FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - When corporations serve the world’s 4 billion poor people - a global growth strategy often referred to as “B24B,” or “business to 4 billion” - with affordable and easy-to-use products that have low environmental impact, those businesses achieve sustainability, says a University of Arkansas business researcher.

“Many business people assume that sustainability refers to ‘green’ initiatives that will add costs to products, services and the…[more]

COLUMBIA, Mo. - Last week, a new guidance issued by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers dealt a blow to non-permanent streams and wetlands. The guidance said that for such waters to be protected there must be a “significant nexus” between the stream or wetland and a traditional waterway.

Ray Semlitsch, Curators’ Professor of Biology at the University of Missouri-Columbia, said this change threatens…[more]

Tiffanie Hamilton looked a little nervous standing before a group of seasoned conservationists in a meeting room at The Lodge of Four Seasons at Lake of the Ozarks in March. Clearing her throat, she read a resolution about “cellulosic ethanol” - using trees and grasses that grow naturally in Missouri to produce fuel.

Hamilton, a senior at the University of Missouri-Columbia, was one of dozens of Conservation Leadership…[more]

Webb City, MO - The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to fill old lead and zinc mines around this Missouri city.

The proposal would result in placing a million cubic yards of rock into an abandoned mine shaft that is sometimes used as a swimming hole, along with cleaning up about 300 acres of open-pit mines around Webb City.

The EPA is asking Congress to approve…[more]

Another sign of increased tourism in Branson this year is the amount of drinking water produced by the city’s public works department. Overall water use increased significantly this spring compared to spring 2006.

In March, water use totaled 93.21 million gallons, an increase of 4.73 percent over March 2006. April of this year also surpassed the previous year with 104.02 million gallons, an increase of 3.8 percent.

COLUMBIA, Mo. - Researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia have been awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to study low-pressure hydrogen storage. The grant is part of a DOE hydrogen fuel initiative that gave $11.2 million to 13 projects across the United States.

Peter Pfeifer, professor of physics in the College of Arts and Science and principal investigator in the project, will work with M.…[more]

Missouri geology, the environment, water wells and paper models were all the rage recently for Belle second grade students. Nearly 60 students and a number of teachers and parents visited the Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Geology and Land Survey in Rolla.

The students were divided into three groups named…[more]

COLUMBIA, Mo. - Biodiesel is in high demand. The byproduct of this alternative source of energy, glycerin, is next, according to an agriculture scientist at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

In a study that began this month, Monty Kerley, professor of ruminant nutrition in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, is examining the effectiveness of glycerin as cattle feed.  Through November, the MU researcher will monitor the…[more]

Tucked neatly away within the city limits of Harrison, Arkansas is a small tract of land that has a large tract of importance.  Baker Prairie is a 71-acre piece of land co-owned by the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission and The Nature Conservancy.  It is what is left of nearly 5000 acres of native tallgrass prairie that used to be much more prevalent on the Springfield Plateau of the Ozarks.

Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor has become the 500th Mayor in the United States to sign the U.S. Conference of Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement. With this signing, the Mayor pledges to take steps to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases in Tulsa and to work toward making Tulsa a sustainable community.

“I’m joining with other Mayors across the United States in this agreement,” said Mayor Kathy Taylor. “We all…[more]