Future Leaders

Hawai‘i Green Growth is working with statewide partners to cultivate the next generation of leaders on sustainability through the Aloha+ Challenge and UN Sustainable Development Goals. Building on the MOU between Hawai‘i Green Growth, Kamehameha Schools and the University of Hawai‘i and other partnerships, Hawai‘i Green Growth will support educational pathways from the “lo‘i kalo to the UN,” and reinforce that integrated local solutions and indigenous knowledge have global relevance.

Aloha+ Education and Green Workforce Goal

Hawai‘i Green Growth engaged students and diverse stakeholders cross education, business, civil society, and government to develop statewide targets and indicators for the Aloha+ Challenge Green Workforce and Education goal. Hawai‘i Green Growth co-hosted a statewide meeting in partnership with the Education Incubator, County of Maui, and University of Hawai‘i Maui College in the fall of 2017, which culminated a three-year process of stakeholder engagement to develop the Dashboard. The Aloha+ Challenge Dashboard now tracks quantitative and qualitative data on ‘āina based education and community engagement, transformation learning, equitable access to education, innovation and entrepreneurship, and workforce and professional development.

HPU Policy Class

Hawai‘i Green Growth is partnering with Hawai‘i Pacific University faculty and students to provide educational opportunities during the 2018 Legislative Session. HPU students are utilizing Hawai‘i’s Aloha+ Challenge and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework to examine sustainability legislation. The spring policy class work on bill tracking and research assignments is supporting increased legislative coordination capacity by Hawai‘i Green Growth partners, while providing real-time learning experiences on the legislative process.

Aloha+ Internship Highlights

Hawai‘i Green Growth, Kamehameha Schools, University of Hawai‘i, and Kupu Hawai‘i partnered to provide a joint internship opportunity on the Aloha+ Challenge. The intern cohort designed awareness campaigns on the Aloha+ Challenge, including outreach materials, events, social media, and creative challenges.

IUCN Youth Legacy Initiatives

HGG partners launched inspiring student initiatives at the Hawai‘i-hosted 2016 IUCN World Conservation Congress in collaboration with the IUCN Legacy Committee with a view to advancing Hawai‘i’s sustainability goals.

The University of Hawai‘i “Make the Ala Wa Wai Awesome” international student design challenge and youth hack-a-thons engaged hundreds of students, schools, and community members to create designs that address watershed resilience and pollution challenges in the Ala Wai.

Building on the IUCN Congress, a faculty and student team from the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability (GIOS) at Arizona State University partnered with HGG to study Hawai‘iʻs Aloha+ Challenge as a global sustainability model. After engaging diverse community, education, government, and business partners from the Hawai‘i Green Growth network, the student team developed an integrated resilience design for the Ala Wai Watershed and were awarded the overall prize for the “Make the Ala Wai Awesome” student design challenge. ASU GIOS continues to partner with Hawai‘i Green Growth and local stakeholders.

Led by Kupu Hawai‘i, the Hawai‘i Sustainability Youth Challenge and Pacific Resiliency Fellows were launched at the IUCN Congress to support student sustainability projects, learning, and leadership.