Green Growth Summit: 'This is about long-term relationships that we develop with each other'

BY PAULY SUBA
Journal Staff

Island leaders and sustainability advocates from across the Pacific convened for the Green Growth Summit on April 9, a cornerstone event of the University of Guam’s annual Conference on Island Sustainability. 

The summit emphasized that Pacific islands are not only advancing local priorities, but shaping global conversations on sustainability through indigenous knowledge, measurable outcomes, and collaborative leadership.

The summit brought together policymakers, researchers, and community leaders from Guam, Hawai'i, and the CNMI to exchange strategies aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s).

Gov. Lourdes A. Leon Guerrero, co-chairperson of Guam Green Growth opened the summit at the Hyatt Regency Guam in Tumon by tying Guam’s history of resilience to present day efforts in sustainability.

“We can use our traditional knowledge and our skills that have been brought over from 4,000 years ago through our ancestors,” she said. “We are survivors because we are resilient people.”

Leon Guerrero highlighted the G3 initiative as a practical and locally grounded approach to the global goals. “We really (narrowed) it down to some very workable, realistic, practical ways to do it,” she said. “And one of the ways that we measure that is through the dashboard.”

She pointed to the Office of Homelessness and Poverty Prevention under DPHSS as one example of translating policy into tangible outcomes. “Well, we provide shelter for the homeless, we provide food for the homeless,” she said. “We also…train them with the skills they need to go back into the community and sustain themselves.”

Guam’s sustainability leaders say the island is moving forward with long-term goals to strengthen its future by aligning with the United Nations SDGs, thanks to partnerships built over the past six years.

Dr. Austin Shelton, G3 steering committee co-chairperson said, “There’s something for everybody in these 17 goals — things like low poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being,” said Austin Shelton, director of the University of Guam’s Center for Island Sustainability. “It’s really interdisciplinary, and everybody can play a part in creating a sustainable future."

Guam became a founding member of the Global 2030 Islands Network after connecting with Hawaiʻi Green Growth in 2019. Shelton said the network helped UOG and the governor’s office lead a coalition of over 100 community stakeholders.

“Sustainability is about our future, and everybody should be caring about our future, especially islanders,” he said. “The definition of sustainability that we use is living here on our island like we intend to stay here.”

Gov. Leon Guerrero signed Executive Order 2019-23 to formally launch the Guam Green Growth initiative, which Shelton said is now the largest public-private partnership on the island focused on sustainable development.

Celeste Connors, executive director of Hawai'i Green Growth and co-chairperson of the Local2030 Islands Network, emphasized the value of long-term collaboration in transforming high-level goals into action. “Process does matter, because the process is important to actually operationalize high-level goals and turn them into action,” she said. “This is not about transactions. This is about long-term relationships that we develop with each other.”

She described green growth as deeply rooted in indigenous wisdom. “Islands are uniquely positioned…because we live at that intersection of vulnerability and innovation,” she said. “Before there were the SDGs, there was green growth. Before there’s green growth, there’s a thousand-year history of indigenous knowledge and wisdom.”

Connors shared that Hawai'i’s sustainability strategy began before the SDGs. “For us in Hawai'i, our local framework predates the SDGs,” she said. “From the Hawai'i Green Growth Partnership came 2050 legislation. 2050 seemed too far away, a long-term goal, so how are we going to have a more short-term or mid-term goal for 2030?”

She highlighted the broad support behind their strategy. “We had the governor, the mayors, the state legislature, private sector partners, civil society agree to these time-bound goals,” she said. “These are how the goals intersect with the SDGs, because sometimes people say, are you guys just doing six SDGs? No, we’re doing all 17.”

On the importance of measurement, Connors said, “As new legislation is passed, as goals change, so does what we measure.” She described impact dashboards as evolving tools shaped by both technical experts and community voices. “If you have a trust-based process in place that you can convene partners…when you have a green growth partnership, you’re committing to put your goal next to somebody else’s goal,” she said.

Connors also outlined concrete programs in Hawai'i, including the Hawai'i SDG Youth Council, a rainwater runoff initiative called “Follow the Drop,” and a Sustainability Business Forum. “What we do here in this room, what islands do, (is) not just relevant and important to our communities, but locally relevant,” she said.

Hawai'i is preparing to submit its third Voluntary Local Review to the United Nations this July. “Our students will be involved in that this July,” Connors said. “We will be partnering with Japan…and really how we demonstrate how local communities are doing the reports…towards contributing again, not just to their local priorities, but to global action.”

