As Hawaiʻi enters the second half of a critical decade for cutting greenhouse gas emissions to mitigate climate change, a key Honolulu climate agency has come under new leadership.
“A big responsibility we have is painting the picture of a better future,” said Benjamin Sullivan, director of the Honolulu Office of Climate Change, Sustainability and Resiliency.
He took the helm in September, and Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi appointed Kealoha Fox as the team’s deputy director in mid-November.
Fox advocated for the office’s creation through a city charter amendment in 2016. Now, she said she's excited to work alongside Sullivan as the office enters its next phase, which Sullivan said is all about turning ideas into reality.
“We've got our goals. We understand what our challenges are. We have a pretty good idea of those solutions. Now we have to build them into the existing systems of the city,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan and Fox may be new to their roles, but they are already thinking about how the policies and projects that they implement may outlast them, including the city’s new climate change design guidelines, which the office began to roll out this year in partnership with the Department of Design and Construction.
“That's basically looking at all these capital projects and figuring out, how are they going to be different from the very initiation all the way through to construction?” he said.
He expects that by the time Blangiardi's second term ends, all new city infrastructure projects will be carefully evaluated using the guidelines to assess their vulnerability to climate disasters, like flooding and sea level rise.
Fox added that equity plays an essential role in the office's current and planned work. The office has created an equity “screener” for new projects, which they hope to share with other city agencies.
“This is the type of tool that's going to last far beyond this one office or our team, whoever works in this office in the past, at present or in the future,” she said.
Sullivan pointed out that equity is imperative to climate work, because not all climate solutions are functional for everyone, offering the example of electric cars.
“Not everybody is going to buy a new car, and not everybody's going to even buy a car at all,” he said.
Rather than “proselytizing” about one type of climate solution, Sullivan hopes to co-create climate strategies with Oʻahu residents. The office has launched a survey to give community members a chance to have their say in what a climate-friendly and convenient Honolulu looks like.
“It's really important for us to hear [from the] community about what are some of the alternatives people really want to support,” Sullivan said.
