 On a stormy Hawaiian day, this is Howard Wigg, Think Tech Hawaii, Code Green. As all of you vast audience knows, Hawaii is the first state to declare 100% clean energy by the year 2045. Many states have followed us since then, and there's going to be many paths to that clean energy goal. But one thing we know is at the end, Hawaii must be a sustainable place. Sustainable? But in the world is that. That is exactly what we're going to explore this morning with Dr. Gail Garbroski and three very, very diverse students with diverse points of view. This is going to be exciting. Oh, again, this is Dr. Gail Garbroski. She is the Dean of Environmental Science and Mathematics, and she is heading up a very exciting United Nations component. Hawaii is the headquarters for the entire Pacific region. You have so much to cover. Dr. Please take it away, Dr. Gail Garbroski. Thank you, Howard. On behalf of me and these three wonderful students you're going to hear from. We decided that one of the most important concepts, which everybody kind of cares about, but nobody agrees on exactly what it is, is sustainability. It's not a new term. This term, I think when I was in graduate school, which was back in the Cambrian period eons ago, we had a sign on the door in one of the labs that said, terms that should die, and believe it or not, sustainability was up there because as scientists, we felt like we're not exactly sure what it is. But these days, this term has persisted. And it's because we learned in a book that we read, an article that we recently read in one of my classes, Sustainability Success Stories, that the term has stuck because everybody likes the idea, but it doesn't mean the same thing to anybody. So nobody throws it away like, oh, I don't like that because we all have something in our head about what it means that we like. But today we thought, let's clear it up a little bit. So why us? So the first thing is, as you said, Howard, we've been so lucky to be honored with the 25th in the world, Seafall, which is a French for local training centers that the United Nation runs. So there's a thing called the United Nation Seafall Global Network. And we are a year and a half old, housed at Chaminade. And we're basically a training center and a convening center for helping achieve the sustainable development goals, which we'll talk about a little later. But it's a wonderful opportunity to help Hawaii and the Pacific to achieve sustainability and to find out from the other Pacific islands. What's important to them? What are their major issues and gather some data so that we can learn what needs most to be fixed? What parts of sustainability are we missing the most out here? And you guys can bet climate change is one of them that, of course, were really affected by. So today I have three students who are all environmental science majors, but they range from seniors to freshmen. And so you'll be hearing from each of them. They are also all native Hawaiian and or Pacific Islanders. And they'll they'll tell you about where they're from. So they carry with them some values that might really help us to achieve sustainability. You know, Earth is Island Earth, but islands have been islands and people have been aware of their finiteness in terms of resources for a long time. So there's some really excellent values there that can serve the world. I'm just an old professor. I've been teaching environmental studies for 25 years and so been thinking on this topic for a long time. And we've had some progress, but we need more progress. So with no further ado, I'd like to introduce the students. And I'm going to ask each one of them. What the heck is sustainability to you? And these guys have some experience because they're all, as I say, environmental students and they're all people who care about the planet. So Kobe. Kobe. I'm going to say your last name, Kobe. Ne Ray Limasson, who is from Palau. Kobe, what is sustainability to you? Yeah, so sustainability to me is just to make sure that the current generations have what they need and the needs are fulfilled while making sure that we have enough for the future generations to have. So by maintaining ecological balance and just making sure that we're not using too much of our non-renewable and renewable resources, just enough for our needs. So so very much in line with that Bruntland report, original definition that ensuring that the now what we're doing now does not decrease quality of life or opportunities for future people. Thanks, Kobe. And next, we're going to hear from a sophomore, Ina Ioane. Ina, what is sustainability to you? So sustainability to me is just good habit and good activities that you do day to day that help to elongate life and resources so that you can sustain life for like Kobe said, for generations to come. Good. Thanks, Ina. So you could see that we are really at when I'm going to show some PowerPoint slides coming up, we're at what sort of the foundation in terms of the United Nations definition of sustainability. They used to be mostly focused on human endeavors, but they really realized that we all sure rest, as we know, on the foundations of the planet, so the resources in the planet. So we because we're environmental science, we really focus basically at the ultimate means that are available to the earth. And so the supplies that we have and using them in a sustainable way. Next, you're going to hear from a freshman, Sano Tana. Sano, what is sustainability to you? For me personally, although mine is similar to what Kobe and Ina said, I also believe that in sustainability, preserving culture that can be enjoyed by future generations is just as important as natural resources, which can include preserving cultural practices, values and just supporting sustainable economic development. Thank you, Sano. Guys, Sano added a piece that's super important, especially now we're realizing that we really can't use resources sustainably unless we consider our values. So culture in there and cultures that have sustainable values as well as, dare I say, business and