The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands also shared its progress at the summit. Patricia Coleman, co-chairperson of the CNMI Green Growth working group, said the islands’ resource limitations have encouraged innovation. “But you know what, that forces us to leverage partnerships, and that forces us to innovate,” she said.

Initiatives include native tree planting in Tinian, regenerative agriculture in Rota, and circular economy projects with community-made souvenirs. “We import 85 to 95 percent of the food that we have in the Marianas,” Coleman said. “We’ve started Mama Food Forest Light. So, we’re actually re-teaching people how to grow food in a way that is regenerative.”

She also discussed reforms to customs and food import data. “Our Department of Finance is working with the United Nations to put this system into play,” she said.

Coleman said food security and health are top priorities, noting the islands’ Child Nutrition Program and new wellness screenings. “To date, we’ve had over 250 people join,” she said. “About 30% of them are people who continue to come because they don’t have other access to free health care.”

The summit also highlighted some of the initiatives of the Guam Green Growth's working groups in a panel discussion. Leaders from across Guam’s public, private, and nonprofit sectors gathered this week for a Guam Green Growth (G3) panel, sharing progress on sustainability efforts that span climate resilience, workforce development, housing, and self-governance.

Evangeline Lujan, co-chairperson of the Natural Resources working group and focal point for the Micronesia Challenge, said Guam is “still in the process of developing a comprehensive climate change action plan.” She emphasized the need for flexible island solutions, saying, “We are embarking on a hardening credit concept for watershed management… we’re looking at innovative solutions and additional partners.”

Herbert Johnston of the Guam Trades Academy highlighted localized workforce initiatives. “Instead of importing specialists to do it, we’re paying people locally,” he said. Johnston shared how a pilot program on erosion and sediment control trained over 500 residents and is now a requirement for building permits.

Johnston also shared how a surprise federal grant during the pandemic helped them transition to renewable energy. “We built structures on top of our parking lot, we have solar panels, we have 16 days of battery backup,” he said. “More important than that, we’re training people on how to do it… a lot of the things we do at the Trades Academy involves innovation.”

Rob San Agustin, director of the Office of Homelessness and Poverty Prevention, said Guam is expanding shelter capacity and food security programs. He said, "We’re bringing in enough food to help households have food security for about $12,000 a household overall."  

San Agustin said government focus on homelessness is growing. “There’s never been a governmental agency that really focused on this,” he said. “We’ve been able to acquire buildings… for our elderly and other underserved groups.”

He added that new programs are underway to provide overnight beds through a "bed at night" program and connect people to job training and support services. “It’s about giving them that stability, that safety, that security."

Melvin Won Pat-Borja, chairperson of the Sustainable Alliances working group, tied sustainability to self-determination. 

The working group, he explained, was created to build intentional partnerships and make space for Guam in regional and international sustainability efforts. “What we really try to do is to utilize this framework as a way to always include our quest for decolonization and a full measure of self-government in all that we do.”

Won Pat-Borja emphasized that indigenous knowledge has long guided sustainable practices across the Pacific. “Indigenous cultures in the Pacific have been sustainable for thousands of years,” he said. “It wasn’t that long ago that Guam and the Marianas were 90% self-sufficient.”

He argued that the current dependence on imported goods and limited political autonomy is no accident. “These dependencies that are part of our reality are, I would say, are very deliberate,” he said. “The only real way that we’re going to create substantive change in this field is to be fully self-governed.”

The summit highlighted research efforts challenging traditional economic measures by assigning dollar values to social and environmental benefits typically overlooked in policymaking.

 
Dr. Kirsten Oleson, professor of Ecological Economics with the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management at the University of Hawaii at Manoa said, “This research is really about disrupting the hegemony of gross domestic product as a good policy indicator." She said, “GDP is a measure of market output, but it does not tell us a lot of things we want to know.”

Oleson emphasized that using tools from the Department of Economics, the G3 team is developing early-stage estimates to quantify the return on investment of sustainability programs. “These are real benefits — they increase welfare, and they have returns on investment,” she said. “It’s a pilot and a draft, but the numbers are pretty exciting.”

Christian Valencia, G3 project associate shared early findings from G3’s economic valuation. “For every dollar invested, the island sees more than triple in economic and social value,” he said, citing a return of $3.42 for every dollar spent on the G3 Conservation Corps. That includes benefits from tree planting, aluminum-can recycling, tire collection and shredding, food distribution, brown tree snake removal, and invasive algae removal all tied to measurable environmental savings.

“These are preliminary estimates,” Valencia said, “but it’s already clear... G3 is leveraging these local investments to achieve more in value for our island community.” mbj