Today in Hawai'i, projects are being initiated to produce biofuels. Unfortunately, some biofuels projects outside Hawai'i have caused significant social and environmental problems. With international standards emerging to address these social and environmental issues, the Hawai'i Biofuels Foundation is proposing an integrated program to advance adoption of international standards developed by the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels in Hawai'i.

Please describe your innovation?

Hawai'i has a unique opportunity to implement environmental and social principles as a number of biofuels projects emerge. Implementation of social and environmental standards in the start up phase of a new industry represents a systemic change from typical start up processes that call for moving from concept to commercial operations as quickly as possible leaving sustainability issues to be studied after start up. A key challenge is to encourage Hawai'i biofuel projects to become early adopters of sustainability standards. Implementation of international sustainability criteria will require careful consideration of diverse issues. The Hawai'i Biofuels Foundation is proposing to work collaboratively with Hawai'i biofuel projects to gain a basic understanding of the standards, assist in develop practices to meet the standards, and prepare for actual audits. Implementation of comprehensive sustainability strategy in an emerging industry would be a landmark accomplishment.

What is the problem or situation that your innovation seeks to address?

Internationally, biofuels development has created many challenges including the conversion of natural ecosystems; impacts on critical wildlife habitat, soil and water resources; and questions about the carbon impacts. The Hawai'i Biofuel Foundation explored the local concerns regarding biofuels by completing a Needs Assessment of the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels Standards to the Hawai'i Context Report. (see hawaiibiofuelsfoundation.org) The technical group and public meetings brought forward a wide range of questions and concerns including the need for transparency, need for stakeholder input, and the balancing of food security and energy production. If these issues are not dealt with proactively, the companies working to initiate biofuels projects will face questions from the community and elected officials. An even worse outcome could be project delay or even project failure if these issues are not addressed in a transparent and direct fashion.

What effort have you made to test out your new idea?

The ground work for this innovation has already been started. Through an international, multi-stakeholder process, the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels (RSB)- a membership-based organization with participation from international NGOs, major biofuel industry associations and companies, fuel distributors and many governments and multilateral organizations - has developed principles and criteria for sustainability certification. With the participation of thousands of stakeholders, the RSB developed a robust international voluntary certification program, intended to reward biofuel companies that meet rigorous sustainability requirements. The certification program is administered by independent, third-party auditors, trained by the RSB, who visit farmers and biofuel plants to ensure that they adhere to the RSB requirements. The RSB opened its doors for business as an international certification program this past spring, and recently began its first certification activities.

What is particularly noteworthy or novel about your innovation?

The impact of Hawai'i’s dependence on fossil fuel has been well defined from an energy security, economic, and environmental perspective. Today, the state is seeing high adoption rates of photovoltaic technology, increasing use of wind energy, and acceptance of energy efficiency. Finding a substitute for petroleum based liquid fuels is a large piece of this puzzle. Several of Hawai'i’s largest users of liquid fuels, Hawaiian Electric and the United States Department of Defense, have active programs to procure biofuels. Airlines are conducting experimental flights with biofuels. Given the promise of biofuels, the realities of the situation need to be understood. The biofuels development will require large capital investments and the use Hawaii most valuable assets, land, water and human resources. It is for these reasons that the pathway to change has to be accomplished with a full focus on where we are going and how we get there.

What impact do you expect your innovation will have on the problem or situation described in the previous question?

Embedding sustainability practices in the emerging biofuels projects in Hawai'i will have three outcomes. First, the bad practices of past biofuels projects will be avoided. Issues such as land and habitat protection, treatment of agricultural workers and soil and water conservation will be audited. Secondly, the clear commitment to a sustainability strategy will mean that the project and evolution of the biofuels developments can be transparent to the community. The third outcome would be growing community confidence that biofuels projects will be contributors to changing the fossil fuel dependence of Hawai'i. For these outcomes to be achieved, the biofuels projects developers will have to participate in the process. Providing a support mechanism to initiate and implement a sustainability policy for their projects will be critical.

What other community partners will you need if your innovation is to scale beyond your organization?

For a voluntary international certification process to succeed, partnerships with the community and businesses are critical. The outreach to producers and feedstock providers is a key success factor that has been started by the Hawai'i Biofuels Foundation. Achieving alignment with major users such as Hawaiian Electric Company and Department of Defense (DOD) is important. To this end, Hawaiian Electric has included sustainability provisions in its biofuel procurement, and the DOD has initiated the Green Initiative for Fuels Transition in Hawaii (GIFTPAC). Hawai'i has a long tradition of agriculture, and it will be important to work with those in the agriculture business today, the University of Hawai'i College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, and Hawai'i Agriculture Research Center. A final component will be outreach to the broader community as demonstrated in the Needs Assessment accomplished by the Hawai'i Biofuel Foundation.

Why are your organization, partners, and key personnel suited to take on this project?

The Hawai'i Biofuel Foundation has been working with these issues for over two years. The Board of Directors would provide overall governance of this project, and current board members include David Waller, Michael Hamnet of the Research Corporation of the University of Hawaii, Mark Fox of the Nature Conservancy, Debbie Hammel of the Natural Resource Defense Council(NRDC), Walace Ishibashi of the ILWU, and Alani Apio. This group has broad experience with energy policy and biofuels issues. For example, Dr. Hamnet has led the Hawai'i Energy Policy Forum and provided Hawaii’s legislators with valued guidance on energy policy. Debbie Hammel and David Waller worked jointly to develop Hawaiian Electric’s environmental policy for procurement of biofuels. In addition to the foundation, the project will be working very closely with Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels. Matthew Rudolf, Regional Manager, Americas, will be coordination this support.