City praises ‘sustainable’ projects near Skyline

On Earth Day, Honolulu officials rode the city’s self-driving, all-electric Skyline trains to not only tout the benefits of public transportation, but also tout current and future sustainable projects along the West Oahu Line.

Monday’s media event highlighted the release of the Mayor’s Office of Climate Change, Sustainability and Resilience’s 2024 Annual Sustainability Report for Oahu.

That city document outlines the progress the city says it has made in its activities, its climate plans, its clean and affordable modes of transportation, its food security, its water management and its disaster preparedness.

“This report is really about making sure we’re transparent in tracking our efforts across a whole range of city sustainability and community resilience and initiatives,” Matt Gonser, executive director of the Office of Climate, told me Change, Sustainability and Resiliency, to reporters at Halawa Station. .

He noted two ‘major successes’.

“This is the fifth year in a row that the city has reduced our electricity use,” he said. “And that comes through really important partnerships and investments across all city facilities, where we can then use those savings to continue to invest in other (projects).”

The city also experienced “decreased water consumption over the past three years,” he added.

According to the city, Honolulu’s so-called Energy Saving Performance Contracts (ESPCs) continue to reduce energy consumption, water use and utility demand.

“In just one year, Phase 1 of the citywide project has already generated $2,746,750 in savings for utilities and ratepayers,” Ryan Wilson, spokesman for the mayor’s office, said via email. “These cost savings will pay for the upgrades being installed at more than 80 city facilities, such as LED lighting replacements, HVAC retrofits and EV chargers.”

ESPCs “have delivered energy efficiency upgrades to more than 80 city facilities, including LED light conversions at the Ala Wai Golf Course Clubhouse,” he added.

Wilson said the city Department of Parks and Recreation’s ESPC is expected to provide $97 million in utility savings over 20 years, while also improving the park experience and resource conservation.

“In response to the Board of Water Supply’s request for a voluntary 10% reduction in water use following the closure of wells due to the (Red Hill) fuel contamination, the city, with the help of park users, successfully completed the water consumption in parks by more than 15.4% last year,” he said.

Aboard the Skyline, city staff traveled to project sites near train stations.

Jon Nouchi, deputy director of the city’s Department of Transportation Services, said planned projects near the Pearlridge Station will include a mobility hub that will be built “right between the water and this station.”

The proposed $13.5 million project — to be built within the next two years — “is a place where all of our buses can come in and meet passengers arriving or departing Skyline,” he said.

The hub will also house TheHandi-Van and pedestrian and bicycle traffic.

“We want to have a place of shared mobility, whether it’s sharing cars, bikes or any other kind of device,” he said.

He added that adjacent to the future mobility hub is the Pearl Harbor Historic Trail, which is considered “part of the South Shore Trail that DTS is working on.”

The city plans to connect a “slew of existing and some new transit infrastructure over many years, which will result in a 30-mile trail all the way from Nanakuli and extending to the University of Hawaii at Manoa and Waikiki,” he says. said.

With the construction of rail lines to downtown Oahu, the city will have a “high-capacity pipeline so that Skyline is connected to electrified buses at the Pearlridge mobility hub, which will distribute people throughout this neighborhood and throughout this region,” he said.

“And linked to this bicycle and (pedestrian) superhighway that the South Shore Trail and Pearl Harbor Historic Trail connect to,” he added.

He said the “South Shore Trail is a $6 million planning exercise that identifies all existing infrastructure and connections to each other.”

“So we have an Ewa Bike Trail and we have several streets (routes) in Kapolei,” Nouchi said, adding that it will take time to complete the planning study. “It’s a very large-scale investigation… years in the making.”

City officials also made connections between higher education, jobs and public transportation.

At the Leeward Community College Station, Amy Asselbaye, executive director of the city Office of Economic Revitalization, said the Good Jobs Hawaii program provides $5 million in free training to residents of University of Hawaii community colleges.

“As well as through private partners like the Carpenters’ Union,” she said, noting that the program trains for skilled professions such as healthcare, technology and creative industry jobs. “And of course clean energy.”

The program will “help people get good jobs,” she said.

“We can ensure that they upskill for opportunities in these areas, and that they get more economically resilient jobs that are sustainable in case we have (the) next natural or healthcare disaster like the one we experienced with the pandemic,” says she. said.

She added that the track’s proximity to the Leeward Community College campus made it more “earth-friendly” to take courses, but noted that many courses were online.

Vincent Kimura, Good Jobs Hawaii program manager, said the job training included solar installers, electric vehicle technicians and native plant arborists for landscapers.

Over the past four years, Good Jobs Hawaii has trained more than 3,000 students, he added.

At Waipahu Transit Center Station, DPR spokesperson Nate Serota said local parks nearby have undergone improvements.

That includes planting trees at the Bill Balfour Jr. Waipahu District Park and new LED lighting for sports fields at Hans L’Orange Neighborhood Park.

“They are two of the 49 parks that are part of our NORESCO energy efficiency project,” Serota said. “Basically we want to upgrade some of our facilities to make them more efficient with water and energy use.”

The city’s 2024 Annual Sustainability Report can be viewed at resilientoahu.org/sustainability-report.