For most people, the phrase "think globally, act locally" has become just one more dog-eared maxim of ecological awareness - a bumpersticker for liberal-identity politics.
For Dan Freeman, however, that saying carries the weight of a life-altering decision.
Freeman - a.k.a. Dr. Dan of Dr. Dan's Alternative Fuelwerks - has chosen to walk the talk by turning entire cars, bumpers and all, into cleaner, more earth-friendly machines, while also supporting the local economy.
Freeman is one of the nation's longest-standing and largest retailers of biodiesel fuel, an alternative to fossil fuels that is biodegradable, renewable and more environmentally friendly than petroleum-based products.
Just this month, Dr. Dan's Biodiesel opened its second dispensary and first drive-up retail fuel station on the lot of Espresso Express, at the corner of Northeast 65th and 15th Avenue Northeast in Roosevelt. The station - which features a single pump supplied by an above-ground, 1,000-gallon steel tank - celebrated its grand opening with music, speeches and cupcakes on Sept. 21. Biodiesel was going for $3.52 per gallon that day.
Freeman said the Espresso Express site is one of the first public-access stations in the nation. "It really has been quite the amazing ride," he said of opening his second outlet. "We seem to have the highest concentration of individual users in the nation."
LOCALLY GROWN, LOCALLY COMPRESSED
A Seattle native and Ballard High School graduate, Freeman started experimenting with alternative fuels back in the '70s, when he used alcohol to run lawnmowers and minibikes.
In the '80s he raced methanol-fueled sprint cars, and when the next decade rolled around, he started in on the business of converting cars to run on compressed natural gas (CNG) while also selling CNG fuel.
The plan, Freeman said, is to build his business by emulating the organic-food movement, which puts a premium on local production and the interdependence of localized and self-sustaining economies.
Right now, Dr. Dan's fuel is produced in Idaho from virgin soy oil, though Freeman said, "It's our goal to build up Washington state." His dream is to offer a fuel that is grown, produced and used as locally as possible. "It just doesn't make sense to transport goods over large distances," Freeman pointed out.
The politics and international implications of alternative-fuel production are never far from Freeman's mind, though invariably he emphasizes the need to enact change at the immediate level - at the personal level.
"We really have to change our thinking on our whole way of life," he said. "It's just in recent history that we've had any kind of option like that.
"There's lots of things we can do; it's not hopeless," Freeman continued. "Our current goal is to reduce and clean up our [carbon monoxide] emissions, and also to support our neighbors in the Northwest. There's no reason to import energy from halfway around the world when we have an abundant supply of local things that could be grown."
A WIN-WIN-WIN BUSINESS MOVE
Doug Barnhart, who has owned and operated Espresso Express for the last 23 years, said he's excited about the community aspect of having a biodiesel station on his lot.
"It's kind of like a family thing - the idea of community," Barnhart said, "We've been here a long time. We want to gather in some more friends."
Not only does Barnhart view his partnership with Dr. Dan as a win-win-win business move since it also aids local farmers, there's the fact of biodiesel's low impact on the environment. "It's clean-burning; it's sustainable," he noted. "That's why I committed to this."
So far, business has been steady, Freeman said, with the company signing on between 10 and 15 new customers every week.
"It's been pretty steady, which has been kind of the amazing part," Freeman said, adding that plans are in the works to install a credit-card reader at the Espresso Express location.
Although he balked at the idea of a global-domination scheme for Dr. Dan's Biodiesel, Freeman said he hopes to offer his product at more locations.
"We've been planning on opening up quite a few more stations," he said. "Ideally, we'd like to partner up with businesses that share the same target audience. A 100-percent biodiesel is good for everybody."
The idea, Freeman said, is to be reliant on "as little petroleum as possible."
For further information, call 783-5728 or visit www.fuelwerks.com.[[In-content Ad]]
