-The 1^st International Conference on Sustainability: Environmental Efficiency For Human Well Being (EBQL), which was held under the patronage of Prof. Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Minister of Education and Scientific Research in Egypt, and Mr. Mohamed Farid Khamis, Founder of El Shorouk Academy and the main sponsor of this conference. EBQL was organized by The Higher Institute of Engineering in El-Shorouk Academy in cooperation with the League of Arab States, The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), The Arab Urban Development Institute (AUDI), and The Center for Environment and Development for The Arab Region in Europe (CEDARE).

- EBQL was held from the 13^th to the 15^th of December at JW Marriott Hotel Cairo, Egypt. It was chaired by Prof. Gouda Mohamed Ghanem (Vice Chairman of El Shorouk Academy– Egypt), and was organized by IEREK.

- The conference was held over 3 days, where the first day included 3 plenary sessions containing 10 lectures. The following 2 days included 10 scientific sessions and 6 specialized sessions. The attendees were around 250 people from 16 countries.

- The conference was held to reflect the new visions of dealing with sustainable development issues to improve the quality of life, promote prosperity for all, and preserve and sustain natural resources for future generations.

Opening Session and welcome speech

The opening session and welcome speech started with a documentary about El Shorouk Academy, followed by a speech by Prof. Gouda Mohamed Ghanem, the Vice Chairman of El Shorouk Academy & the Conference Chairman and another speech by General Dr. Ahmed Sayed Abdelreheem - Chairman of El Shorouk Academy.

Following that was the speech by Dr. Mourad Amer, IEREK’s CEO and founder, who spoke about IEREK’s services and advancement. Prof. Rob Roggema, who is a Professor of Sustainable Spatial Transformations at Hanz University, then spoke about smart & sustainable cities and the future of having both.

Other speakers in the opening session were:

- Ambassador Sha Zukang- Former UN Under-Secretary-General

- Dr. Bassem Fahmy- Representative of the manager of the regional office for Arab countries in the United Nations programme for human settlements.

- Dr. Abdullah Alsubil- Representative and general manager deputy of the Arab Urban Development Institute (AUDI).

- Ambassador Dr. Kamal Hassan Aly - Representative of secretary general and the assistant secretary general of the economic sector at the League of Arab States.

- Prof. Dr. Nadia Makram Ebeid, Executive Director of the Centre for Environment & Development for the Arab Region and Europe (CEDARE).

- Mr. Mohamed Farid Khamis.

- Prof. Dr. Amr Ezzat Salama- Secertary General of the Union of Egyptian Universities.

- Prof. Dr. Mohamed Shaker Elmarkaby - Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy.

Prof. Dr. Khaled Abdelghaffar - Minister of Higher Education and scientific research.

Sessions:

The conference was divided into 4 axes:

The first axis: Water and Sewage Service

The second axis: New And Renewable Energies.

The third axis: Climate change and its effects

The fourth axis: Sustainable and Safe Human Cities and settlements

Every axis included sessions, and each one had its moderators and reporters.

The moderators of the axes were:

- Prof. Dr. Mohamed  Abdelsalam

- Prof. Dr. Eman Elazzazy

- Prof. Dr. Mohammed Saffiudin

- Prof. Dr. Elmoataz Youssef

- Prof. Dr. Magda Ekram

- Associate Professor/ Sherif Elwan

- Prof. Dr. Khaled Dwidar

- Prof. Dr. Raafat Shemis

Plenary Sessions:

Session 1: Water and sewage services- new and renewable energies

Session 2: Climate Change and its Effects

Session 3: Sustainable and Safe Human Cities and Settlements

The sessions were professionally moderated by:

Session 1:

- Prof. Hussein Elatfy - Vice president of the Arab Water Council

- Prof. Mohamed Abdelsalam Ashour

- Eng. Ehab Ismaeil Amin – Vice president of new and renewable energy authority

Session 2:

- Prof. Dr. Wael Eldegwy, Ex- Minister of higher education and scientific research.

- Ambassador/ Shahira Wahba, Deputy Manager of Environment, Housing and Water resources- League of Arab States.

- Prof. Dr. Hesham Alkassas, Dean of the Environment institute, Ain Shams University.

Session 3:

- Prof. Dr. Abdelmohsen Barrada, Ex-dean of the faculty of urban and regional planning - Cairo University

- Architect/ Hussien Algebaly- Ex-consultant of the Minister of housing and utilities and urban communities

Specialized sessions were also carried in parallel. Three sessions were for the International Award for livable Communities, and the other three specialized sessions were named: The role of indicators and observatories in achieving the goals of sustainable development (AUDI), Resistance against climate change, and Global Release Conference of SCC Guidelines/SUC Forum.

