September 24, 2009

Today: Transportation Day

The Purdue Sustainability Council is sponsoring an alternative and fuel-efficient transportation show from noon to 4 p.m. today on the west side of Stewart Center. The show will feature a number of alternative transportation vehicles, including cars from Purdue's hybrid fleet, student-built solar race cars, a Porsche converted by students to electric power, a battery-powered Volkswagen Beetle built by a professor, a Volkswagen Rabbit converted to run on biodiesel fuel including used vegetable oil, a Coca-Cola hybrid-electric truck and even a motorized couch from the Society of Physics Students. Stop by to vote for your favorite vehicle. Judged and PeopleÕs Choice awards will be presented at 3:30 p.m.

Also during the transportation show, free bike tune-ups will be offered by Boiler Green Initiative.

Boiler Ride carpooling and ridesharing sign-up

Boiler Ride is a fast, easy-to-use online program that allows people to customize their search for potential carpool partners: those who may live nearby or along the same travel route, and may have similar work and lifestyle schedules. Need a ride to a Purdue sporting event or simply to a meeting across campus? Use the event/trip matching system to make traveling easier and to reduce our campus carbon footprint. Sign up here.

TODAY'S EVENTS:

* Alternative Transportation Expo. 12-4 p.m. STEW West Foyer & Academic and Memorial Malls.
- Boiler Ride carpooling and ridesharing sign-up.
- Fuel-efficient car show
- Free bike tune-ups
- BGI Alternative Transportation Week

* College of Agriculture Lunchtime Seminar. Noon-1 p.m. Deans Auditorium, Pfendler Hall.
- "It's Not Easy Being Green -Transportation Challenges with a Global Perspective" with Dr. John Lumkes, Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering.

*Urban Agriculture: A Vehicle for Social Change. 3:30 p.m. HORT 117.
- With Lynn Peemoeller, food systems planning consultant. Urban agriculture is the practice of producing crops and/or raising livestock within urban and peri-urban areas. It is regarded as a global strategy for community food security by weaving together economic, ecologic, social, and cultural systems to reduce and mitigate the externalities of the large-scale industrial food system. It is also emerging as an agent for social change.

* The Problem of Unwanted Medicines: Environmental Impacts of Unwanted Medicines and Best Disposal Practices. 6:30-8:30 p.m. Deans Auditorium, Pfendler Hall.
- Guest speakers: Elizabeth Hinchley Malloy, Ph.D., Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant; Dawn Boston, director, Wildcate Creek Solid Waste Management District; Marisol Sepulveda, DVM, Ph.D., associate professor in Purdue's Department of Forestry and Natural Resources; and Susan Boehme, Ph.D., Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant.

Additional resources:

* Boiler Ride: www.purdue.edu/transportation/boilerride.htm

* Purdue Transportation Service: www.purdue.edu/transportation/

* Boiler Green Alternative Transportation Week: www.boilergreen.com/page2/page14/AltTransportation.html

* Michael Kane (Electric VW):  http://evw.tech.purdue.edu/

* Purdue Solar Racing: www.purduesolar.org/

* Society of Physics Students Drivable Couch: www.physics.purdue.edu/webapps/physics_news/story/30

* Coca-Cola Hybrid: www.purdue.edu/sustainability/pages/coke_hybrid.htm

* CityBus Hybrid Fleet: http://citybusnews.blogspot.com/2009/08/citybus-expands-hybrid-bus-fleet-with-7.html

* For more about Green Week, go to www.purdue.edu/sustainability.