energy.agwired.com

Organic snack bar maker… and environmentally-active company… Clif Bar is now using eight biodiesel trucks to help marketing managers deliver their snacks, along with an Earth-friendly message.

This story on GNET.org says the change is part of the company lessening its impact on global warming:

By converting its field marketing vehicles to biodiesel and eliminating the need for 8,000 gallons of gasoline each year, Clif Bar expects to reduce the fleet’s CO2 emissions — the major cause of global warming — by about 40 percent, or 60,000 pounds of CO2.

“We’re always looking for ways to reduce our ecological footprint — it’s one of our bottom lines,” said Clif Bar Owner and Founder Gary Erickson, who drives biodiesel-fueled vehicles for personal use. “We’re using as many organic ingredients as possible in our food, reducing waste in our packaging, ‘greening’ our office space, and reducing our impact on global warming by helping build wind farms and planting trees. The use of biodiesel is another important step in our ongoing journey to operate a sustainable business.”

The fleet will be in Boston, Chicago, Colorado, Los Angeles, Northern California, the Northwest, San Diego/Arizona and Texas where the marketing managers rack up more than 120,000 miles a year.

The latest move is in line with Clif Bar’s campaign known as “Start Global Cooling.” Check out the cool logo.

Looks like they’re talking the talk and, in this case, driving the walk.

Market information provider DTN has introduced a biodiesel trading platform. DTN ProphetX Biodiesel Edition provides biodiesel producers and investors with intelligence on agricultural and energy markets.

This news release posted on Grainnet.com says the service also provides pricing information, commentary and other risk management tools:

This edition is for anyone in the emerging biodiesel markets to ensure future profitability and support sound investment decisions.

The DTN Biodiesel Crush tools can even assist users in determining the most economical and profitable multi-feedstock selections and ratios for operations and local market conditions.

DTN officials say ProphetX Biodiesel Edition is the only trading platform of its kind out there.

Producing biodiesel is proving to be a valuable tool in teaching students chemistry and how to be friendly to the environment.

For example, one small school in Northern Michigan has an FFA group that is producing biodiesel from leftover restaurant grease and oil. This story in the Huron (MI) Daily Tribune says FFA members at North Huron High School, along with their adviser and science teacher Clark Brock, have been using a biodiesel maker bought by the FFA at a convention:

Brock said his students are learning quite a bit from the hands-on experience of producing the fuel.

“They test the oil for fatty free acids,” Brock said. “If the oil is used for too long, or if there’s too much fat in it, the oil isn’t useable.”

There are plans to test the biodiesel in several vehicles this summer.

Now there’s a class project worth its weight.