Grantee Research Project Results
Final Report: Design of a P3 Exchange Program
EPA Grant Number: SU832503Title: Design of a P3 Exchange Program
Investigators: Just, Craig , Loyson, Jan
Institution: University of Iowa , Iowa Department of Natural Resources
EPA Project Officer: Page, Angela
Phase: I
Project Period: September 30, 2005 through May 30, 2006
Project Amount: $9,906
RFA: P3 Awards: A National Student Design Competition for Sustainability Focusing on People, Prosperity and the Planet (2005) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: P3 Challenge Area - Sustainable and Healthy Communities , Pollution Prevention/Sustainable Development , P3 Awards , Sustainable and Healthy Communities
Objective:
Pollution prevention (P2) techniques are well-developed, efficient and effective strategies to address environmental challenges. However, most P2 programs are focused on high technology industries and processes associated with the developed world and sometimes underemphasize the importance of ordinary people in preventing pollution. There is enormous potential to apply existing P2 principles in the developing world in more diverse settings to improve prosperity and positively impact the planet. The purpose of our project was to design a P3 Exchange program (P3X), to facilitate the transfer of culture and sustainable technologies between developed and developing countries with an emphasis on involving and empowering people.
The specific objectives of this project were:
- P3X Curriculum Development: Build upon the award winning, Iowa Department of Natural Resources pollution prevention internship program curriculum/casebook to make it appropriate and culturally relevant for use in Central and South America.
- P3X Design: With an emphasis on people, build upon existing resources at the University of Iowa to facilitate the exchange of students from Central and South America for placement in pollution prevention internships in Iowa. Determine needs and foster relationships for future student exchanges from Iowa with host institutions in Central and South America.
- P3X Outreach: Build capacity and awareness within the students and public in the communities with which we partner such to ensure pollution prevention success and instill a sense of local ownership. Develop a program with transferable principles ready-made for customization by other countries and institutions.
Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes):
Objective 1 - Curriculum Development: The existing Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) P2 internship program has won numerous government and industry awards as a model for sustainable design. This program has achieved dramatic reductions in air, land, and water pollution by training and supervising students placed in summer internships at Iowa businesses. In our project, we hypothesized that modifying and extending the existing IDNR P2 curriculum/casebook to provide training relevant to developing countries with an emphasis on appropriate technology and an embrace of cultural diversity would lead to improved pollution prevention efforts in Iowa and abroad. We modified this curriculum in the context of our exchange experiences in Xicotepec de Juarez, Puebla, Mexico - built upon years of international outreach undertaken by the University of Iowa’s student chapter of Engineers for a Sustainable World (UI ESW) in partnership with Rotary International.
Objective 2 - Exchange Design: With our partners at the Universidad Xicotepetl A.C. (UXAC) in Xicotepec, Mexico and the IDNR we developed an interview and selection process to help ensure sustainable and successful placement of interns at the University of Iowa. The process emphasized verbal and written English proficiency, technical competence, maturity, aptitude for travel and willingness to share experiences upon returning to the home institution as desirable characteristics. We designed the program to use the capabilities of the University of Iowa Office of International Scholars and Students to streamline the J-1 visa process and to provide the intern(s) cultural orientation and support needed for successful living in the United States. We used the congressional office of U.S. Representative Jim Leach to facilitate administrative tasks at the Mexican embassy. We also leveraged the EPA P3 award to secure over $10,800 of additional funding from the IDNR and even more support in the form of in-kind room and board and University provided supervision and mentoring for the intern(s).
We emphasized the use of home stays and/or placements with a cadre of students with similar interests to best assimilate the intern(s) into a professional and nurturing environment. We utilized the framework of a successful, existing campus program on energy conservation complete with a full-time advisor and part-time student mentor. Immersion into a professional work setting complete with office space, computer and colleagues was designed and implemented with the assistance of the University of Iowa Facilities Management group. Immersion into a classroom setting was also designed and implemented to provide knowledge complimentary to our exchange goals and to provide further avenues for culture assimilation for the intern(s). Native Spanish speakers on our team also helped to make the transition for the intern(s) more enjoyable and successful.
