit transports about 3,600 people from Vancouver International Airport to their camp, while Test of Metal organizers transport about 1,000 people for the race and Squamish CAN members use it for most of their field trips.
Based on 90 per cent of the driving being done on vegetable oil and an average consumption of 23.5 litres per 100 kilometres, Santos said the conversion to vegetable oil will lead to a potential reduction of five tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year.
"In the big scheme of things it may not be a lot," she said, "but the point is to demonstrate how one vehicle can do this much so imagine the possibilities."
Kerr said another appeal is the fact that vegetable oil isn't really a hot-ticket item at the moment. In fact, most of the 30 vehicles Kerr's company, Switchover Hybrid Conversions, has converted this year receive free used oils from local restaurants.
Santos sees that as a bonus.
"It's not just a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, there's also the potential of reducing waste by using waste oil," she said.
"We produce a lot of waste that's not really waste and can be made into a resource and this is one way to do it - so the potential for that education about waste reduction and harnessing energy from a waste stream is a good message."
Nonetheless, Kerr explained that it's not possible to use the vegetable oil 100 per cent of the time, at least in the Sea to Sky Corridor's climate.
"Vegetable oil works well when it's warm but when it's cold, it thickens," he said. "The idea is to convert diesel cars and by setting them up with second fuel tank instead of replacing it - so drivers still have their regular one but the new one is all vegetable oil."
Drivers need to use their diesel tank until the car is warmed up and then they can switch over to the vegetable oil tank. Kerr said that's why the dual-fuel-tank option is more efficient for longer trips than for doing errands around town.
Kerr said drivers need to run the diesel engine for a few minutes at night if it's cold to make sure the engine is full of diesel because "you don't want the vegetable oil thickening inside the engine."
He said the only drawback, particularly in North America, is that there aren't many as many diesel vehicles as in other parts of the world.
Kerr said there's been a whole mix of reactions to the concept. "A lot of people are really excited about the concept and didn't realize it was possible, but when it comes down to it they say they'll do it when it becomes more mainstream," he said.
He said he's come to accept that most people are skeptical.
"It's a battle you always face with any kind of alternative fuel," he said. "It's kind of funny because most people don't realize how old the concept really is - the first diesel engine that was ever shown was running on peanut oil."
Both Kerr and Santos realize that using vegetable oil might not be sustainable, but in the short term it's an eco-friendly option.
"Mostly what it helps us do is spread the awareness that there are other ways to do things," said Santos.
"This might not be the perfect solution and this might not be something every single person can or should do, but at least we should be thinking that there are alternatives out there that we could be using and this is a very viable one."
Kerr said vegetable oil isn't entirely sustainable as a fuel source, but neither is fossil fuel and it's much worse for the environment.
"The only real solution is to walk and bike," he said. "But this is something that can be done without having to change your lifestyle a whole lot.
"If we just told people to stop driving, that wouldn't happen, but this is something we can do now."
