17 January 2018: The Hawai’i State Senate announced its intention to enact the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into state law to achieve the sustainability of Hawai’i’s people, communities, natural resources and economic prosperity. Hawai’i will implement the SDGs through the Aloha+ Challenge.

The Hawai’i State Senate aims to focus on a local platform to implement the SDGs during the 2018 Legislative Session. The 2018 Senate Legislative Program outlines Hawai’i’s goals for each of the 17 SDGs. For example, on SDG 1 (no poverty), the Program states that Hawai’i will ensure that all men and women, in particular the poor and vulnerable, have “equal rights to economic resources by implementing and enacting appropriate measures and social protection systems.” On SDG 14 (life below water), Hawai’i will continue its commitment to strengthen its “resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters” in alignment with the Paris Agreement on climate change. On SDG 15 (life on land), Hawai’i aims to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of its “’āina and natural resources by integrating ecosystem and biodiversity values into local and state planning.”

The Senate will implement the SDGs through the Aloha+ Challenge, a local sustainability framework that aims to improve the quality of life for future generations. The Aloha+ Challenge focuses on achieving sustainability goals in clean energy, local food production, natural resource management, solid waste reduction, smart and sustainable communities, and green workforce and education. The Aloha+ Challenge Dashboard tracks Hawai’i’s progress in these areas. On natural resource management, the Dashboard focuses on increased freshwater capacity, watershed area, marine managed areas, invasive species control and native species management and notes whether each area is being measured or is near its target. For example, on watershed area, Hawai’i is near the 2030 target of 253,000 areas of native watershed under high-level protection. The state has increased is protection of priority watersheds from 10% (90,000 acres) to 15% (132,000 acres) since 2011, and has plans for tripling the areas protected. For each of these areas, the Dashboard provides information on how users can learn more about the issue and contribute to making a difference.

On local food production and consumption, the Dashboard describes current challenges Hawai’i faces in developing a sustainable local food system and outlines the state’s goal of doubling local food production by 2030 by building on Hawai’i’s history of agricultural innovation and abundance. Users can track progress by dairy, protein, vegetables, fruit and starches.

J. Kalani English, Hawaiian Senate Majority Leader, said the 17 SDGs will “continue to build a more resilient state and improve the quality of life for future generations.” In the introduction to the legislative program, he stresses that Hawai’i is recognized as a “global leader in addressing sustainability and climate change challenges, building on a history of systems-thinking and traditional knowledge.” [Hawai’i Senate Press Release] [Hawai’i 2018 Senate Legislative Program] [Aloha+ Challenge]