economics. So some of the definitions, let's look at some of the definitions. Sustainability isn't just about nature, although nature is an essential part of it. It really is about everything that we do. So one of the oldest definitions, which Kobe alluded to, is that sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. So that that makes a lot of sense, but how do we get there? OK, so the UN defines sustainable development as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising future generations to meet their own needs, very similar to the Bruntland report. There are many other definitions, but reading definitions doesn't really tell us. What what does it include? So one of we I've had the students looking into definitions, also principles of sustainability and recently measures of sustainability. One set of principles that we that are very good among many are those that are from the Rocky Mountain Institute. And what they say is that these are the principles that should guide us in modern sustainability. And they are one and some of these you're going to see are very human behavior oriented, dealing transparently and systematically with Rick's uncertainty and irreversibility. This means that we should really use the thing called the precautionary principle. Let's not do things if we're not sure they're going to be safe, or at least if we don't have a high level of certainty that they're going to be safe. Now this poses a challenge to innovation. So we need to figure out how not to stymie innovation while we're also being open and thinking with systems. Also, I'm not going to read all these, but we also need an integration of environmental, social and human economic goals. This is what is referred to over and over again as a triple bottom line. We got to consider economics. We got to consider people and we've got to consider the planet. So you can see that we're all very worried about the planet, partly because we're on islands and so climate changes is threatening a lot of aspects of sort of the resource space. But it also is all about business. Of course, conservation of biodiversity equal opportunity for people in their careers in education. Also a commitment to best practices. So this means that sometimes we may make a choice to behave in a certain way that might actually have some costs. But because of our value system, we feel that those costs are warranted because in the long term, the cost will be less. This is what this it may be costing us some money to switch to renewables now. But boy, are we going to be saving some costs and disaster relief from climate change in the future? Also, we would like there to be good governance and a principle of continuous improvement. So some of those are pretty positive. So those I've decided are something that we want to make sustainability a positive thing. With that said, Kobihina and Sano, can you weigh in on this is a hard question, you guys. What do we feel about the development aspect of sustainability? Do you guys have any thoughts on those? Like what do we mean about careers? What do we mean about infrastructure? What do we mean about jobs and and corporations and small businesses? Hard question. Anybody want to tackle that one? This happens in class sometimes, too. One thing I want to say is that I think that it's been good how we developed further from in the past till now. I think we have to think about how we're going to further develop. Like like you said, like infrastructure, like buildings, how would we have farming indoors or how can we integrate that into our everyday lives to be more sustainable? What else can we do? We can also do like those wall farming. So, Hina, you're thinking of our food system. Yeah, how important that is? Yes, and that's certainly in that we know a lot of things that that are challenged that aren't sustainable that we're doing. But we're we're working on it. I'm going to say that's a place that is a lot of room for some improvement. Yeah, but it's great. It's in people's consciousness now. Eat local, you know, eat organic, eat healthy. Watch what's in your diet, personal sustainability. Good, good. Yeah, and, Dr, I might interject by saying that when Captain Cook first sailed here in 1778, the indigenous Hawaiian population may have been as many as one million people. We now have 1.4 million people. And by all reports, those one million people were large and very healthy and very strong. And they had developed a sustainable society. One instance that I know about is keeping their fisheries alive. There was a kapu system during next season. You could not fish. And that gave the fishes time to spawn and grow back again. And then there was the harvest at the proper time. Just one teeny little example of food self-sufficiency for one million healthy people. Yeah, that's a great example. And, boy, have we, with our modern processed foods, right? We've all of us the world over as we are gaining too much weight or, you know, becoming victims of diabetes. This is all part of one of the sustainable development goals, which is good nutrition. You know, we all should have access to good nutrition. And so the Hawaiian traditional Hawaiian diet, Pacific Island diet is great. So, you know, there are efforts in Hawaii. Also, I should point out that Kobe is from Palau. And in the in the modern day, Palau is doing so much for sustainability. Kobe, you want to share some of that things that you're doing that's happening at home that you think is really fostering sustainable use of natural resources, sustainable tourism. Yeah, so we have a bunch of green fees for people coming in just to make sure that they're doing their part. And really just informing the tourists coming in to Palau, making sure that they're aware of what to do and what not to do when visiting some of the sites that they visit, like conservation areas, both on land and in sea. So really we're trying our best to make sure that everything is protected, not only do the tourists know, but every Palau knows that our land is very precious to us. And we need to