Travel & Consultancies

New Haven, Connecticut, May 2011
W. Cecil Steward and Sharon S. Baum Kuska will be featured speakers at DECON11, the Building Materials Reuse Association's biannual international conference on deconstruction and reuse on May 15–18 in New Haven. Steward is founder, President and CEO of the Joslyn Institute for Sustainable Communities. A professor of architecture at UNL, Kuska is Vice President of the Joslyn Institute.

Steward and Kuska will speak on Expanding the Community Value of a Deconstruction and Second-Use Materials Store: Catching the Wave of the New Green Economy. The presentation will be based on their experience in creating the Eco Products and Services Center, Nebraska Center for Sustainable Construction, EcoStores Nebraska, and DeConstruct Nebraska in Lincoln. These initiatives, under the aegis of the Joslyn Institute for Sustainable Communities, have created and built on a growing regional demand for sustainably building and deconstructing buildings and recycling and reusing those deconstructed materials, among other things.

An abstract of the presentation is available as a Word document. Download it here. Or, you can download the PowerPoint presentation (73 mb) by clicking here.

The DECON11 conference will take place at various sites around the city, including Yale University and the Gateway Community College. Attendees from around the world will participate in sessions on Sustainable Cities, Deconstruction, Materials Reuse, and Construction and Demolition Recycling.

Jakarta, Indonesia, April 2011
W. Cecil Steward will be the featured speaker at the ASEAN Dialogues Conference in Jakarta April 10 and 11, 2011. Steward, along with Dr. Sharon Kuska, will give a presentation with a focus on the global imperatives for planning for and measuring sustainability. ASEAN is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, an organization formed in 1967 To accelerate the economic growth, social progress, cultural development, peace, stability, and conservation and sustainable development of the natural resources in the region.

Steward and Kuska will talk about six global, contextual conditions that every city, regardless of its stage of development must confront, if sustainability and steady progress toward becoming a sustainable city is the goal, Steward maintains. Embracing these challenges will require new tools and new attitudes:

•   The genesis and importance of the Five Domains of Sustainable Development

•   Resilient Cities and the distinction from Sustainable Cities (This will be exceedingly important in the ASEAN region in light of the potential for earthquakes, tsunamis, and sea-rise.)

•   Sustainometrics: Tools, applications, and benefits (an overview of Steward and Kuska's forthcoming book, Sustainometrics: Measuring Sustainability

•   The new World Urban Campaign. Steward will provide program and networking information on the plans for the WUC over the coming three years, especially focusing on UN Habitat mission for the WUC, the 100 Cities Program, and benefits in participation.

Shanghai, China, September 2010
W. Cecil Steward and the Joslyn Institute for Sustainable Communities were elected to an 11-member Standing Committee to assist in guiding the World Urban Campaign for Sustainable Cities, an initiative of the United Nations Habitat agency, in a meeting of the Steering Committee. The Steering Committee is comprised of approximately 70 business, academic, and NGO partners with the UN Habitat to bring global attention and opportunities to cities around the world for enhancing the quality of urban dweller lives and to assist the cities with progress toward conditions of sustainability.

Medellín, Colombia, April 2010
information to come

Bahrain, November 2009
Information to come

Washington, D.C., June 2009
W. Cecil Steward was invited to evaluate the 25 major buildings comprising the U.S. Capitol Complex including the Capitol building, the House and Senate office building, the Supreme Court, the Library of Congress, the U.S. Botanic Gardens and other support facilities. The ultimate goal of the AOC is to learn about state-of-the-art methods and technologies for enhancing the sustainability of its facilities and surrounding grounds. Also under expert review will be a draft of the Sustainability Framework Plan and the identification of energy and sustainability strategies for several upcoming projects. Download the press release >.

New York, NY, June 2009
W. Cecil Steward was invited to the Meeting of the Minds Conference in New York in early June, along with other Innovators who are scaling-up practical urban innovations in infrastructure, technology, energy, transport, water, and finance to build more livable cities. Meeting of the Minds 2009 is an invitation-only leadership summit. It brings together more than 130 policy-makers, opinion-shapers and thought-leaders from commercial, non-profit and public sector organizations. Each year’s Meeting of the Minds builds on the last year’s successes. 2009 focused on the connections between disparate challenges facing cities. As they undertake complex projects, city leaders are finding new ways to "connect the dots." Whatever their city’s shape or size, whether rich or poor, urban leaders are busy making their communities more sustainable. This Meeting provides a platform to understand better what works and why. To learn more about this leadership summit, visit the website >.

Naples, Italy, September 2008
W. Cecil Steward was a featured speaker at the Sustainable City and Creativity: Promoting Creative Urban Initiatives conference in Naples in September 2008. Sponsored by the Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Polo delle Scienze e delle Tecnologie, Dipartimento di Conservazione dei Beni Architettonici ed Ambientali, and the Scuola di Dottorato di Architettura and Laboratory of Research on City, Creativity, Sustainability, the three-day conference featured speakers from around the world, speaking on creativity, cities and sustainability. You can download a copy of the conference flyer here > and a copy of the speakers and sessions here >.