Meghan and Meghan have spent the past two months planning the Florida Power Shift Summit 2009.  This event aimed to educate Florida undergraduates on how to promote sustainability and environmental awareness on their campuses.  They are nominated by SGA Environmental and Sustainability Specialist Tracy Wilk and President of the Student Sustainability Alliance Lisa Kipersztok. “Without these two girls, this event could not have been possible. They worked hard every day to advertise, plan, coordinate, and run the event, which brought 150 university students together to discuss ways to promote comprehensive climate legislation,â€� said Wilk and Kipersztok.  Meghan Maloney, Vice President of Eco-Advocates said, “I am thrilled to see the involvement and support on our end, the students, as well as the university’s because it really seems like everyone is making a tremendous effort to fulfill our role as a leading university on climate change. I am very confident that this will continue to grow!â€�  The Unifying Theme and the Office of Undergraduate Studies would like to thank Meghan and Meghan for their dedication and support for promoting sustainability at UCF.  It is the efforts of student’s like them, and the many others that participated in Power Shift 2009, that are accomplishing many things to further the UCF Environmental Initiative. 

An article in the Times reported that a meeting between President Hu of China and President Obama prompted Obama to commit to reaching an agreement at the Climate Summit in Copenhagen that will have immediate effect.  After a deadlock in negotiations leading up to the conference in three weeks has left little room for a possible agreement being reached.  However, Obama officials indicate that a  break in the deadlock will come when the President announces a provisional target of cutting US emissions by 20% by 2020.  Critics are confident that such a commitment is the ambition that is needed to move toward a successful meeting in Copehagen.  Read the article from the Times here.  What do you think?  Is the goal of reducing emissions by 20% a realistic one?  Will this commitment by the US and China be the push needed to get a global commitment to reduction?

On November 5th, many brilliant minds came together here at UCF in a conference to discuss the implications of climate change on national and global security.  Read the article from the UCF Newsroom to learn more!  If you attended the conference, blog about it!  We’d love to hear about a student or faculty’s perspective.  Â

We are announcing a unique grant opportunity for your department’s faculty and students - EPA’s P3 - People, Prosperity and the Planet - Program. Through this design competition, student teams and their faculty advisors apply for $10,000 grants to design scientific, technical, and policy solutions to sustainability challenges in the developed or developing world.

The challenge addressed by these projects can be in any of these areas:

*energy,

* built environment,

* materials & chemicals,

*agriculture, or

*water.

Past P3 teams have explored more efficient ways to produce biofuels, developed simple water treatment technologies for developing communities, produced a technology to measure real-time energy use in buildings, reduced hazardous substance use in laboratories through improved information and purchasing practices, designed and built an educational “learning barge” for the Elizabeth River, VA , and designed an innovative system for the bioremediation of agricultural chemicals.

Teams use the $10,000 grants to design and develop their projects throughout the 2010/2011 school year. Then in the spring of 2011, all teams will come to Washington, DC, to compete for EPA’s P3 Award at the 7th Annual National Sustainable Design Expo. The students’ projects will be evaluated by a panel of experts convened by the American Association for the Advancement of Science in all relevant fields, including sustainability. EPA will use these recommendations to choose the P3 Award winners who will be eligible for an additional grant up to $75,000 to further develop their designs, implement them in the field, and take them to the marketplace.

Applications are due by January 5, 2010.

Visit our Web site for more information and to view the P3 program videos.

For information abou this request for applications, click here.

For basic information, click here.