HAWAIIAN ELECTRIC PRESENTS
H AWA I ‘ I OF
TO M O R ROW
HAWAIIAN ELECTRIC PRESENTS
H AWA I ‘ I O F TO M O R ROW
of advertisements that imagined how Honolulu would emerge from the war years as a thriving, modern city. These penand-ink drawings were infused with idealism and creativity, with the artist and author using what today we would call design thinking to sketch a gleaming Honolulu that was just over the horizon. Seventy-five years later, Hawaiian Electric commissioned Hawaii Business to create a successor that reflects the same kind of optimism and confidence in Hawai‘i’s future as we recover from one of the most disruptive experiences of our lifetime. Honolulu of Tomorrow described a place where the built environment worked in harmony with Hawai‘i’s natural beauty. We wanted a fresh take on this, a Hawai‘i of Tomorrow that envisions resourceful, sustainable islands that adapt to the challenges of the coming decades, especially climate change. We talked to people about what they see for the Hawai‘i of 2050, including experts in design, transportation, agriculture and energy. We received ideas from groups like the Center for Tomorrow’s Leaders and the Office of Indigenous Innovation at University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. While technology is an important element of the future they described, so is the responsible stewardship of our islands’ natural resources. In this final installment of the series, writer M. Kaulana Ing describes how education hubs provide an immersive learning experience, illustrated by artist Xochitl Cornejo, and imagines a dynamic new Waikīkī that has become an amazing model of climate change adaptation, illustrated by artist Solomon Enos. I hope you enjoyed this project and that it continues to inspire discussion, as it has at Hawaiian Electric. You can send your comments and ideas to future@hawaiianelectric.com. Our Climate Change Action Plan sees us eliminating carbon emissions from power generation well before 2050 and working closely with our communities to make sure that the clean energy transformation benefits everyone. I N 1947, HAWAI IAN E LECTR IC CO M M I S S IO N E D A S E R I E S
With aloha, SHELEE KIMURA
President and CEO See the full Hawai‘i of Tomorrow project, as well as the 1947 Honolulu of Tomorrow book, at hawaiianelectric.com/hawaiioftomorrow
H AWA I ‘ I OF
TO M O R R OW PUBLISHER
Cheryl Oncea cherylo@hawaiibusiness.com (808) 534-7575 C R E AT I V E D I R E C T O R
Kelsey Ige kelseyi@hawaiibusiness.com (808) 534-7179 WRITER
M. Kaulana Ing
©2022 Hawaii Business Magazine, 1088 Bishop St., Suite LL2, Honolulu, HI 96813. hawaiibusiness.com.
E N V I S I O N I N G A H AWA I ‘ I O F TO M O R R OW T H R O U G H C R E AT I V E C O L L A B O R AT I O N Hawaii Business Magazine, in partnership with Hawaiian Electric, summons the optimistic spirit of practical imagination to think about what Hawai‘i would look like in 2050, with special consideration on the challenges of the coming decades. Who better to envision this future than homegrown Hawai‘i artists who create beautiful worlds and futures through imagery. The artists featured in “Hawai‘i of Tomorrow” envision Hawai‘i as a place where people, technology, infrastructure and ‘āina somehow function harmoniously together. Let their visions of the future serve as inspirational and aspirational.
Excerpts from Hawaiian Electric’s 1947 publication “Honolulu of Tomorrow”
hawaiianelectric.com/HonoluluTomorrow
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Solomon Enos Artist of “Oceania’s Climate Renaissance,” Pg.4 Solomon Robert Nui Enos is a Native Hawaiian artist, illustrator and visionary. He hails from the well-known Enos ‘ohana of Mākaha Valley on O‘ahu and has been making art for over 30 years, exploring a wide variety of media including oil painting, book illustration, murals and game design. A self-described “Possibilist” Solomon’s art expresses an informed, aspirational vision of the world at its best via contemporary and traditional art that leans towards Sci-Fi and Fantasy. His work explores themes of collective-consciousness, ancestry and identity, our relationship with the planet, all through the lens of his experience as a person indigenous to Hawai‘i.
Hawai‘i of Tomorrow is published as a supplement to Hawaii Business Magazine, April 2022. Presented by Hawaiian Electric.
Xochitl Cornejo Artist of “Observing Innovators in Bloom,” Pg.6 Xochitl Cornejo is a Mexican-American illustrator and 2D animator from Kailua with a passion for bright colors. Inspired by magical realism, Ghibli movies, and the daily life they experienced growing up in Hawai‘i, they like creating fun and whimsical worlds in their art. Their past work includes animated shorts, children’s book illustration, and background art for the animation industry.
