Urban Sustainability
and
the Built Environment

Water
and
Ecosystem Services

Energy, Biofuels
and
Climate Change

Material Management
and
Human Health

The goal of sustainability is our "true north," EPA's new Assistant Administrator for Research and Development (ORD) Paul Anastas has asserted in an extended memo to ORD staff. The "path forward" outlined by Dr. Anastas makes the goal of sustainability one of ORD's long-term research objectives.

EPA's People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3) program selected fourteen college and university teams as awardees and an additional nine for honorable mention in its sixth annual competition. The winners were selected from 42 student teams that had received grants to design and build sustainable technologies that improve quality of life, promote economic development, and protect the environment. Each of the awardees is eligible for additional funding of up to $75,000 to provide an opportunity to further develop their designs, implement them in the field, and move them to the marketplace.

EPA Sustainability Blogs. Several EPA staff have contributed articles to EPA's “Science Wednesday” blog that are especially relevant to sustainability. Recent blog posts include "Searching for a Sustainable Way to Remove Arsenic from Groundwater" (posted March 17, 2010), which describes a project partly funded by an EPA P3 award and "Sustainability Is Our True North" (posted March 10, 2010), in which EPA Scientist Barbara Karn reflects on sustainability, "true north," and "untrue north." Earlier blog posts by EPA staff have also included "Sustainability Through the Eyes of a Chemist," "Nano Goes for the Green," "Celebrating Sustainability and the Environment," "The Biofuels Challenge – Searching for Sustainable Fuels for Our Growing Transportation Needs," and other sustainability-related topics.

EPA Begins Sustainable Biofuel Research Program. In 2010, President Obama increased research funding for the EPA on sustainable biofuels.  Watch this website, particularly the Energy, Biofuels and Climate Change section for updates and results.

For older documents related to environmental sustainability, please visit More Resources.