The International Award for Livable Communities sessions were professionally moderated by:

- Prof. Dr. Yasser Sakr – Ex - President of Helwan University

- Prof. Dr. Khaled Dewidar

- Representative of International Award for livable Communities

The other three specialized sessions were moderated by:

AUDI:

- Dr. Abdullah Alsubil (AUDI) - KSA.

Resistance against climate change:

- Prof. Dr. Mahmod Abou Zaid

- Prof. Dr. Hussein El Atfy

Global Release Conference of SCC Guidelines/SUC Forum:

- Dr. Olfat Hamdy

Keynote speakers:

Every session also included keynote speakers that were distributed on the conference days

Session 1:

- Prof. Dr. Mohamed Omran - Financial regulatory authority Chairman

"The role of regulatory authorities for money markets in supporting the sustainable development goals 2030."

- Prof. Abdel Kawi Khalifa - Faculty of Engineering, Ain shams university (Egypt).

 “Sustainable Integrated Management for Water and Wastewater Sector”

- Prof. Mohammed Safiuddin, Research Professor, Emeritus, Electrical Engineering Department, University at Buffalo (USA).

“Global Renewable Energy Grid Project: Integrating Renewables via HVDC and Centralized Storage.”

Session 2:

-Prof. Dr. Ahmad Abdelhamid - University of Drexel, Philadelphia, USA

    Sustainable Design of Building Envelope

- Amb. Sha Zukang, former UN Under-Secretary-General

 “Development Processes and significance of 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development “

- Dr. Ahmed Abdelreheem - The Center for Environment and Development for The Arab Region and Europe (CEDARE).

“Africa and Arab Region’s Changing Environment”

- Prof. Dr. Ibrahim Gar Elalm, ex- dean of the faculty of engineering - Mansoura University

“Political and legal arrangements for environmental assessment systems”

Session 3:

- Prof. Dr. Ashraf Salama - Head of the architectural department, University of Strathclyde, UK

    “The Triadic Relationship of Urban Qualities in Rapidly Growing Cities”

- Arab Hoballah, Chairman of LivCom Awards

“Developing Network and Building Livable Cities”

- Prof. Galal Abada- Senior advisor planning and design, MDA, KSA- Associate Professor of Architecture and Urban Design, ASU, Egypt.

“Sustainable Urbanism in Local Contexts Towards Humanizing Public Places.”

- Engineer/ Khaled Sedeek- Executive Manager of slums development fund

- Dr. Mai Abdelhameed - Executive Manager Social housing fund and mortgage finance fund. “International Award for livable Communities1”

Other keynote speakers at the conference were:

- Ahmed Abdelreheem- Regional programme manager of knowledge management- CEDARE.

- Khaled Abozeid- Regional Water Resources Programme Manager- CEDARE.

The international award for livable communities discussed the projects:

- Kunming City

- Kunming Project

- Alexandria

- Nanniwan

- Madinah Project

- Quzhou City

- Madinah Project II

- Cheonju

- Sochi

- Jihlava

- Calgary

- Songdo

- Norwich

At the end of the awards session, Dr. Abdelaziz Sakr, IEREK's General Director thanked the participants and gave a speech about SUCI. 

Recommendations and Closing

Included awarding the prizes of the best research in each conference axis as follows:

General Dr. Ahmed Said Abdelreheem - Shorouk Academy President.

Prof. Dr. Gouda Mohamed Ghanem - Conference Chairman- Vice Chairman of El Shorouk Academy.

- Awards Ceremony of LivCom Awards

- Closing speeches:

Ms. Soha Farouk- Program Officer, the regional office of the Arab countries- United Nations Programme for Human Settlements.

Dr. Ahmed Abdelreheem- Regional manager of knowledge program. The Center for Environment and Development for the Arab Region and Europe (CEDARE).

Dr. Abdullah Alsubil- Representative and general manager deputy of the Arab Urban Development Institute (AUDI).

Ambassador/ Shahira Wahba, Deputy Manager of Environment, Housing and Water resources- League of Arab States. “In which she extended her greetings and thanks to all those who contributed to the success of the conference and the role of IEREK in organizing The EBQL Conference.”

Prof. Dr. Moataz Tolba- The Secertary General of The Conference, Dean of The Higher Institute of Engineering- Elshorouk Academy.