Hawaii 2050

As I have been hoping, a new long-range planning effort is now underway, the Hawaii 2050 Sustainability Plan. The author of the enabling legislation and chair of the task force, Sen. Russell Kokubun, kindly solicited my thoughts on this effort. One of Kokubun's early task force meetings extensively reviewed the Hawaii State Plan, which was the signature legislation of my tenure as governor.

The core question of Hawaii 2050 and the State Plan are the same: "What is good for future generations?" One of the exciting parts is the envisioning. What would we like the future to be? Preferred futures tend to be idealized futures on which most of us tend to agree. How we will achieve our goals is something else again.

When we developed the State Plan in the 1970s, the young state of Hawaii was much more concerned with planning than it is today. Labor and business were involved. The state's planning and business-development efforts were integrated at the cabinet level through the Department of Planning and Economic Development. Land-use plans, shoreline preservation plans, economic models and planning/ budgeting efforts all preceded the State Plan. As the culmination of many efforts, the plan was conceived of as second in importance only to the state constitution.

The idea was to get as many people as possible "on the same page," with an awareness of what would be good for the long term, while going about managing the diverse and sometimes conflicting goals of state government day to day. We had not one but many task groups, retreats, brainstorming sessions, work shops, etc. We surveyed the general public on many key planning issues, probing for priorities.

The 12 implementing plans (functional plans) were adopted at various times, each with its own champions and constituencies. Skeptics contended that planning amounted to casting ideas in concrete. I argued that it defined a desired direction. As this process went on, it became apparent that the plans were not the last word, but roadmaps for continuous decision-making and action. Indeed, good plans are adept at thoughtfully anticipating situations, but not dictating outcomes.

The State Plan was adopted in the fourth year of my first elected term and guided my administration for my remaining two terms. As a reflection of the widely shared commitment to flexibility, we updated the plan periodically.

After I left office, short-term efforts to pump up Hawaii's economy took precedence; long-range planning languished. Obviously the effort rested overly much on my tenure in office. However, the need to plan never goes away. As the 1990s progressed, the goals of planning have been increasingly expressed in terms of "sustainability." Ironically, various sustainability initiatives have been plagued by the issue of sustaining the planning effort.

From this perspective, you can see that maintenance of effort and wide involvement must at some point merge; one must reinforce the other. To succeed, Hawaii 2050 has to transform from the mode of task force to community movement. It must involve as many people as possible in grassroots planning while developing a powerful overview. Second, the task force must come up with a better idea of how to periodically renew the effort. As the legislation is now written, it directs the legislative auditor to update a plan of sustainability every 10 years. Obviously, this is not the function of the legislative auditor. But who, in fact, should do this work is not clear, since the planning capability of the State government has shrunk due to inattention and disuse.

Maybe we should have a massive public survey and community conference every 10 years. Encourage people to speak. Let visions be renewed and redirected. What is best for future generations? Addressing this question must be internalized as a way of thinking and a way of life. In an open system, hopes and good ideas have a way of rising to the top.

Business should not only keep an eye on Hawaii 2050, but get involved and help shape it.

George R. Ariyoshi, chairman and cofounder of Convergence CT and Cellular Bioengineering, is the former president of Prince Resorts Hawaii Inc. He is active in international business circles, particularly in Asia. An attorney by profession, Ariyoshi served in elective office in Hawaii from 1954 to 1986. He served as governor of Hawaii from 1973 to 1986 and was the first Japanese American to be elected governor in the United States.

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