A R T I S T S F E AT U R E D I N H AWA I ‘ I O F T O M O R R OW
Kimberlie Clinthorne-Wong
Wooden Wave
Kate Wadsworth
Lauren Trangmar
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so did our island community, together, in a new era of cooperation. Twenty years have passed since the Pacific began its slow, sure ascent inland, demanding its preeminence be acknowledged by everybody in its expanse. The greatest minds of Oceania, from Aotearoa to Hawai‘i, pooled their political and scientific capital and spearheaded the international effort to stem the tide. Now, in 2050, after a decade of collective reinvention, we have finally turned a corner on climate. We dream new dreams, and from adaptation blooms solutions in resilience that we gift to our children’s future Floating promenades bedeck O‘ahu’s south shore, an ornate shield. As each raised segment of the walkway bobs above the crests and troughs of the king tides, built-in kinetic converters transform wave energy into electricity, powering the pumps that protect coastal infrastructure. We call it The Channel, a place where visitors and residents stroll through artisan maker-markets on sunny afternoons. After we retired our last fossil-fuel generating plant, Hawai‘i began experimenting with new zero-emission solutions. In Waikīkī, a new kind of technology is blossoming, one that uses remnants of ancient litter and living flora as building materials in place of mined ores. In experimental corners of our city, data, water, and energy flow through chloroplast stroma in a vast living network. Root systems move and purify freshwater between buildings, and mycelial threads transmit data faster than fiber optics. One day, the natural chlorophyll of giant leaves will complement soH E N TH E S E A B EG AN TO R I S E ,
Floraform Architect: Organic tech pioneers upgrade wires with smart roots, solar panels with giant leaves. An AR metalayer translates rhizome exudates (plant-to-plant chatter) to data and power.
lar panels in a single electrical system. Autonomous, solar-powered gardener-constructor bots superheat plastics reclaimed from ancient ocean debris. They crawl up and extrude plastic lattices directly onto building exteriors, 3-D printing the honeycomb structures that anchor the roots of hanging gardens. Vertical forests rise from the facades of neighboring buildings, cooling non-permeable hardscapes and drinking flood waters. Bridges 3-D printed between buildings form walkable common greenspaces high above sea level, adding to the buzz of life in the island city by building up instead of out. On these Highline Constellations, neighbors and visitors meet to peruse locally farmed produce and enjoy public performances. Now, as before, people come from around the world to tour this awe of nature we call home. Here, in the cradle of the organic tech revolution, practitioners teach groups through immersive experiences. One group of school children visiting from Fiji takes trowels and spades to plant huli on a fourth floor veranda. A giant technicolor lei swirls above the class and between residences. It is part of the metaverse layer that adorns the town, visible only through augmented reality (AR) lenses. Virtual badges like these are earned — and proudly displayed — by neighborhood blocks and hometown businesses for meeting climate and resiliency goals. It’s three parts cooperation, one part friendly competition. Their kumu describes how their plantings will win points for her Kālia neighborhood in this season’s Resiliency Games. The students swaddle each kalo shoot in soil and laugh as points ping to life on their AR displays.
Gardener-Builders: Children regard the autonomous bots that crawl on building facades as guardian-spirits, imbued with artificial intelligence to tend to the wellbeing of plants and people alike.
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H E POTE NTIAL O F I N N OVATIO N TO B LOS SO M , like a sprout in a garden pot,
is limited by the size of its confines. In 2050, students learn under the infinite sky. In each school complex, outdoor education hubs outnumber placid classrooms, each site a star in a constellation of learning spanning mauka to makai. At Kona’s coastal hub, children wow wide-eyed around a sea cucumber stuck to their classmate’s cupped hands. The kupuna who placed it there smirks as he describes how its alkaline excrement fortifies coral reefs. “Eeew!” they squeal. Another group of kids huddle around a fishbot, tinkering with its robotic innards on the deck of the learning pier. It’s the caudal fin, they agree, that needs tuning in order to make it really swim in biomimicry of the pāpio schooling 20 meters away. Their teacher stands on the edge of a black ‘a‘ā tidepool three steps between either group, jotting observations into her smartware. It’s exactly the kind of qualitative data that enables friendly artificial intel-
ligence to tailor lesson plans individualized to each student’s strengths, joys, and inclinations. In the decade since Hawai‘i became the global leader in climate innovation, the booming industry has transformed the state’s economy and super-charged school capacity. Now, our teachers act as facilitators of personalized revelations, rather than managers of mini-knowledge factories. Each student is prized for the unique and creative potential they bring to their island’s future. Indigenous science, born of hundreds of generations’ ongoing co-creation of regenerative systems thinking, has reclaimed the zeitgeist. Rivers, farmers, dry land forests, and retired neighbors are invaluable resources for innovative ideas and hyperlocal knowledge. Autonomous electric buses safely shuttle students between hubs, and public wifi is as much an afterthought as the fresh air they breathe throughout the school day. At each site, students learn by observing closely the land they will steward into a new age of holistic resilience, their island a microcosm of our shared planet’s potential.
“I would want to see a place that’s surging forward in technology and beauty but also doesn’t forget where they come from. Hawai‘i is a beautiful place with a lot of history, so paying tribute to it would be respectful.” – E RIN SONG , STU DE NT, MCKINLEY HIGH SCHOOL
“In 30 years, I hope to see Hawai‘i using cleaner energy and ... to not see the effects of climate change. I hope there will be changes in our consumption and that we are protecting and preserving the land around us. ... I see Hawai‘i shifting reliance on the tourism industry and to be self-sustaining.” – MARC GAMAYO, STU DE NT, WAIPAHU HIGH SCHOOL
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