News

Interagency Partnership for Sustainable Communities. EPA has joined with the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Transportation in a partnership agreement and set of six guiding livability principles that will provide a vision for sustainable growth. The agreement, announced on June 26, 2009, will guide the agencies' efforts to improve access to affordable housing, provide more transportation options, and lower transportation costs while protecting the environment in communities nationwide.

Science and Technology of Biofuels. Complete videos and slides from this special session of the May 2009 annual meeting of the American Institute of Biological Sciences include presentations by Alan Hecht, Robert Larson and Donna Perla of EPA’s Office of Research and Development and John Regalbuto of the National Science Foundation. The overall theme of the AIBS meeting was Sustainable Agriculture: Greening the Global Food Supply.

Increasing Feedstock Production for Biofuels: Economic Drivers, Environmental Implications, and the Role of Research (PDF) (167 pp, 2.4 MB, About PDF). The Biomass Research and Development Board commissioned this economic analysis of feedstocks to produce biofuels. The Board seeks to inform investments in research and development needed to expand biofuel production. December 2008.

Environmental Laws Applicable to Construction and Operation of Biodiesel Production Facilities (PDF) (144 pp, 6.3MB, About PDF). A manual produced by U.S. EPA Region 7 (November 2008).

National Biofuels Action Plan (PDF) (24 pp, 4.9MB, About PDF). In this report the Interagency Biomass Research and Development Board outlines research needed to advance sustainable biofuel production (October 2008).

The Economics of Biomass Feedstocks in the United States: A Review of the Literature. (PDF). (122 pp, 495 KB, , About PDF). The Biomass Research and Development Board commissioned this literature review of feedstock cost and availability covering economic studies available through the end of 2007. It is intended to support further economic research on expanding the production of renewable fuels (October 2008).

Federal R&D Agenda for Net-Zero Energy, High-Performance Green Buildings (PDF) (76 pp, 2.8 MB, About PDF) The National Science and Technology Council report describes necessary research and development activities in order to reduce negative impacts on natural resources and improve indoor environments while reducing greenhouse gas emissions (October 2008).

2008 Sector Strategies Performance Report (PDF) (138 pp, 11.6MB, About PDF) This EPA document provides information on the environmental performance of some of the leading U.S. manufacturing and nonmanufacturing sectors (October 2008).

Coming Events

2005–2015. UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. An educational effort that aims to encourage changes in behavior that will create a more sustainable future.

June 23–25. Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference. 13th Annual Conference sponsored by the American Chemical Society. Moving towards Sustainability within the Chemical Enterprise and Innovating For the Future: Progress on the Grand Challenges in the Chemical Enterprise. College Park, Md.

August 9–12. The First International Congress on Sustainability Science and Engineering. The theme is “Where science and engineered technologies meet the needs of society.” Sponsored by EPA, National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institute of Standards (NIST), University of Kentucky, and the Sustainable Engineering Forum of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). A workshop on Water Resources (Cosponsored by NSF, EPA and NIST) will take place on August 13. Cincinnati, Ohio.