Three curved arrows follow one another in an endless circle, one pointing to the other pointing to the other.

Around campus, this symbol has been popping up more frequently, pasted on recycling bins and hand-made posters encouraging students to recycle rather than waste.

A huge banner waves between the stony pillars of Beardshear Hall, imploring students to “live green.” The banner is a marker of Iowa State’s new commitment to reduce energy use and raise environmental awareness, referred to as the Live Green Initiative.

For ISU BioBus, an up-and-coming student organization that encourages active sustainability, it is becoming increasingly difficult to fulfill the initiative’s slogan.

David Correll, graduate student in business administration and president of BioBus, said getting campus support for the environmentally-friendly program has proven to be a struggle.

“We’ve worked with the university quite a bit, but our program is still getting off the ground,” said Correll. “We don’t have any space or funds to work with.”

This is problematic for the group, because it needs both to fulfill its mission.

BioBus aims to process vegetable oil reclaimed from the Union Drive Marketplace dining hall and turn it into biodiesel suitable for use in one or more CyRide vehicles.

Sheri Kyras, director of transit at CyRide, said that CyRide has had a couple of conversations with BioBus regarding this issue.

“We are definitely interested in their project, but our concern is with reliability,” Kyras said. “We want to make sure our buses can run without any problems and consistently.”

In fact, CyRide officials have taken steps towards becoming eco-friendly themselves.

Kyras said the company has achieved Gold LEED certification from the U.S. Green Buildings Council and just received funding for 12 hybrid buses.

Future innovations for CyRide include investigation of a concrete-alternative that would prevent water from infiltrating the ground at CyRide bus stops and solar-powered lights in transportation hubs.

Kyras said since the beginning of this fiscal season — July 1 — CyRide has already purchased 3,384 gallons of biodiesel fuel, which compromises from two to ten percent of the fuel power behind the buses, depending on the season.

“We are very into sustainability here at CyRide,” Kyras said. “Anything we can do to go greener will definitely be looked into.”

Kyras said that, unfortunately, CyRide has not been able to receive any details on BioBus. The bus system has spent about $7,300 on biodiesel fuel from Keck Oil Inc. this fiscal year, but BioBus’s underdevelopment makes it hard to tell how much money could potentially be saved.

“At this scale, we won’t be saving anyone a lot of money,” Correll said.

The Government of the Student Body funds services on campus, including CyRide, and provides partial funding for student organizations. 

Thomas Danielson, finance director for GSB and senior in civil engineering, said all organizations are treated equally and an organization will not necessarily receive more attention, money or support because it falls in line with the Live Green Initiative.

“We’re not saying no to them,” Danielson said, “But it’s all about organizations coming to us to request funds. There is money available, it’s just not being utilized.”

So for now, BioBus is trekking on without financial backing.

“Our mission has always been to close the loop on campus with waste and energy,” Correll said. “We want to show students that we can go green.”