A GREEN ECONOMY FOR HAWAII

by Ira Rohter

Political Science Department

University of Hawaii

Printed in "The Political Economy of Hawaii," edition of the journal Social Processes in Hawaii, Vol 35, 1994, pp. 124-144.

POST-WAR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: BUT AT WHAT COSTS?

Before World War II, Hawaii's territorial economy was based on sugar and pineapple exports, military spending, and a very small amount of tourism. In the mid-1950s, a political and economic revolution took place and a newly elected Democrat administration, allied with labor and business leaders, embraced a wholehearted strategy to develop mass tourism. Hotels and resort-golf course complexes and supporting airports and new roads spread throughout the Islands. In 1960 only 300,000 tourists arrived; by 1970 1,500,000 landed. In 1970 the visitor industry contributed only 38% of the money coming into the state, but by 1990, the $13 billion brought in by 6.5 million visitors comprised 67% of the income stream. Sugar and pineapple - once the mainstay of the Isle economy - produce less than 4% of today's state income.

Unfortunately Hawaii's tourist-dependent economy has created a litany of problems. The environment has been ravaged by rampant over-development, which has caused major losses of green space, beaches and marine life. Water aquifers on some islands are being overdrawn. Hawaii's economy creates mostly low-paying jobs servicing tourism, while burdening many local residents with low wages, extraordinarily costly housing, and a cost-of-living 39% higher than on the Mainland U.S. More than 80% of mothers work, many husbands or wives hold down second-jobs, and most young people work too. One-third of our young adults are leaving Hawaii for decent paying jobs and affordable homes elsewhere. We depend on imports for nearly all our needs, rather than on locally produced commodities. Most of our major productive resources - our larger businesses, our tourism facilities - are owned by off-shore corporations.

Many Native Hawaiians suffer from poverty and ill-health. Kanaka maoli have the highest rate in the nation of certain cancers, diabetes, heart disease, strokes, and hypertension. They not only die younger than other Island ethnic groups, but suffer estrangement and alienation in high-growth, urbanized settings. Their unique culture and way of life has been seriously eroded. No wonder Kanaka maoli have the highest rate of high school dropouts and imprisonment, alcohol and narcotics use, and suicides.

An even darker future is foreshadowed if business continues as usual. Developers and State planners are busily promoting and preparing for nearly DOUBLING the number of tourists flooding the Islands, to 11,500,000, by the year 2005. Expanded airports, new resorts, hotels, convention centers, shopping malls, 105 new golf courses, all are designed to meet the needs of 200,000 more tourists per day, and 300,000 new residents who will migrate to the Isles to fill low-paying service jobs. The number of people present in Hawaii on any single day will increase by 70%. Hawaii's fragile bio-environment and social culture will be devastated by this massive growth.

INSTEAD - A SUSTAINABLE ECONOMY

Genuinely solving the many problems threatening Hawaii requires that the economic philosophy guiding Hawaii's development be fundamentally changed. We must reject the any-kind-of-growth-is-good strategies embraced by Hawaii's economic and political leadership during the 1950s, and followed blindly ever since. We must design an economy more in harmony with nature and human fulfillment, that promotes the principles of sustainability, self-reliance, diversity, and democracy in both the economy and government (Ekins, 1986; Daly and Cobb, 1990).

"Sustainable development" includes several dimensions: it must be (1) Ecologically Sound. The well-being of future generations of humans and non-humans must be primary. This new economy must be (2) Multiple Need Oriented. Both basic material needs and non-material ones must be satisfied, including self-expression, creativity, artistic expression, equality, nurturing relationships, self-determination, and spirituality. It is (3) Indigenous. Economic activities must be consistent with values that originate in the area's own culture, not imported from outside. It should promote (4) Self-Reliance. Each region should rely on its own strengths and resources, as much as possible. And most importantly, it is (5) Based on Maximum Citizen Participation. Institution must be redesigned so as to alter the essential form of economic activities, social relations, and the distribution of power so that ordinary citizens are maximally involved in making decisions that affect them (Milbrath, 1989).

