A major concern for many businesses and individuals today is how to be environmentally friendly, and to create sustainable products and sustainable practices. The Institute for Affordable Transportation (IAT) has found ways to be environmentally sustainable with its Basic Utility Vehicle (BUV) by reusing the back end of recovered pickup trucks, and choosing items that are easy and cheap to replace.

We re-use the back ends of pickups because reusing materials is more efficient than recycling as the materials don’t need to be reprocessed before it is used again.

Compared to a regular pickup, the BUV has many advantages. It gets approximately 50 miles per gallon (mpg) compared to the 25 mpg of a regular truck. It also is biodiesel-ready when most pick-up trucks are not.

Using a biodiesel engine helps the BUV create less waste. Biodiesel is made from renewable resources and has lower emissions into the atmosphere compared to a regular pickup truck. The BUV also uses 75% less fuel in off-road conditions by having a biodiesel engine which is important. Many areas where BUVs are used have no official roads, only paths.

The big question is whether biodiesel works in Africa. In the areas the BUV is located, the African countries have access to the jatropha plant. These plants have more than four times as much fuel compared to the soybean plant when turned into oil, making it a great source for biodiesel.

As a result, the IAT is able to encourage environmentally sustainable practices, by helping create a need for local biodiesel manufacturing and supply, rather than shipping in gas and oil from other parts of the world.