make sure that if we see like a piece of trash floating on the ocean, make sure you go swim after it. So it doesn't affect the cold reefs or the fish or really just anything that we can do, we try our best to do it for the community itself, not just for one person, but for the entire island. Good. So collective value systems, that's we're all in this together. You know, the Chaminade, the Catholics might call it the common good. The Hawaiians may call it Malama Honua. You know, it's just this idea that we're all in this together. So you want to add anything to that? Anything about business? You mentioned business. I'm glad you did. Any thoughts? It's a hard one. I guess I'll go back to my original definition, which like sustainable or supporting sustainable economic development. Yes, like, you know, just checking the population, the pollution levels. There's a lot of businesses. I forget which exactly, but they do like checkups. They like make programs like there's a program called cool. I know it teaches to respect and care for all life forms and just the revitalization of sustainable practices. So one thing you could hear in all of these students Howard and everyone watching is just the Pacific Island values for sustainability. It's so inherent. So, you know, we're we're learning from all the different Pacific Islands. We being students in my classes and people here. But this needs to be a global thing. There are there are certain places on the planet where they're thinking so collectively and they may have values like Bhutan's growth, national happiness, where they're actually measuring more than just economic growth. Economic growth may be a good thing, but not if it's in lieu of other things. So the United Nations has a really collective view of sustainability. So let's have the first slide that this be a good chance for me to share what the UN says that sustainability is, because we've we've been touching all over, which is great. So I just wanted everyone who's watching to understand what the heck the Seafall Center is. The Seafall Center is part of the General Assembly in the United Nations. There are other divisions of the United Nations. And we're within the one with the red box, which is called Unitar, which stands for United Nations Institute for Training and Research. So the Seafall Center is all about helping to train experts who can help achieve sustainability. Next slide and we've got about six minutes, Dr. OK, so these are the goals. And if you look at them, you can see there are 17 and they cover everything. That whole middle row is pretty much about the way that we do business and the way that we develop everything from what Howard opened the show with renewable energy. So Hawaii is doing great on goal number seven to sustainable cities. Innovation, which can mean things like connectivity. It can also mean things like, you know, clean water and waste treatment, things that are very important in the less developed world that they were very much challenged, equity and its equity in terms of jobs, job opportunities, education, everything. The bottom row is pretty much nature, including climate change. And the top row is very basic human needs, everything from good nutrition to no poverty, to looking after health, education, gender equity and water. And boy in Hawaii did we have a wake up call with Red Hill. So we know how important that one is. Next slide. This is what's called they call it the wedding cake, the U.N. But I call it Malama Honua because wedding cakes in the Pacific may not be shaped like that. So what it basically shows is sort of the foundation of sustainability is like the students said right at the get go. It really is our natural resources followed by our well being followed by our economy. Our economy has to work within the limits of the earth, but we are a very innovative species. So I think we can figure it out. It's having the will which comes from that value system. That's super important. Next slide. So all of these different goals have what's called targets. I just wanted the audience to know that they're not just pretty little boxes. They all have targets, which the students. Kobe took a class where we went over all the targets. So this is goal for which is good education. And if you look at those, you can see some of the targets are really basic, like making sure schools have electricity and water. Others are very much making students sure people all over the world can go to college, can get training, trade training to be an electrician or a plumber. You know, vocations that are super important infrastructurally. Next slide. And I know there's a lot of words, but I want everybody to realize it's not just targets. They are measured. So each one of those targets has a bunch of indicators which are very measurable because the less developed world may not have a huge National Science Foundation to gather data. So we need them to be generally gatherable by basic data that is collected by agencies and organizations. So for education, we need somewhere in the less developed world or in the Pacific for us to hear what how many children make it to high school? What percentage of your children go from lower, you know, sixth grade to high school, sixth, seventh and eighth grade and then to college. So there are indicators. We don't measure them as the UN Center, the Seafall Center. We train people to make them real. So we train people that have expertise. And we also convene meetings and can hold workshops. And we're not only we're not the only experts. They're out there. We bring them together. Next slide. This is where they are in the world. So I put the yellow arrow where we are, but you can see many of them are in less developed places, but some are in very developed places. So some in Europe where they're trying to do things like make sure that their businesses are greener, what Sanos alluded to, that their businesses have some principles of sustainability and some policies in place. Next one. And this is just I just want everyone to know we meet monthly. So what