Alex Cicelsky

Why organisations work with Alex Cicelsky

• His 2024 peer-reviewed paper in MRS Energy and Sustainability on Lightweight Straw and Clay Blocks – a self-supporting, carbon-sequestering insulation material fabricated from post-harvest crop residue – is one of the few published, field-tested proofs of concept for low-embodied-carbon construction, giving sustainability teams a citable alternative to conventional materials.
• He brings thirty years of active construction experience in extreme desert conditions from Kibbutz Lotan’s carbon-neutral EcoCampus: a monitored, measurable, functioning built environment – not a model, but a standing result.
• His work connects supply chain sustainability to concrete materials decisions: agricultural waste, natural binders, and thermal building performance are his research domain, not a framing device.
• For organisations whose sustainability commitments have not yet reached their built-environment procurement, he provides both the science of what is possible and a living demonstration of what has already been built.
• For sustainability education programmes, his curriculum experience spans the Green Apprenticeship at Kibbutz Lotan – a globally recognised programme that has trained hundreds of practitioners in ecological design, natural building, and permaculture across decades of continuous operation.

Biography highlights

• Co-founder and core faculty member, Center for Creative Ecology, Kibbutz Lotan – a carbon-neutral EcoCampus in Israel’s Arava Valley desert and internationally recognised sustainability education centre
• Founding member, Kibbutz Lotan; member community of the Global Ecovillage Network
• PhD researcher, Department of Energy Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev; BSc in Soil and Water Sciences and Environmental Quality in Agriculture, Hebrew University Faculty of Agriculture
• Published in MRS Energy and Sustainability (2024): peer-reviewed research on Lightweight Straw and Clay Blocks – carbon-sequestering construction insulation derived from post-harvest wheat straw
• Center for Creative Ecology: Israel Ministry of Environment Shield Award for Environmental Education (2000); Global Ecovillage Network Ecovillage Excellence Prize (2006)
• Lectures at universities and professional seminars internationally on ecological design, sustainable construction, and regenerative systems

Biography

Buildings carry two kinds of carbon footprint: what they consume after occupation, and what was spent building them. The second, larger figure is fixed at construction and is invisible to most operational sustainability programmes. Alex Cicelsky has spent three decades designing, constructing, and researching structures that address both – in one of the world’s most demanding climates.

He is co-founder and core faculty of the Center for Creative Ecology at Kibbutz Lotan, a carbon-neutral desert community in Israel’s Arava Valley and a member of the Global Ecovillage Network. The Centre’s EcoCampus, designed and monitored by Cicelsky and his colleagues, operates as a live demonstration and research site. It has been recognised by the Israel Ministry of Environment and the Global Ecovillage Network for its contribution to environmental education, and its buildings have been the subject of formal post-occupancy research.

That research has produced peer-reviewed results. A 2024 paper in MRS Energy and Sustainability – co-authored with colleagues at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, where Cicelsky holds a PhD research affiliation in the Department of Energy Engineering – documents the thermal and mechanical performance of Lightweight Straw and Clay Blocks (LSCBs). Fabricated from post-harvest wheat straw bound with clay, LSCBs are self-supporting and carbon-sequestering. In field tests against autoclaved aerated concrete and expanded polystyrene, they demonstrated superior thermal performance in extreme summer heat, with a two-hour thermal lag that reduced peak indoor temperatures measurably below ambient.

The practical implication for any organisation with ESG commitments that extend to its built environment is direct: the materials exist, the performance has been independently measured, and the construction has been done. What Cicelsky brings to a serious sustainability conversation is not a proposition but a record.

Key speaking topics

• Embodied carbon in the built environment
• Natural and low-carbon construction materials
• Ecological design and permaculture systems
• Carbon sequestration through agricultural-waste materials
• Regenerative community and ecovillage development
• Sustainable building in extreme climates
• ESG strategy and the built environment

Ideal for

• Chief Sustainability Officers and ESG leads responsible for Scope 3 and built-environment carbon reporting
• Real estate, infrastructure, and facilities teams developing low-carbon construction or procurement strategies
• Sustainability education programmes at universities and professional bodies
• Organisations and communities developing regenerative development or ecovillage frameworks

Audience outcomes

• A clear understanding of embodied carbon in construction and why it falls outside most current ESG reporting frameworks
• Awareness of peer-reviewed materials alternatives – including agricultural-waste insulation blocks – that reduce and sequester carbon in new construction
• A working reference point in the Kibbutz Lotan EcoCampus: a carbon-neutral built environment designed, constructed, and monitored over thirty years in an extreme desert climate
• Practical orientation to permaculture design as an organising framework for regenerative buildings and communities
• A sharper understanding of the gap between operational efficiency targets and whole-life carbon commitments – and what closing it requires at the procurement stage