P3 Award: Environmental Design for Sustainability
Posted in Energy Industry | Environment and Sustainability | Future Technology
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is sponsoring an exciting environmental design competition for undergraduate and graduate students. It’s called the “P3 Award” (People, Prosperity and the Planet), and it fosters cutting-edge, sustainable solutions to environmental challenges. Through this national design competition, students and their faculty advisory submit cutting-edge, sustainable solutions to environmental challenges and compete for $10,000 to develop their designs. Winners from the first phase of the competition advance to the National Sustainable Design Expo in Washington, DC, in the spring of 2008 where they compete for the chance to win up to $75,000 in funding to move their designs to the marketplace or implement them in the field.
The P3 Award: People, Prosperity and the Planet
A Student Design Competition for Sustainability
Apply by December 21, 2006
The National Sustainable Design Expo, held in the spring each year on the National Mall in Washington, DC, was created to bring together professional scientists, engineers, and business leaders around innovations designed to advance economic growth while reducing environmental impact. This year’s Expo will be held on April 25-26, 2007. The Expo showcases novel, commercially available products for green buildings and construction materials, innovative alternative energy technologies, strategies for rainwater collection and purification, and the latest in consumer products by a number of exhibitors.
During the Expo, each P3 team is evaluated by a series of judges using a set judging schedule that will be available prior to the competition. Scores from the written summary documents as well as the presentations on the Mall will be combined into a final overall score for each P3 team. Based on these scores, the National Academies makes recommendations to the EPA about which teams should receive EPA’s P3 Awards and the opportunity for Phase II funding.
Last year, 42 teams were awarded grants, including a team from Oberlin College that designed and tested a low-cost system for observing and interpreting energy and water consumption for individual dorms and college campuses. The project led to the creation of Lucid Design Group, a small business that designs and implements data acquisition and display systems for the green building industry. You can see all the grant winners’ designs and ideas at www.epa.gov/P3.
“P3” stands for People, Prosperity and the Planet. EPA and its partners launched the P3 Award in 2003 to promote innovative thinking for moving the world toward sustainability. Participating college students gain new skills and knowledge as they research, develop, design and implement scientific and technical solutions to environmental challenges.
Teams of undergraduate and/or graduate students at institutions of higher education located in the U.S. are eligible to apply. But time is running out! This year’s P3 competition closes on December 21, 2006.
Learn more by visiting www.epa.gov/P3. Assemble your team and apply today!
