University of Guam's CIS 2025 draws hundreds of attendees

BY MAUREEN N. MARATITA
Journal Staff

In its 16th year, the University of Guam’s Center of Island Sustainability drew a record number of attendees to its 2025 conference at the Hyatt Regency Guam.

Austin J. Shelton III, director, of the Center for Island Sustainability and UOG Sea Grant; told the Journal at the event, “We have over 400 registrants.”

Austin J. Shelton, director, UOG Center for Island Sustainability. Photo by Maureen N. Maratita

Among its agenda during the week of April 7, the conference hosted a Community Night on April 9, which “was packed,” Shelton said. Abby Crain is coordinator for the Guam Green Growth Circular Economy, which has a store at the Chamorro Village in Hagåtña. Products range from business card holders to shoulder bags – all attractively designed to represent the Guam and made from recycled products that include bubble wrap. Island residents took advantage of the opportunity to shop from products made for the conference, Crain said. “We sold out of half our inventory.”

(From left) Peter J. Perez, executive director of 500 Sails; Régine Biscoe Lee, president and CEO, Guam Visitors Bureau; Monica O. Guzman, executive director, Guam Unique Merchandize Art Inc.; and Celeste A. Connors, CEO of Hawaii Green Growth, all panelists. Photo by Maureen N. Maratita

The 2025 conference drew a mixed audience and participants from the business communities of the region, academics in various fields and a significant number of students, as well as the island’s legislators. The agenda and a variety of breakout sessions offered information and chances to update on topics that affect the region such as fisheries.

Shelton told the Journal, “We try to have a diversity of islands.”
Island communities represented at the conference included the Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, the Marshall Islands, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and Mauritius. “We also want to infuse different ideas,” Shelton said.

Celeste A. Connors, CEO of Hawaii Green Growth; who was also a panelist on the Solutions for the Future of Tourism and the Economy panel, told the Journal that Hawaii Green Growth would also take ideas back to the state. “We’re hoping to do the incubator space,” she said, referring to the Chamorro Village incubator for businesses.

The Hyatt’s ballroom foyer fielded a range of displays for attendees and aside from opportunities to shop offered a mix that ranged from the Guam Energy Office to the island’s Air Force Reserve. Shelton told the Journal, “Sustainability is not just about the environment. Of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, he said, “Only three are about the environment.”

Those goals include Quality Education, Affordable and Clean Energy, Decent Work and Economic Growth, and Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, all relevant to concerns in the islands. One plenary panel offered, “Solutions for the future of tourism and the economy, with panelists from Guam, the NMI and Hawaii.

The conference has developed through the years, Shelton said, “Our workings improve every year.” mbj