10/04/2011
SUNY Cortland’s fleet of red and white campus buses will have company on Monday, Oct. 10, when an ethanol-fueled tour bus visits campus to promote a documentary championing renewable fuel alternatives.
The College will showcase its commitment to environmental sustainability when it hosts the Freedom Tour, a film tour that brings the “Freedom” documentary and its eco-friendly bus to movie theaters and college campuses across the country.
The bus, which doubles as a clean-energy laboratory and a “green” mobile entertainment system, will be open for tours from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in front of Corey Union. A 7:30 p.m. screening of the documentary will follow in the Corey Union Function Room. Both activities are free and open to the public.
“This event underscores our campus commitment to sustainability and educating our students about sustainability,” said Beth Klein, a SUNY Cortland professor of childhood/early childhood education and the chair of Sustainable Cortland, a community group dedicated to establishing sustainable practices in Cortland County. “It’s a fresh, motivating and engaging way for our students and the community to look at solutions for alternative energy.”
The tour stop aligns perfectly with the College’s efforts to maximize its own resources and support community sustainability initiatives, Klein said. The visit also brings back a local success story to the city of Cortland. Boise Thomas, a Cortland native and a television personality, serves as the captain of the tour.
The “Freedom” documentary comes from the same filmmakers who produced the Sundance Film Festival award-winning movie “Fuel” in 2008.
In their new film, Louisiana native Josh Tickell and his wife, Rebecca, take an international trip to investigate alternatives to fossil fuels following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. The documentary offers a variety of “green” solutions and features interviews with musician Jason Mraz, international author Deepak Chopra and former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and current Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich.
The Freedom Bus includes 18 solar panels, a bio-fuel engine and a power generator in addition to touch screens inside of the bus and a projection system for outdoor presentations. By the end of the three-and-a-half-month tour in late October, the bus will have stopped in more than 40 cities in the United States and Canada.
The event at SUNY Cortland is sponsored by the College’s President’s Office and organized by Sustainable Cortland and Finger Lakes Bioneers, another community group.
For more information on the visit, contact Klein at (607) 753-5682.