Act 8 of the 2005 Special Session of the Hawai‘i State Legislature (Act 8) established the Hawai‘i 2050 Task Force (Task Force) to review the Hawai‘i State Plan and the State’s comprehensive planning system, to develop a statewide sustainability plan for the 21st century. Act 8 required the Office of the Auditor, after receipt of the Task Force’s report, to prepare the Hawai‘i 2050 Sustainability Plan to define and implement state goals, objectives, policies, and priority deadlines by incorporating the Tasks Force’s recommendations. In January 2008, the Office of the Auditor submitted the Hawai‘i 2050 Sustainability Plan to the Hawai‘i State Legislature. While Act 8 called for “the auditor, with the assistance of the office of planning to update the sustainability plan every ten years and report to the legislature,” no funding beyond Fiscal Year 2007 was appropriated for the purposes of this Act. Furthermore, Act 8 called for the Hawai‘i 2050 Task Force to sunset on June 30, 2008. Therefore, the Task Force recommended the Legislature pass a law establishing an implementing agency, the Sustainability Council, to be a continuing, governmental organization with budgetary and staffing resources essential to carry forward the Hawai‘i 2050 Sustainability Plan. However, a Sustainability Council was never established. Given that a Sustainability Council was never established, and that our office lacks the requisite expertise and financial resources to facilitate a full, formal update, this report represents an informal update of the Hawai‘i 2050 Sustainability plan prepared by the Office of Planning. This informal update includes a compilation, review and analysis of available metrics originally established by the 2008 version of the Hawai‘i 2050 Sustainability Plan, along with additional recommendations developed by the Office of Planning. This report is also accessible through the Office of the Auditor’s website at http://files.hawaii.gov/auditor/Reports/2018/2018H2050.pdf.
