Creating a Sustainable University of Hawaii


The UH Manoa Sustainability Courtyard is a cool, green gathering place for students, faculty and staff that demonstrates Earth-friendly practices including tasty vegetarian food, recycled-plastic seating, and native plant landscaping. (Bob Chinn photo)

THE ROLE OF THE UNIVERSITY
The University of Hawaii can play a key role in shaping our local, regional and global future. As one of the state’s largest consumers of energy and water, a significant contributor to its traffic load and waste stream, and an active guardian of its cultural history and customs, the University can have a major impact on the safeguarding of Hawaii’s precious natural and social legacies.

In addition, the University can serve as a working model of sustainability for the state, nation, Asia-Pacific region and the world. This is because Hawaii is a microcosm of the world, in which the physical environment is being polluted and depleted, and traditional ways of life are not being honored. Our state is typical in its struggle to conserve dwindling resources while continuing to develop, yet unique in possessing a biological and sociological heritage found nowhere else on Earth.

SUSTAINABILITY AS A GUIDING PRINCIPLE
For these reasons, the University of Hawaii adopted sustainability – which we define as living in ways that meet our present needs without limiting the potential of future generations to meet their needs – as a guiding principle in 2002, and began instituting sustainability policies and practices throughout its 10-campus system. These policies and practices are designed to preserve and enhance the islands’ physical environment and quality of life by balancing the University’s resource use against its growth, protecting Hawaii’s unique ecosystems, and encouraging diversity rather than uniformity. They are being incorporated into a UH Charter of Sustainability that will guide the University on its path to a sustainable future.

THE UH OFFICE OF SUSTAINABILITY
To coordinate the Projects and Events that implement the Charter, the University established the UH Office of Sustainability. Our projects and events:

 reduce the University’s use of natural resources
 support its enhancement of culture, community and sense of place
 increase Hawaii’s economic independence and self-sufficiency
 lead the state toward a future of environmental, social/cultural and economic justice and vitality
 develop the University as a sustainability demonstration site for the state and beyond

We welcome you to Take Action on any project that interests you!