The IDNR has evaluated our exchange design and found it very complementary to the existing P2 program. The IDNR has committed to facilitating the training and logistics for implementation of the P3X program into the foreseeable future with the hopeful support of Phase II P3 funds from EPA and eventual long-term support from federal or foundation sources.
Objective 3 - P3X Outreach: Our first and perhaps most important outreach activity was sponsoring a student from UXAC to travel to the University of Iowa for 13 weeks from January 17th, 2006 to April 14th, 2006. The faculty and students at UXAC are very grateful for our involvement in their school and their community. A second outreach activity involved a visit to Xicotepec by P3X faculty advisor, Craig Just, and a P3X team member and native Mexican, Claudia Espinosa Villegas in mid-February, 2006. Just and Espinosa shared early results from the exchange experience at a large assembly of first and second year UXAC students and fielded questions from an eager group requesting information about “future exchanges”. The excitement and enthusiasm was clear.
Further outreach activities include sending the modified P3X training curriculum/casebook to Xicotepec, Mexico with our first intern at the end of her appointment for introduction to the faculty and student body at UXAC. Subsequent travel teams to Xicotepec will be able to utilize the curriculum in a classroom setting to further enhance pollution prevention knowledge and activities in Xicotepec. Furthermore, we’ve made initial contact with the Mexican National Council of Science and Technology (CONACyT) to in our effort to disseminate the revised curriculum to universities and technical institutions in Mexico with hopes of encouraging similar exchange programs.
Additional outreach activities were undertaken by our Xicotepec spring break (March 11th-19th, 2006) travel team consisting of four College of Engineering students and one College staff member (Irund A-Wan, Michelle Sukup, Richard Teed, Ryan Asman and Susan Beckett). With the help of our partners in Xicotepec, the spring break team arranged a community meeting attended by 150 parents from the neighborhood surrounding a Rotary sponsored primary school to discuss local needs related to water, sanitation and human health. Participatory methods described in Sustainability Planning and Monitoring in Community Water Supply and Sanitation by Nilanjana Mukherjee and Christine van Wijk were utilized to engage the community and determine pollution prevention and treatment needs that could be met through engineered designs. Well water samples were collected and tested with the help of the community and the people, particularly women, were left with a sense of empowerment that they might be able to better protect their own health and the health of their families.
The P3X project has been presented to numerous campus and civic groups in the Iowa City area for outreach purposes. These groups included the College of Engineering Staff Council, numerous College of Engineering professional seminars, events sponsored by the University of Iowa Alumni Association, and Rotary International. We published project successes on our website and submitted a manuscript to Citizen Science. In addition, selections of the curriculum will be used in the course CEE107: Sustainable Systems.
Conclusions:
The goals of the EPA’s P3 mission were met and objectives of this project were accomplished through research into international exchange and design of P3X. People, prosperity and the planet were fundamental tenets incorporated into our final design which includes a P3X curriculum, development of the University of Iowa-IDNRXicotepec partnership, design of the internship logistics, and outreach in the U.S., Mexico and Chile. In addition we were able to go beyond the original project scope through implementation of P3X pilot program with a student intern from Mexico and a student from Chile. The internships were shown to qualitatively benefit people and to quantitatively benefit prosperity and the planet. The P3X program itself is sustainable as our design process has identified long-term coordinators and funding sources. We believe P3X will bring creative energy to the movement towards sustainability.
Supplemental Keywords:
Built environment, Cultural exchange, Technology exchange, Energy conservation, Pollution prevention, Engineering education, Sustainability internship, RFA, Scientific Discipline, INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION, TREATMENT/CONTROL, Sustainable Industry/Business, Sustainable Environment, Technology, Technology for Sustainable Environment, Environmental Monitoring, Technical Assistance, Ecology and Ecosystems, pollution prevention, clean technologies, cleaner production, waste reduction, education, environmental sustainability, technology assessment, environmental educationRelevant Websites:
The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.