GREEN TOURISM

Most tourists are attracted to Hawaii because of its natural beauty and the Polynesian culture, yet increasingly many visitors are not coming, or not returning, because they feel the Islands have become too over-developed, commercialized, and lost their special "aloha spirit." Waikîkî has turned into block after block of gigantic high-rises, its streets jammed with cars, its sidewalks filled with people, street hawkers, and tourist kitsch. Oahu most popular beaches and other tourist attractions swarm with people. Maui, and parts of Kauai and the Big Island have also become built-up. Cane fields have been transformed into golf courses, resorts and subdivisions; once quaint small towns have turned into busy shopping centers. Shorelines are blocked off by miles of resorts, condominiums, and rows of expensive homes.

ATTRACTING VISITORS: THE EXPLORERS AND LEARNERS. Hawaii's tourism industry will only remedy its present decline by shifting its orientation away from mass tourism and more towards emphasizing its unique environment and multiple cultures. Around the world a whole new group of "alternative tourists" are seeking out unmatched natural settings and cultural experiences (Frommer, 1991). Such visitors are drawn to Hawaii because of its magnificent natural attractions, such as Kauai's Nå Pali coast, the Big Island's volcanic eruptions and primal landscapes, the Håna highway's wondrous waterfalls and lush green vistas, Molokai's remote valleys. Learning-oriented explorers also want to "incorporate within the travel experience. . . a sensitivity to the culture and values of the destination, a curiosity as to the genuine living conditions of the people."(Richter, 1989, p.193)

PRINCIPLES OF GREEN TOURISM

Environmental balance is one of the first principles of a sustainable tourism. Genuine eco-tourism must protect each island's unrivaled land and ocean ecologies, not destroy them. All facilities must conserve water and energy, and promote the recycling of waste and the use of renewable energy sources.

To minimize its impact on the natural and human ecology, genuine eco-tourism must be decentralized and small. It must fit into, but not dominate, the area's environment. It must be only one part of a truly diversified economy. Small hotels, lodges, inns, and Bed & Breakfasts, are preferred to massive resort complexes and huge high-rises.

In accord with the principles of economic democracy, Islanders must participate more in the direction and ownership of green tourist enterprises. The "localization" of tourism decentralizes decision-making and spreads its economic benefits more widely. Minimally this calls for a partnership in management and sharing of profits of resorts and associated businesses, since local communities bear the brunt of ill-effects of development, while receiving few of its benefits. At best, the community itself owns and manages the operation. Maximum community participation lies at the root of a fair economy.

Green tourism's local emphasis means island employees and products are used as much as possible. With supplies bought locally, more of the money that tourists spend would stays in the islands, not just "leak out" into offshore pockets.

Genuine eco-cultural tourism is based on each island's unique history and environment, not on the opulence and extravagance and architectural mishmash associated with "world class" resorts. Culturally, native ways are strengthened, not distorted or debased. A new class of visitors who travel, often with their families, for the opportunity to experience diverse cultures, natural beauty, and rich learning, will be attracted.

SOME EXAMPLES OF GREEN TOURISM

HAWAIIAN CULTURAL PARKS. Many visitors wish to explore Hawaii's historical roots. Some residents on Hawaii Island have taken the lead in restoring old Hawaiian villages and heiau, where cultural festivals and ceremonies are regularly held. Efforts underway to restore native diverse economic systems (ahupua`a) can offer local and overseas visitors an opportunity to experience first-hand Hawaii's ancient culture and lifestyle. Native instructors teaching in restored ancient fishponds and fishing villages will teach both residents and visitors alike an understanding and appreciation of the medicine, art, language, crafts, philosophy, history, and religion of Hawaii's native people.

PLANTATION VILLAGES. Hawaii's past also includes the era of sugar and pineapple plantations, and the personal stories of Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Filipino, and Korean immigrants, who came to Hawaii to earn their fortunes. Plantation Villages can combine a small working sugar or pine plantation with an interpretative plantation museum and tours, and rehabilitated rustic-style cottages for overnight guests. Tours of the working plantation's operations and mills can be offered. Interpretative museums containing plantation-era artifacts, staffed by historian-storytellers who know intimately the history of both the plantation itself and its surrounding district, can offer unique learning experiences.

