John Deere, headquartered in Moline, Ill., and Tampa, Fla.-based Design & Manufacturing Solutions received a Clean Air Excellence Award for developing a cleaner-burning, more fuel-efficient two-cycle engine.

The award, presented by the Environmental Protection Agency, recognizes outstanding and innovative efforts by private industry, government organizations and individuals to achieve clean air. The companies are credited with developing compression wave injection technology, which can reduce hydrocarbon emissions by 70 percent and improve fuel economy by 30 percent in two-stroke engines.

In other Deere news, John Deere Construction Equipment and CSFB Private Equity have formed a second joint venture to help consolidate, develop and manage Deere's construction equipment dealers.

The first joint venture, Nortrax, was formed in November 1999. Nortrax has acquired seven John Deere construction and forestry equipment dealerships nationwide and consolidated them into three divisions.