Bret Strogen (M.S.’04 CEE), far left, joined 13 former Udall scholars aboard the Udall Legacy Bus, a biodiesel-powered bus that toured the nation last summer.

Photo credit: Courtesy Bret Strogen

Fifty-four days, 26 cities, six national parks, six Native American communities, 8,606 miles and one carbon-neutral, biodiesel-powered bus. That’s how Bret Strogen (M.S.’04 CEE) of Berwyn, Pennsylvania, spent his summer last year, along with 13 others who crisscrossed the nation aboard the Udall Legacy Bus, promoting environmental solutions and Native American rights.

The participants were former Udall scholars, recipients of Udall Foundation scholarships for exceptional students. The trip commemorated 10 years of service by the foundation, named after 30-year U.S. House of Representatives member Morris K. Udall, who championed environmental causes and enacted policies like the Alaska Lands Act of 1980, which doubled the size of the national park system.

“My grandfather used to say, ‘What you have is only worth as much as what you can share,’” Strogen says. “I think that applies to knowledge as well. There’s no point in learning something unless you can do something with it.” Strogen used his engineering know-how to serve as biofuels and alternative energies coordinator for the tour, tracking mileage, fuel consumption and emissions using the engine’s computer and a GPS log.

The Udall bus—one of the 39,000 U.S. motor coaches in operation that consume some 431 million gallons of diesel fuel annually—used about 160 gallons of fuel per passenger during the three-month tour. It cut its carbon emissions, however, by using a custom engine; burning blended biodiesel, which reduces emissions by 15 percent; and purchasing carbon credits from NativeEnergy, a private energy firm that invests revenues in sustainable businesses and projects.

The travelers made stops along their way to clear trails in Maine’s Acadia National Park, rebuild bicycles for the needy in Chicago and teach kids healthy pizza-making at a Boys & Girls Club in Portland, Oregon. Strogen arranged for the group to tour the Fryodiesel plant in Philadelphia, where stinky, used fryer grease from restaurants is converted into fuel. They also stopped in New Orleans to check out new pump stations being installed by Pennsylvania-based construction and redevelopment firm Weston Solutions, which are designed to increase the pumping capacity of the city’s canals.

Strogen was a project engineer at Weston until last November. He returned to Berkeley in January to pursue graduate work with civil and environmental engineering professor Arpad Horvath, comparing biofuels and fossil fuels.

For more about the tour, visit http://udall.gov and click on the bus.

By Megan Mansell Williams