Sustainability in the developed and developing world requires scientific and technical innovations to create designs that enable the Earth and its inhabitants to prosper. The Expo and the EPA's P3 Award are demonstrating the possibilities of innovative designs to simultaneously benefit people, prosperity, and the planet.

The 5th Annual National Sustainable Design Expo is scheduled to take place on the National Mall in Washington, DC, on April 18-20, 2009. This event was created to bring together professional scientists, engineers, and business leaders around innovations designed to advance economic growth while reducing environmental impact. The Expo showcases the innovative designs of the P3 student teams addressing alternative energy technologies, collection, purification and distribution of water, agricultural practices to reduce pesticide run-off, new technologies for green buildings and many more approaches to improve society's sustainability. In addition, it provides a forum for the government, non-profit and business community to demonstrate their diverse approaches to sustainability.

In conjunction with Expo, EPA hosts the Annual P3 (People, Prosperity, and the Planet) Award competition. EPA and its 40 partners launched the P3 Award in 2004 to respond to the challenges of the developed and developing world in moving toward sustainability. This national competition enables college students to research, develop and design scientific, technical and policy solutions to sustainability challenges. Their designs are helping to achieve the mutual goals of economic prosperity while providing a higher quality of life and protecting the planet. Students and their faculty advisors compete for EPA's P3 Award and the opportunity of up to an additional $75,000 in funding to move their designs to the marketplace or implement them in the field.