Aloha+ Statewide Measures Meeting: Smart Sustainable Communities
Building the Aloha+ Smart Sustainable Communities Dashboard
On May 23-24, 2017, Hawai‘i Green Growth co-hosted the Aloha+ Challenge Statewide Measures Meeting with the County of Kaua‘i at the National Tropical Botanical Garden headquarters in Kalaheo, Kaua‘i. The meeting included over 50 statewide, cross-sector participants from the state, counties, non-profit, business, academia, and community organizations. Building on the Legacy from the IUCN World Conservation Congress and looking towards the Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage homecoming, the group discussed shared measures to track progress, provide accountability, and inform action on Hawai‘i’s statewide Aloha+ Challenge 2030 sustainability goals.
Attendees discussed the Smart Sustainable Communities 2030 goal on livability, resilience, and community well-being to provide recommendations for the online Dashboard. This includes robust facilitated discussions on the 8 suggested target areas: Mobility/Accessibility, Affordable Housing, Connection to Place, Economic Prosperity, Land Use/Urban Impacts, Resilience & Disaster Management, Open/Public/Green Spaces, and Carbon Mitigation.
The groups provided recommendations on target language, priority indicators, data sources, narrative content, and public resources. The Statewide Meeting discussions built on a six-month Roundtable and Study Team process to define the Smart Sustainable Communities goal, in additional to a series of technical expert meetings, data discussions, and an online survey.
The group reinforced the exciting opportunities for “Dashboard 2.0,” which includes innovation to capture community-driven data, increased county-level measures, enhanced visuals and interactive features, and engaging students on maintenance through 2030. Other key discussion themes included integrating health and community well-being throughout all Smart Sustainable Communities target areas, as well as the utility of the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) as a metric or meta-indicator to track progress and prosperity for Hawai‘i.
In addition to working sessions, the two-day event included a tour of Kaua‘i sustainability sites: the National Tropical Botanical Garden LEED certified building; farm to table pau hana at Kaua‘i Beer Company; bike ride on the coastal Kapa‘a Bike Path; walking tour through Hardy Complete Street and the TIGER Grant Area.
Mayor Carvalho’s video welcome to Aloha+ Challenge statewide meeting participants
Background: The Aloha+ Challenge was launched in 2014 by the Governor, four County Mayors, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, State Legislature, and public-private partners across the state, identifying six sustainability goals for 2030 in clean energy, local food, natural resources, solid waste, smart sustainable communities, and green workforce and education. The Aloha+ Dashboard – an online open data platform for decision makers and the public – currently features indicators for clean energy, solid waste, natural resources and local food goals. The Dashboard will showcase smart sustainable communities and green workforce and education at the end of 2017.