Green technology projects awarded
in national competition
Washington, DC— Students from Appalachian
State University drove from North Carolina to Washington, DC in
a bus entirely powered by biodiesel fuel made from recycled cooking
oil. University of Michigan at Ann Arbor students are “growing”
materials for construction of buildings, both to use natural fibers
and to encourage a new market for agriculture.
These were just two of the winning projects at
the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s People,
Prosperity and the Planet (P3) awards ceremony.
The national competition, sponsored by EPA’s
Office of Research and Development, enables college students to
research, develop and design scientific, technical, and policy solutions
to sustainability challenges.
Sustainable solutions are environmentally friendly,
efficiently use natural resources and are economically competitive.
The P3 award includes funding up to $75,000 that gives the students
an opportunity to further develop their designs and move them to
the marketplace.
Winners of this year’s awards and their
projects are:
- Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina - Closing
the Biodiesel Loop: community based production of ASTM D6751-03
standard fuel from locally gathered waste vegetable oil.
- Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania - Sustainable Water
Systems in Honduras - a simple method to remove inorganic arsenic
from groundwater sources.
- Portland State University, Portland, Oregon - WISE, an interactive
website for educators and students on a holistic approach to sustainable
development guided by the WISE owl.
- Stanford University, Stanford, California - The Green Dorm,
design and construction of a sustainable facility for residential,
laboratory and commons space.
- University of Massachusetts, Lowell, Massachusetts - Cancer
treatment drugs from green tea - novel used non-toxic enzymes
to extract poly(catechins) with promising anti-tumor activity.
- University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan - Growing Alternative
Sustainable Buildings from natural fiber, biodegradable or recyclable
materials.
The P3 Award competition was held at EPA’s
first National Sustainable Design Expo on the National Mall in Washington,
DC. The students exhibited their design projects while companies,
non-profit organizations and government agencies exhibited their
commercially successful sustainable technologies.
Support for the competition includes more than
45 partners in the federal government, industry and scientific and
professional societies. |
