About the Nebraska Sustainability Leadership Workshops
The mission of the Nebraska Sustainability Leadership Workshop (NSLW) is to help community leaders throughout the state craft shared visions for
efficient resource use, environmental quality, alternative energy, economic opportunities, effective public policy, healthy and vibrant cities, and food-based coalitions.
The Joslyn Institute for Sustainable Communities received funding of $200,000 from the Nebraska Environmental Trust Fund to support the creation of this unique forum for community leaders to explore solutions to environmental challenges.
Beginning in October 2008, the NSLW began holding a series of 20 statewide sessions in which mayors, city managers, utility superintendents, county board members, city councils, school officials and other civic leaders could work with planning, design and leadership experts and other professionals in finding solutions to critical challenges of sustainability.
Organized around self-identified case studies, community leaders identified local issues for discussion with experts and fellow community leaders. Each session is limited to 15 participants and five consultants, and explores such topics as:
• enhancing the vitality and sustainability of Nebraska's cities and towns
• economic and socio-cultural development
• community food systems as a form of economic development
• the economic and workforce development opportunities presented by blighted housing and commercial structures
• energy efficiency and alternative energy resources
• protection of soil resources through regional cooperation in public/private and urban/rural coalitions
• management of air quality and community health issues through interjusrisdictional planning, sustainable design and smart growth strategies
• management of watersheds across jurisdictional boundaries to ensure safe and adequate water for all living systems
• underutilized or misallocated natural resources (water, wind, soils, materials, four-season solar climate), and how jurisdictions can cooperate to make the most efficient use of resources through energy efficiency, waste reduction and material re-use
The program of workshops has ended, and now a special series of Conversations Conferences will begin in Fall 2010, to be held in four locations across the state, and including all NSLW Workshop participants, facilitators, experts, and consultants.
Site design and development by Zigzag