WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Jim Danielson and Sean Kleinschmidt spent the summer before their freshman year at Purdue University turning a Porsche with a blown engine into an electric-powered vehicle.

Their red, 1987 924S will be one of the featured vehicles at the alternative and fuel-efficient transportation show that is part of Purdue’s Green Week. The show will be from noon to 4 p.m. Thursday (Sept. 24) on the west side of Stewart Center.

Danielson of Arlington Heights, Ill., and Kleinschmidt of Prospect Heights, Ill., are high school friends who are now first-year engineering students. They started work on the car in late May and finished in early August.

They bought the Porsche for $500, then sold parts from it that they didn’t need for about the same amount. They spent about $6,000 on the conversion. They hope to get $4,000 of that back through an Illinois program that rebates costs for alternative-power conversions.

The car runs on a deep-cycle, lead acid marine battery and a forklift motor. At this point, it can reach a speed of 55 miles an hour. But the Porsche has a range of only about 50 miles on each battery charge, so Danielson and Kleinschmidt will bring it to West Lafayette on a trailer.

The Purdue Sustainability Council is sponsoring the Green Week transportation show. It also will feature vehicles from Purdue’s hybrid fleet, student-built solar race cars, a battery-powered Volkswagen Beetle built by a professor, a Volkswagen Rabbit converted to run on biodiesel fuel including used vegetable oil, and even a motorized couch.

Judged and people’s choice awards will be given in the fuel-efficient and alternative-powered categories.

Alternative and fuel-efficient vehicles still can be entered in the show. To enter, e-mail Robin Ridgway, Purdue’s director of sustainability and environmental stewardship, at rmridgway@purdue.edu

Also during the transportation show, the Boiler Green Initiative will offer free bicycle tune-ups.

More information on Green Week is available at http://www.purdue.edu/sustainability/

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue University will sponsor Green Week on Sept. 15-19 to raise environmental awareness on campus and in the Greater Lafayette community.

Each day will focus on one aspect of preserving the environment and practicing conservation. There will be opportunities for students, faculty and staff, and community members to participate throughout the week.

“We need to all start talking about what we do every day,” said Robin Ridgway, Purdue’s environmental regulatory consultant and chair of the Purdue Sustainability Council.

“The value of Green Week is in encouraging conversation about sustainability and what it means for Purdue and the broader community. We need to move together as a group.”

Sustainability is defined as meeting current needs in ways that won’t compromise the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Purdue has launched a green Web site at http://www.purdue.edu/green. It offers information on Purdue’s green initiatives, tips on conservation and an interactive portion where people can write about their environmental successes.

The Web site will be ongoing, but it also is serving as a clearinghouse for information about Green Week, including constantly updated lists of activities.

Each day of Green Week will have a theme: Monday, sustainability; Tuesday, reduce, reuse, recycle; Wednesday, energy; Thursday, research; and Friday, water. Events are still being developed but are likely to include activities such as clean-up efforts, recycling opportunities and incentives for trying alternative transportation.

Green Week will culminate with a full day of programs Friday, Sept. 19, and a speech that night by Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and author Thomas Friedman.

Discovery Park’s Energy Center, Center for the Environment and Purdue Climate Change Research Center plan a morning of lectures by outside experts on the environment, conservation and energy, and an afternoon town hall forum, all free and open to the public.

“The centers are collaborating on these Green Week activities to spark a lively discussion of research and reality at the intersection of climate, environment, energy technology alternatives and policy,” said Jay Gore, the Reilly Professor in Engineering and Energy Center director. “As a community, we will explore the new paths we must take to determine how we can live and grow our global community.”

A cleanup along the banks of the Wabash River is planned for late afternoon, with volunteers from both the campus and community pitching in to collect trash.

Friedman, foreign affairs columnist for the New York Times, will speak at 7:30 p.m. in Elliott Hall of Music about his latest book, “Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution – and How It Can Renew America.” He will sign books after the talk.

The speech is free and open to the public, but reserved tickets are required. Tickets can be picked at the Hall of Music box office between 10 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Tickets also can be reserved by calling the box office at (765) 494-3933.

“The impetus for Green Week was Tom Friedman’s visit,” Ridgway said. “Friedman’s writings focus on the importance of having a very serious conversation about what’s happening now and what we can do in the future.”