Bard Center For Environmental Policy Students Awarded $5,000 Grant From The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—Bard College has been awarded a $5,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) People, Prosperity, and Planet (P3) Phase 1 Award Program to support a Bard Center for Environmental Policy (Bard CEP) graduate students’ project. The grant, for a project titled “The Integrated Use of Road Salt Management and Application Techniques,” was awarded in a national competition to a Bard CEP team of graduate students for an innovative and sustainable design to help solve one of today’s complex environmental problems.

The EPA’s P3 Program challenges student teams to create designs for a sustainable future while offering a quality hands-on experience that brings science, technology, engineering, and math classroom learning to life. The program was developed to foster progress toward sustainability by achieving the mutual goals of improved quality of life, economic prosperity, and protection of the planet — people, prosperity, and the planet — the three pillars of sustainability. The EPA offers the P3 competition in order to respond to the technical needs of the world while moving toward the goal of sustainability. Phase 1 funding provides teams with up to $15,000 to develop designs. Winners of the Phase 1 competition can compete for a Phase 2 funding grant of up to $90,000. All student teams present their work at the National Sustainable Design Expo in Washington, D.C., in April.

Bard CEP graduate students Dunja Drmac, Lauren Frisch, Rochelle March, and Justine Schwartz comprised the winning student team. The design proposal was crafted as part of the requirements of the class, Science of Built Environments, led by Bard CEP professor Robyn Smyth. The winning student project will focus on developing and promoting recommendations for better road salt management and application.

“This is a great learning opportunity for our students to engage in sustainable design. It’s also an opportunity to raise awareness about the water and soil degradation that results from the overuse of salt to de-ice roads. Our design project aims to reduce salt application while maintaining road safety. Such a reduction will save money and the environment,” said Smyth.
 
About The Bard Center for Environmental Policy
The Bard Center for Environmental Policy (Bard CEP) was created in 1999 to promote education, research, and public service on critical issues relating to the natural and built environments. Its primary goal is to improve environmental policies by facilitating the use of the best available scientific knowledge in the policy-making process at the local, regional, national, and international levels. At the core of the Center is an innovative graduate program leading to either a master of science degree or a professional certificate. The emphasis on science-based policy enables students to progress from knowledge of the issues to the formulation of feasible, effective policies for dealing with them. The program is unique in its interdisciplinary approach, providing students with the skills and knowledge to pursue a career in research and policy-related positions.

For more information about the Bard Center for Environmental Policy, please visit http://www.bard.edu/cep/about/.

Website: https://www.bard.edu/cep/about/

This event was last updated on 10-02-2014

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