Accelerating Progress Toward a Sustainable Hawai`i Island

The report evaluates Hawai`i County's goals across ten areas, including affordable housing, energy self-sufficiency, and environmental stewardship. It argues that the loss of local land control to outside investors is the island's most critical challenge, driving a housing crisis and eroding the social fabric (ohana). RMI recommends implementing land trusts, deed restrictions, and green building standards to ensure permanent affordability. The document emphasizes 'whole-system thinking' to address root causes rather than symptoms, suggesting that the county maximize its local economic multiplier by producing energy and food locally. A significant portion of the report is dedicated to proposing specific indicators to measure progress toward these goals to ensure transparency and durability.

• The most critical challenge facing Hawai`i Island is the loss of land control, as essential assets are rapidly purchased by outsiders at prices locals cannot afford, threatening the local economy and culture.
• To ensure housing remains affordable permanently and is removed from the speculative market, the report recommends using deed restrictions that limit annual ownership-unit appreciation to a set percentage, such as 3 percent.
• RMI suggests establishing land trusts, community corporations, and cooperatives to preserve residential and agricultural assets for local working people, noting that land conservancies provide a successful model for protecting ecological assets.
• The report argues for a shift from maximizing economic 'throughput' (gross flow of dollars) to maximizing the 'local economic multiplier' by building local assets and producing basic necessities like food and energy locally.
• Green design is identified as a key factor in long-term housing affordability because energy savings reduce total monthly housing costs for residents.
• The report recommends that the County adopt an energy building code modeled after the one developed by the City and County of Honolulu to drive electrical-energy efficiency.
• To protect agricultural land from conversion to residential use, the report suggests allowing very limited luxury rural-residential development on small portions of large tracts in exchange for the permanent preservation of the remainder.
• The report proposes a 'dashboard' of indicators to measure progress toward County goals, arguing that without objective data, public perceptions can be driven by rumors and misinformation.
• Whole-system thinking is presented as a necessary approach to avoid 'shifting the burden,' where symptomatic solutions (like widening highways to reduce congestion) provide short-term relief but eventually worsen the root problem.

APA

Kinsley, M., Shi, L., Page, C., & Datta, K. (2007). Accelerating Progress Toward a Sustainable Hawai`i Island. RMI. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_2007-16_SustainableHawaiiIsland.pdf

Chicago

Kinsley, Michael, Linda Shi, Christina Page, and Kyle Datta. Accelerating Progress Toward a Sustainable Hawai`i Island. RMI, 2007. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_2007-16_SustainableHawaiiIsland.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Kinsley |first1=Michael |last2=Shi |first2=Linda |last3=Page |first3=Christina |last4=Datta |first4=Kyle |title=Accelerating Progress Toward a Sustainable Hawai`i Island |publisher=RMI |date=February 2007 |url=https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_2007-16_SustainableHawaiiIsland.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{kinsley2007accelerating, author = {Kinsley, Michael and Shi, Linda and Page, Christina and Datta, Kyle}, title = {{Accelerating Progress Toward a Sustainable Hawai`i Island}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2007}, month = feb, url = {https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_2007-16_SustainableHawaiiIsland.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }