Donna McIntire-Byrd to Speak on Eco-Diplomacy & Water Conservation at IICSEEHawaii2017

Donna McIntire-Byrd

IICSEEHawaii2017 Featured Speaker

United States Department of State, USA

As a Featured Speaker, Donna McIntire-Byrd will examine best practices for water conservation and alternative water sources, such as rainwater and treated wastewater, at The IAFOR International Conference on Sustainability, Energy & the Environment – Hawaii 2017 (IICSEEHawaii2017) to be held Thursday, January 5 to Saturday, January 7, 2017 at The Hawai‘i Convention Center, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. Her full abstract is available to read below.

Donna McIntire-Byrd serves as Chief of the Energy & Sustainable Design Unit for the US Department of State Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations. She leads a team of multidisciplinary professionals within the department who are responsible for greening US embassies and consulates around the world and compiling a greenhouse gas inventory for the department’s approximately 20,000 building portfolio. Donna’s team produced the Guide to Green Embassies: Eco-Diplomacy in Operation, which has proven to be an invaluable tool for US embassies and consulates to improve performance and build a stronger environmental platform for the Department. In her recent role as Buildings & Climate Change Officer for the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), Donna facilitated the launch of the Common Carbon Metric for measuring energy efficiency and reporting greenhouse gas emissions from building operations as a global tool to establish.


Featured Presentation | Eco-Diplomacy – Water Conservation/Protection at US Embassies Demonstrating Best Practices for a Sustainable Built Environment

As segments of the world’s populations are increasingly impacted by water scarcity, the State Department is committed to conserving water resources and providing leadership in water resource protection at our embassies overseas. By reducing water demands on public systems and local groundwater, increasing water reuse on-site, and protecting water quality at our diplomatic and residential facilities, the United States sets an example and demonstrates best water practices that impact our host nations. Aligned with federal mandates, the Department aims to reduce potable water use in buildings and outdoors. To support this challenge, we routinely incorporate water-saving technologies and strategies into capital construction projects and major renovations. To optimize water use at existing facilities, we conduct comprehensive water audits at posts with high water use or at posts experiencing water shortages, and are planning new projects to reuse rainwater and treated wastewater effluent for landscape irrigation and for use within building systems. Three embassy case studies will be presented in this workshop: London, United Kingdom; Monrovia, Liberia; and Nairobi, Kenya. Through these case studies, participants will learn about best practices for water conservation and alternative water sources, such as rainwater and treated wastewater. After instructions on how to work toward a net-zero water solution, participants will use tools developed to enable architects and engineers to identify and evaluate water resources and balance them with development demands, working in teams to develop and present their solution to the group.

See the full list of speakers for this event.

Posted by IAFOR