The Bus
Our Big Green Bus is available to hire now. Until Summer 2010 we shall be concentrating on bookings in the West Midlands, but hope to be touring in the South West and North Wales later in the year. We hope to receive bookings from towns and cities across these regions so that as many people as possible will have a chance to visit the bus and benefit from the comprehensive array of information and resources we offer. We will also consider block bookings, or high profile events, from other areas across the UK.
The entire bus is a showcase for sustainable living. We have carefully chosen the flooring, paints, textiles and lighting, all from recycled or sustainable sources, to demonstrate the choices you can make in your own home. The bus is packed with energy-saving devices, water-saving gadgets, natural products for skincare and cleaning, examples of eco-friendly insulation, eco-paints and clothing made from sustainable crops, wormeries, composting systems and recycled garden containers, and much more besides. Outside, we have more interactive displays and a 'pedal powered smoothie maker'!
We also offer a well-equipped research and resource area with internet access, magazines and books for visitors to look at, plus our own free 'Idea Sheets', covering a varied range of useful subjects, for people to take home with them.
The top deck is used for talks, workshops and demonstrations and will soon house a solar-powered cinema. Visitors can attend a variety of talks and demonstrations throughout the day whilst the bus is open to the public, and the cinema will run a selection of thought-provoking and inspiring environmental films.
It is our intention, eventually, to run our bus on waste vegetable oil or biodiesel (made from WVO), but at the moment we are running on diesel. This is because our old engine burst into flames on our way to our first event October 2008, and the guarantee on our new engine would be void if we used anything other than standard diesel. If anyone has experience of running a 'green spec' Gardner engine on biodiesel or WVO without it causing damage to the seals or clogging up the injectors we'd love to hear from you!
Before we arrive at each new location we will be contacting local community and environmental groups and inviting their representatives to join us during our stay. Between us we can offer the kind of information, help and advice that communities are looking for to help them make the transition towards 'greener' and more economically viable sustainable living, as well as being able to point people towards any help that may be available on a local level.
As well as all this, we also hope to offer information about where and how communities can support their local sustainable enterprises such as farmers’ markets, eco-shops etc.
Councils and businesses planning ‘green fairs’ or corporate eco-events who would like our Big Green Bus to attend their events are reminded to consider hiring the bus well in advance as remaining spaces for the coming year are proving to be in great demand.
Please contact us for details about hire terms and bookings.
More: read the story of the bus conversion, see pictures of the inside and outside, and watch the bus video.
The Big Green Bus - an animation by Anita Sancha
