Sustainability Overview: Global and Island Challenges and Opportunities

Youth Leadership Summit Martha’s Vineyard June 22nd to June 28th, 2013

Alex Frost

Purpose

To build participant’s capacity to •  Understand the global sustainability challenge; •  Identify and be comfortable with the basic science of sustainability; •  Cite examples of world-changing islands advancing sustainable

development.

Agenda

1. Introduction 2. Global Overview3. Sustainability Science 4. Island Leaders in Sustainability

•  Hawaii, USA •  Samso, Denmark •  Island of Wight, England •  El Hierro Island, Spain •  Iceland

5. Conclusion

Introduction – Who am I?

•  Former Sustainability &

Resource Coordinator for Hawaii County (7 years)

•  Peace Corps Philippines •  Starting Master’s in Urban

Planning at UH Manoa in Fall 2013

•  Finishing up my 20 months pilgrimage - visiting sacred places & surf around the world.

People and Places

Surf!

Sustainability Challenge

Global Overview

Public Awakening…

Seeing the Opportunities – Business…

Walmart’s Goals •  To be supplied 100 %

by renewable energy •  To create zero waste •  To sell products that

sustain our resources and environment

Global Ecological Footprint

Increasing Social/Human Pressure on Earth Systems

(IGBP, 2004)

Overwhelming Ecosystem Services…

Metaphor of the funnel

Declining resources and ecosystem services

Increasing demand for resources and ecosystem services

Emerging Sustainability Issues

•  Increased operational costs –  (energy, waste disposal, infrastructure & building maintenance,

health care, policing, water treatment, insurance, etc…) •  Increased demand for social services… •  Regulations & compliance costs and challenges… •  Reduced air quality… •  Reduced water quality… •  Health issues… •  Deteriorating sense of trust… •  Loss of cultural uniqueness… •  Growing land use conflicts… •  Increasing pressures and extinctions of plant and animal life… •  Increased security demands…

Emerging Opportunities

The metaphor of the funnel also suggests that: those who find new ways to provide services and products that meet human needs while reducing their negative impacts and enhancing their positive impacts will be best positioned to succeed.

And if not now, when?

Sustainability Science

What is Sustainability?

Sustainability: Sustainability can be scientifically defined as a dynamic state in which global ecological and social systems are not systematically undermined.

Ensuring that activities do not systematically undermine ecological and social systems is to ensure that the capacity of future generations to meet their needs is not compromised.

Ecological and social systems can be undermined in four basic ways.

United Nations 1987 Brundtland Report - Our Common Future: “Sustainable Development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.”

Cycles of nature

Slow geological cycles (volcano eruptions and weathering)

Slow geological cycles (sedimentation and mineralization)

Closed system with respect to matter 1) Nothing disappears 2) Everything disperses

Open system with respect to energy

« Photosynthesis pays the bill »

Sustainability is about the ability of

our own human society to continue indefinitely within

these natural cycles

How we influence cycles

Relatively large flows of materials from the Earth’s crust

Introduce persistent compounds foreign to nature

Physically inhibit nature’s ability to run cycles

Barriers to people

meeting their basic needs worldwide

4 Sustainability Principles – An operational definition

...concentrations of substances extracted from the Earth’s crust,

...concentrations of substances produced by society,

...degradation by physical means,

...people are not subject to conditions that systematically undermine their capacity to meet their needs.

In a sustainable society, nature is not subject to systematically increasing...

and, in that society...

What about Climate Change?

Our Sustainability Situation

The problem is not that we mine, harvest and consume resources and use ecosystem services. It is that our industrial system, as it currently operates, requires the mining, harvesting and consumption of an ever-increasing amount of resources and making ever greater use of ecosystem services. At some point, we exceed the Earth’s capacity to supply those resources and services, and to absorb the associated wastes.

4 Sustainability Principles – An operational definition

...concentrations of substances extracted from the Earth’s crust,

...concentrations of substances produced by society,

...degradation by physical means,

...people are not subject to conditions that systematically undermine their capacity to meet their needs.

In a sustainable society, nature is not subject to systematically increasing...

and, in that society...

9 human needs

Subsistence Protection Participation

Idleness Affection Understanding

Creativity Identity Freedom

•  There is a general belief that humans have all kinds of needs that are constantly changing over time.

•  A deeper look, however, reveals that there are really only a few basic needs that all humans, all around the planet, share.

•  And what changes is how we satisfy those needs. •  In fact, it is how we satisfy those needs that

distinguishes our various cultures

Human Needs

Example of Island Sustainability Challenge: Hawai‘i Island (Da Big Island)

“Ola Na Moku” “Living Island”

Ho’owaiwai is a Hawaiian word meaning “to enrich”. In old Hawai‘i it was everyone’s responsibility to take care of the water. Those with a sufficient supply of wai (water) were considered “wealthy.”

Learning from the Past

Island Sustainability Challenge

68% Electricity

99.9% Fuel

(transportation)

76% Materials

85% Food

Fossil Fuel Dependence

*Source: IH Green Economy Report

Import Economy = Not Self-Sufficient

Challenges Facing Island Families

Income Jobs LivelihoodServices

Expense (Highest in Nation) Housing, Food, Electricity, Gasoline Transportation Childcare Health Care, Misc.

Assets Savings Investment Time

Lowest Annual Wage in the Nation

Highest Living Cost in the Nation

Difficulty Building Assets

• Child Poverty Rate 18.6% • 31% of children receive food stamp• 50% of children reduce or free lunch• Poverty Level 13.3% • Per capital income $18,791• 50% of homeowners and renters pay more than 30%

Challenges for Sustainability in Hawai‘i & Islands in General

•  Little local energy production •  Waste management •  Little food security •  Little economic diversification •  Creating transit infrastructure that gets people out of

their cars and enhances mobility •  Mainstreaming sustainability and overcoming resistance •  Siloed approach by government to funding and address

of sustainability related challenges noted above •  Depletion of biodiversity

Opportunities for Sustainability in Hawai‘i

•  Creating local energy self sufficiency •  Creating local food security and diversity of food

sources / crops •  Learning from the kupuna •  Leveraging the creativity, passion and intelligence of

Hawai‘ian people to further the sustainability agenda •  Growing awareness of sustainability and related

challenges and opportunities •  Take advantage of the economic downturn •  Creating a larger green job market •  Great grassroots support and motivation •  Becoming a world leader in island sustainability

Renewable Island

Food Self-Sufficiency

Examples of Island Leaders in Sustainability

Samsø, Denmark

El Hierro, Canary Island, Spain

Isle of Wight, England

Iceland

Three Ideas to Explore

Conclusion

1Live Energy Light

2Support Local & Eat Fresh

3What is my gift & purpose?

Learn & Engage!

Who am I?

What does it mean to be a human?

How do we evolve?

Thank you