A team from Iowa State representing the apparel, events and hospitality management department has been announced as a recipient for a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Iowa State’s team, made up of graduate and undergraduate students, is one of 40 teams to receive the People, Prosperity and the Planet: Phase I grant.

The grant awards $15,000 to each team for research. This is the ninth year that the grants have been given out.

The ISU research project involves the development of sustainable products using renewable cellulose fiber and biopolymer composites.

Young-A Lee, associate professor of apparel, events and hospitality management, said that the grant focuses on sustainability movements through research of different subject matters.

In order to acquire funding, the team sent a written proposal to the EPA in Washington for consideration for the grant after initial research was performed. This was done so that the EPA could decide if the project was worth pursuing. 

“Phase I is really the starting point for the idea and then we see if it works or not and than from there we actually write another proposal for the Phase II,” Lee said.

The ISU project is focusing on utilizing the biodegradable material and easily obtainable materials from any store to build the prototype vest, Lee said.

The materials that are currently being tested are green tea, sugar, vinegar and water. These materials are being tested because the materials are easily biodegradable and sustainable.

The materials are being used to make a vest prototype. The development of cellulous fiber is what is needed to construct the vest. The sugar acts as a stimulate for the bacteria to grow and to develop the fiber, and the vinegar prevents mold from growing on the fiber.

The project still in the experimental stage at this point. The grant money will be used by the team to travel to Washington in April for a design competition with the other universities that received grants.

The ISU team’s goal is to receive the Phase II grant after the competition and to continue their research.

Greg Lank, project manager for the EPA, said the process for selecting teams to receive the grants was done through a technical screening of the proposals to ensure that the projects meet the requirements for the grants. The legality side of the proposals is than checked as well, Lank said.

“We issue a request for applications in the fall and it goes out to the greater general public and academic community and lets them know we are now accepting applications,” Lank said.

Some other universities that have received this grant are Miami University–Oxford, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Purdue and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Iowa State has previously received the grant in 2005, 2007 and 2010.