Hawaii does related to sustainability that they share with the Seafall Center, I can share with the world through our meetings. So I can say, you know, Hawaii is doing 24 by 2045. We're going to have renewable energy. I can also hear from somewhere else like Jeju, South Korea, monthly, we meet with them. Oh, look at these really nice business workshops that they're doing. Is that something we could use here? So there's a sharing of expertise in the world. That's really so people watching who are out there, if you'd like your great idea and initiative to be shared, if it's about sustainability, let us know and we can share it. Or if you'd like to learn from the world, let us know and we can see if there's things out there you might learn from. Next slide. And this is just to say projects and initiatives for sustainability can be big and small, personal and global. So next we're going to share a few personal things you can do. But we also need policy that's global, like the Clean Water Act. And we need enforcement. Yeah, we need not just the words on the page, but we need the enforcement to make sure that it happens. And I think this is last slide. That may be it. Yeah, I guess that was it. So thank you. And so students, guys, our final topic was keep it positive because people can get depressed about sustainability, like, oh, there's so much to fix, especially when you see the boxes. But there's an agency called the United Nations working on it. And there's even a piece of the United Nations right here in Hawaii at Shamanah in the Seafall Center. So we thought we'd finish with what personally people can do to help. And we have a few minutes left. Just very brief, it was time for all three of you to go. Yay. So take it away. Hina, what can we do personally? I think one big personal thing that you can do to help is just use less plastics, single use plastics, get metal straws, spoon and fork. If you have containers, get reusable containers or reusable water bottles. Yeah. So so minimize our plastics, huh, is if possible. Good, good. And this this one in Hawaii, you guys, we're the coma of the Pacific. We see the plastics. So and there are there are restaurants and institutions that are really diminishing their their plastic use. Thanks, Hina. Kobe, how about you? What can we do? What do you think we can do personally? So I actually grew up at a farm and we grew a lot of our food and really planting smaller stuff, like chilies or basil. That's one less thing you need to buy from the store and one less bottle made of plastic that you can buy from the store as well. So yeah, so grow our own food if we can. Good, good. And also less shipping. That's that's the whole local buy local thing. Not only is it good for business locally, but it's about the emissions. And Sano, what what what do you feel like we can do? And what do you know from your experiences? What can individuals do? Definitely public transportation, since it helps sustainability in several ways. Like it reduces greenhouse gas emissions, decreases air pollution, saves energy, since multiple people are using like up us. For example, conserves natural resources. It reduces the demand for oil and gas and it just overall supports sustainable land use. So public transportation is definitely one. Yeah, Sano, let me follow up on that. A lot of bus users are lower income people. And one of our goals is equity. Give a fair shake to the lower income people idea. What about making bus rides free? Well, I mean, I would definitely enjoy a bus ride or free because I catch the bus a lot. So yeah, I mean, that's definitely something that the state or the government should definitely go further into. So yeah. And Howard, if we were in class right now, I'd go, OK, guys, how are we going to pay for it? And we think of ways, you know, we think of ways all of them fueled by our will, all of them fueled by what's in our heart and how important we think this is for our future generations, how good we feel. You know, we're spending a lot of time right now in classes reading about how do you change human behavior? You know, how do you get us to say, you know what, it's a great thing as a society to make the buses free. We should do that, you know, or make a bus system that's proportional. This one won't be popular, but to to your income somehow, you know, if you if you are a wealthy person, maybe you can help pay. Oh, I know no one's going to like that idea right now. Are they more value? But I guess that brings up another well. And the thing I think we need to do is get educated. So many people just don't know what's happening. They may know about plastics. They may know about sea level rise, because we can see them. But there's so many things that are just maybe they're happening elsewhere to a great degree, but they're going to affect us. Or they don't know what they can do to vote a certain way or to at their home. So everything from policies that affect us all to personal. So when you get educated, you know, in many universities now focus on sustainability in any major. So it's not just for our environmental science majors. Because of our Seafall Center, basically everyone's being encouraged, whether you're a business professor or a religion professor, a psychology professor, an educator to think about sustainability to educate about that. And, Dr, we need to wrap up. But you mentioned bringing these same young people back, these bright, shining faces here. Maybe we can do that in two weeks with each of them telling a personal story. I mean, personal examples of what is sustainable about the culture they come from and then translating that into larger behaviors. We can do this, we can do that. So on that very, very cheery note, Dr. Kobe Sano Hina, thank you so much. This was really, really enjoyable hearing from the next generation. And by the year 2045, when we have clean energy, you people are just going to be reaching the peaks of your career. So this is a great start here. So on that cheery note, we bid fond of you from Thinkte, Kauai Code Green, see you next time.