When the Legislature passed the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2007 last month, it put the state on track for a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 to 1990 levels, or lower.<\/p>\n
\tBut state agencies had already been put on notice a year earlier that they should start developing policies and procedures to reduce their energy consumption, recycle their wastes, and install or implement technologies that go easy on non-renewable resources.<\/p>\n
\tThe Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism details their progress in a report, titled \u201cLead by Example,\u201d delivered to the 2007 Legislature. While it may provide a baseline for assessing future progress, the report overall does little to inspire confidence that state agencies are paying much more than lip service to concepts such as recycling and energy conservation.<\/p>\n
\tThree agencies simply ignored the legislative mandate (in Act 96 of the 2006 Legislature) to report on efforts to conserve: they are the Department of Transportation Highways Division, the Hawai`i Housing Finance and Development Corporation, and the Department of Defense. Other agencies \u2013 the Department of Human Services and the Hawai`i Public Housing Authority \u2013 submitted incomplete information. The state court system and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs are not included, since they are not part of the executive branch.<\/p>\n
\tAmong state agencies, the largest energy consumers are, in descending order, the University of Hawai`i system (with the Manoa campus accounting for more than 71 percent of the 156,000 megawatt hours consumed); the Department of Education (146,000 MWh); the DOT Airports Division (130,000 MWh); and the Department of Accounting and General Services (about 49,000 MWh). Because DAGS is the manager for many state office buildings, its electricity consumption figures include the usage for other agencies, too, such as the departments of Budget and Finance, Taxation, and Human Resources Development, as well as most DBEDT offices.<\/p>\n
\tOverall, electricity used by state agencies (excluding the ones that did not report) rose by half a percent in fiscal year 2006 as compared to FY 2005 (July 1 through June 30 constitutes a fiscal year in Hawai`i).<\/p>\n
\tDespite the relatively small increase in electricity consumed (from 630,000 MWh in 2005 to 633,000 MWh in 2006), the state\u2019s electric bills jumped 19.2 percent (from $92.3 million in FY 05 to $110 million in FY 06), which the report attributes to the \u201cescalating cost of oil.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe figures reflect energy-saving technologies installed at state facilities over the last decade, the report states. Under utility-sponsored demand-side management programs, state agencies have received some $3.6 million in rebates from the Hawaiian Electric Co. and its subsidiaries. \u201cThe benefits of the HECO-supported rebates include \u2026 50,000 MWh of energy savings each year,\u201d the report states. \u201cCumulatively, since 1996, 301,823 MWh have been saved at state facilities. The efficiency measures avoided the importation of 93,800 barrels of oil and the emission of 48,000 tons of carbon dioxide, and saved enough power to energize 41,000 households for one year.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tRelying on HECO figures on electricity usage in typical office buildings, the \u201cLead by Example\u201d report notes that 43 percent of the electricity consumed goes for \u201cspace conditioning\u201d (operating air conditioning systems and ventilation fans). The next-highest use is lighting, which accounts for 27 percent. Then come \u201cplug-ins\u201d (computers, other office machinery and equipment), at 17 percent. Water heating accounts for less than 1 percent in office buildings, and miscellaneous use accounts for the remaining 12 percent.<\/p>\n
\tThe report stresses the energy savings achievable through \u201cgreen\u201d building techniques in new and retrofitted buildings. The state has set a goal of having new buildings qualify for certification under the U.S. Green Building Council\u2019s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards. The Public Housing Corporation has committed to putting \u201ccool roofs\u201d (with insulation) on its housing stock, and many state agencies have already retrofitted their offices with low-energy compact fluorescent or LED lights.<\/p>\n
\tBy and large, though, the agencies\u2019 commitment to attaining LEED certification is tempered as they invoke the escape clause in the covering legislation \u2013 \u201cto the extent possible.\u201d Just what this clause means is the subject of agonized discussion in the various agency responses to the DBEDT questionnaire on which the report is based.<\/p>\n
\tDAGS, for example, says it has three projects underway that it hopes will achieve LEED Silver rating. \u201cWhile Act 96 \u2026 mandates LEED Silver or Two Green Globes rating system, it also allows for something less by stating \u2018to the extent possible.\u2019 This statement in the law is hard to define.\u201d The \u201cgeneral strategy\u201d of DAGS\u2019 Public Works Division \u201cin defining and applying \u2018to the extent possible\u2019\u201d involves at least five steps, the report states. First is to look at what \u201cwe do already, thus having no impact on operation\/function and cost.\u201d Second is to look for practices \u201cthat we may not have normally done, but can do without negative impact to cost and negative impact to operation\/function of the facility.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe third step is to \u201clook for and possibly implement sustainable design practices \u2026 that are not very costly.\u201d Fourth, \u201clook for and possibly implement requirements that we may not currently do and will impact costs and improve operation\/function of the facility.\u201d Fifth: \u201cand so forth\u2026\u201d [sic].<\/p>\n
\tThe Department of Public Safety used the very same language, and the very same steps, in its effort to fathom the meaning of that cryptic phrase, \u201cto the extent possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe Department of Hawaiian Home Lands didn\u2019t even try to figure it out. It reported that it merely encourages its staff and divisions to employ energy-saving techniques in designing buildings for its lands.<\/p>\n
Recycling <\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
The mandate to conserve resources extends beyond electricity and includes exhortations to recycle, purchase products with recycled content, conserve water, and improve fleet-wide fuel efficiency standards.<\/p>\n
\tComparing a survey conducted in 2004 to one in 2006 showed some improvement in one area: purchase of recycled paper. In 2004, 112 state agencies spent $750,000 on \u201crecycled content products,\u201d almost all paper, the \u201cLead by Example\u201d report found. This resulted \u201cin the environmental savings of 523 trees, 741,360 gallons of water, 359,714 kilowatt-hours of electricity, and 160,796 pounds of greenhouse gas\/CO2 emissions.\u201d In 2006, total state agency spending on \u201cenvironmentally preferable products\u201d increased to $2.6 million. \u201cEnvironmental benefits are being calculated,\u201d the report states.<\/p>\n
\tWhen it comes to recycling, however, the news is grim \u2013 and confusing. DAGS reported that \u201cdue to the termination of the recycling contract that was entered into by the Department of Health,\u201d DAGS is in the process of soliciting bids from recyclers. Yet the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs reported that its blue bins for recycled paper were \u201cpicked up weekly by Island Recycling, contracted through DAGS.\u201d The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands simply encourages its employees to recycle and its Land Development Division to employ waste-management programs in its development contracts.<\/p>\n
\tThe Department of Education recycling programs are still in the planning stages, the report states.<\/p>\n
\tThe Airports Division of the Department of Transportation said that it was continuing to recycle white office paper in Honolulu, \u201ceven after the state recycling program was ended.\u201d But, as anyone traveling through Hawai`i\u2019s airports knows, recycling in the terminals simply doesn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n
\tOther airports across the country have aggressive recycling programs in passenger terminals, with bins for segregating paper, plastic, and aluminum. In Hawai`i, however, the DOT reports that \u201cglass, newspaper, plastic and aluminum recycling is made difficult by security regulations at airport locations. Currently there is no program in place at our airports.\u201d Scott Ishikawa, spokesman for the DOT, was asked to comment on the special hardships Hawai`i faces in airport recycling. He had not returned calls by press time.<\/p>\n
— Patricia Tummons<\/p>\n
Volume 17, Number 12 June 2007<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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