Seven college and university student teams have been honored for their outstanding entries in the first annual P3 competition -- People, Prosperity, and the Planet -- organized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The P3 competition brings together 65 teams from around the country to exhibit their designs for sustainability. On May 16 and 17, more than 400 of the country's most innovative college students exhibited their designs on the National Mall in Washington.

The winning teams are from Oberlin College, the Rochester Institute of Technology, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, the University of Colorado at Denver, the University of California-Berkeley, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Michigan.

MIT: Encouraging Toxic Use Reduction in Academic Laboratories
This project seeks to balance essential research with its associated environmental burdens by promoting the use of less toxic and less polluting alternatives to commonly used toxic chemicals. Researchers have the option of selecting such alternatives, reducing the use of toxic chemicals in research and operations.

The innovative improved purchasing process will be included in a comprehensive Environmental, Health, and Safety Management System intended to be a model for academic research institutions.

Oberlin College: A Socio-Technological Resource-Use Feedback System for Improving the Environmental Performance of Buildings and Institutions
This prototype system combines off-the-shelf water and energy flow sensors; newly available and inexpensive wireless datalogging and networking hardware; and networking, database management and display software that the project team custom developed for this project.

The goal is to use these technologies to generate easily interpretable real-time data on energy and water use on individual floors in two Oberlin College dormitories and then to deliver this information in the form of easily interpretable graphs and gauges to students, faculty, and facilities managers through a Web site and on public display monitors in the lobbies of these dorms

Rochester Institute of Technology: Design and Development of a Low Cost, Multifunction, Regionally Appropriate Solar Oven for Developing Countries in Latin America
The project is to design and develop a series of effective multifunctional solar ovens that can be mass produced at low cost using the capital, labor and materials that are typically available in Latin American nations.

University of California-Berkeley: Using Ultraviolet Light to Disinfect Drinking Water at the Tap or Neighborhood Well
The UV-Tube is a design concept for disinfecting drinking water at the point of use - the household tap or neighborhood well. UV-Tube designs use ultraviolet (UV) light to inactivate harmful microorganisms that may be present in water. This project is testing two designs in the field using ultraviolet tubes. The researchers are performing monthly biological tests; conducting user preference, health, and willingness to pay surveys; and collecting user feedback on the designs.

University of Colorado at Denver: Sustainable Energy Systems Design for a Tribal Village in India
The project is to design low cost wind turbines made from locally available materials, and to design environmentally-benign energy storage systems suitable for rural areas lacking capabilities to recycle lead acid batteries. The group seeks to integrate a variety of sustainable energy technologies and storage options in order to meet the energy needs of the tribal village, and to develop designs that will work in a decentralized village of nine communities and can be adapted to other Indian tribal villages.

University of Michigan: AWARE@home: Profitably Integrating Conservation into the American Home
This project will develop an information gathering and reporting tool that will allow households to monitor their own resource consumption patterns in real time and on-demand. It seeks to quantify in terms of cost and environmental emissions the impact of specific energy conservation actions taken at home without more effort than clicking a single icon on a computer screen.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Comparative Analysis of Three Sustainable Point of Use Drinking Water Treatment Technologies for Developing Nations
The purpose of this research project is to determine and compare the costs, health and economic benefits, and performance effectiveness in improving water quality of three point of use drinking water treatment technologies intended for the developing world. The goal of point of use (POU) technology is to allow people who only have access to unsafe water sources to improve the quality of their water by treating it in the home. The concept and validation of POU household drinking water treatment as appropriate, effective, affordable and sustainable technology for the developing world is relatively new, and attempts to promote and distribute these technologies on a large scale have just begun.