HONOLULU — The 2050 Sustainability Summit drew nearly 1,000 participants from the entire Hawaiian chain to the unveiling of a draft meant to guide the state’s social, economic and environmental future. Community members from the farming, political, educational and business
HONOLULU — The 2050 Sustainability Summit drew nearly 1,000 participants from the entire Hawaiian chain to the unveiling of a draft meant to guide the state’s social, economic and environmental future. Community members from the farming, political, educational and business sectors entered the ballroom at the Hilton Hawaiian Village carrying recycled green bags given at check-in and enthusiastic chatter filled the room.
Kaua‘i County Council member JoAnn Yukimura greeted Kaua‘i goat farmers, Louisa and Bob Wooton. Marissa Sandblom of Grove Farm, Rep. Roland Sagum and Joel Guy were spotted among the crowd representing Kaua‘i’s business, government and creative communities.
In sharp contrast to the Sept. 20 debate on the Superferry with Lingle in Lihu‘e, Saturday’s event on O‘ahu had an air of celebratory solidarity and optimistic outlook.
Through short speeches made by Senate President Colleen Hanabusa and Speaker of the House Calvin Say, it was clear that the day marked the culmination of years of work first envisioned by former-Gov. George R. Ariyoshi. While the plan lays out immense work, diligence and need for change on personal and public levels, Saturday was an opportunity to celebrate the end of this first stage in the long process ahead.
“While this movement started in the Legislature,” said Hanabusa, “it has been grown by the community, driven by the community, and represents a community-wide effort.”
Chair of the Sustainability Task Force, Sen. Russell Kokubun echoed this sentiment by labeling the initiative to be “grass roots” in nature, and that substantial efforts were made, and will continue to be made to work with citizens in creating legislation that is inclusive and can truly be the “people’s plan,” he said.
Hanabusa said that in addressing the need for a long-range plan, the first question that was posed during their months of community meetings was a definition for “sustainability.” Say described sustainability on a personal level: “I am a parent of two children … I want them to have the option to choose a career in Hawai‘i … I want a Hawai‘i that allows them to stay, live and thrive here.”
The Honolulu Advertiser’s Teen Editorial Board, who each had an opportunity to tell the captive audience their perspective and concerns for Hawai’i’s future, later highlighted this sentiment. Consisting of nine high school seniors, not one student raised their hand when asked by the moderator if they saw themselves living and working in the state at the age of 35.
Ariyoshi spoke of his desire to see a “preferred future” for the youth of Hawai‘i, “I don’t want just ‘a future’, I want a better future, a preferred future.”
Ariyoshi was credited throughout the morning by multiple speakers for being the original visionary of the sustainability initiative with the Planning, Programming and Budgeting System he enacted during the mid-70s through 1986. Since that time, the 2050 Sustainability Task Force and the broader Act 8 is the first piece of legislation that continues in Ariyoshi’s vision and promises to balance economic growth with social, cultural and environmental concerns.
The mayors of all four counties addressed the audience in person (Harry Kim of Hawai‘i County sent a representative) showing their support of the plan and promise to work towards achieving it in their administration. Bryan Baptiste garnered applause when he said the hardest work consisted of “listening to those who don’t normally speak, and speaking to those who don’t normally listen.” Pointing out that this sustainability plan is a “structure that needs to reflect the entire population … the task force has been the architect of this vision, now we need to be the carpenters, constructors and laborers … to make what we’re working on today, a reality tomorrow.”
The keynote speaker of Saturday’s summit, Terry Tamminen, spoke late in the morning. Drawing from his personal work with the Hopi Indians and Rapanui people of Easter Island, Tamminen explained it is up to the state culture to either work with the natural environment in harmony (as the Hopi did for thousands of years) or use up the resources and suffer near extinction (as the Rapanui people had done after only a few hundred years of civilization).
Tamminen is the secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and is considered the architect of California’s energy and environmental initiatives. His speech outlined a new way to define sustainability “which leaves a better Hawai‘i for your children than the one you inherited from your parents.” Discussing ways the economy is bolstered from environmentally conscious practices challenged notions that business and environmentalists are on opposing sides.
He charged every person sitting in the ballroom to “walk out committed to the idea that ‘I can do with less so my children will have more.’”
“You’ve got to be open to change now… if you were in a car driving toward a cliff, you’d probably put on the brakes before you got to the very edge. It’s time to change,” he said.
Later in the day, the task force presented the basic approach used by Janis Reischmann of Consulting Inc. and Leland Chang of Project Consulting Services in gathering “what the community is saying about sustainability” through community outreach discussions held over the past year. An additional public opinion poll conducted by James Dannemiller of SMS Research and Marketing, which randomly phoned 2,000 Hawai‘i residents asking questions like “Should we actively preserve sites of cultural importance, even if it hurts economic development?” was also presented to the audience. The questions and resulting data is published in the current draft, now available on-line for the public.
Members of each branch of the task force — including Way of Life; The Economy; The Environment and Natural Resources; Community and Social Well-Being; Native Hawaiian Culture and Island Values; and Accountability and Implementation — gave a brief overview of the work from their respective perspectives. The presentations were short summaries of goals, strategies and implementation requirements and only introduced the main concerns of each arm. The actual draft goes much further in detail than what was said at the summit.
The morning ended with closing remarks from Kokubun who urged each participant to share the draft and discussion with friends, family and associates in the community. He also pushed for further involvement between the public and the task force between now and the writing of the final draft which will be presented to the Legislature next year: “This is our chance to address your needs and find a balance” in the plan, he said.
Participants left the ballroom with the blueprint of what could be a “preferred future” for Hawai‘i. The over-arching theme of the entire morning was clear: everyone must do their part in creating the change that is needed, the responsibility falls equally on all.