SMALL-SCALE. Green tourism is best expressed at small guest facilities, with limited numbers of rooms, scattered around the islands. Small inns and Bed & Breakfasts provide a human-scale environment that humanizes the host and guest relationship. Their smallness allows them to blend into the environment, and easily employ solar energy sources, water conservation, and waste and refuse recycling methods. Being owned and managed by families or cooperatives allows island entrepreneurs and communities to share directly in the economic benefits of visitors. Local businesses construct the buildings, and provide food, furnishings, supplies and services.

RURAL TOURISM can increase residents' incomes while providing cheaper accommodations for people enjoying active outdoor recreation. As in Europe and New Zealand, Bed & Breakfasts can be built for walkers, cyclists, and others who want to get away from urban settings and spend time experiencing the countryside. People staying at rural farm sites can participate in day-to-day farming activities, or visit nearby sugar or rice mills, sustainable farms, aquaculture ponds, and taro lo`i and rice farms. This provides supplemental income for farmers and gives travelers a place to rejuvenate themselves in a tropical agricultural setting.

The Hawaii Visitors Bureau can advertise small-scale facilities and offers information and centralized booking services. Co-ops and extension services can organizes training sessions for rural small holders. Farm tourism has been successfully promoted in New Zealand, Canada, the Solomon Islands, England and France (Morris and Romeril, 1986).

HOME-GROWN TOURS. Small tour businesses owned by Islanders can spring up. These tours would provide accurate and informative interpretation of the Polynesian culture, ancient sites, geology, history, oceanography, and the contemporary island lifestyle. Visitors learn about them through a reservation center (with Mainland connections) that lists culturally based events and sites. Interpretative Centers can be created to assist in researching indigenous culture and geology and disseminating this material to educate tour guides.

Old trails and historic sites can be re-established, bringing in local communities and hiking clubs for management and upkeep. Cabins and campsites scattered in undeveloped areas can be owned and run by nearby residents. Knowledgeable islanders can lead small hiking, kayaking, and horseback tours into more pristine areas, providing a see-the-country and meet-the-people experience.

HAWAIIAN HANDARTS. Most tourists want to take home something distinctive from the place they visit. In Hawaii this usually means a tee-shirt, aloha shirt, mu`umu`u, or some trinket - which usually are manufactured elsewhere. These products can be made locally. Alternative tourism draws people more interested in native-made handicrafts and handarts. A substantial collectors' market exists for reproductions of ancient jewelry, clothing, musical instruments, wood products, and tools such as adzes, fish hooks, and weapons. Handarts of high quality and authenticity can be marketed to distinguish them from the cheap imitations normally sold at tourist stands. Craft co-operatives can be formed to manufacture and market these artifacts, as is done in some Pacific Island nations and in Alaska, Canada and Australia (Minerbi, 1988, p.108). These cooperatives not only bring in a decent income, they keep alive and expand upon traditional arts, and train apprentices.

ENHANCING ECONOMIC SELF-RELIANCE

Hawaii is almost completely dependent on off-shore sources for food, energy, capital, construction materials, clothing, and other goods used in daily life. In 1989, 95% of our outside income came from two sources: tourism (79%) and military spending (16%). We exported only $1.4 billion in merchandise and commodities, yet brought in $7.7 billion worth of imported items to meet Islanders' and visitors' needs (State Of Hawaii Data Book: 1989, pp. 336,338). Dominant sectors of Hawaii's economy are owned by outsider corporations, with substantial sums of money taken out as profits by investors and corporations from the Mainland, Europe, Japan, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. Isle hotels are among the most profitable in the country, earning 55% more than average (The Honolulu Advertiser, 4-21-91, p.B4). Since 1985, overseas investors, mostly Japanese, have plowed more than $17.5 billion into the Islands (Wiles, 1991). The $4.35 billion exported in fees and profits in 1990 represents 25% of the Gross State Product ("Hawaii Gross State Product Accounts: 1958-1990"). Economists expect that during the next five years billions more of investment capital will flow into Hawaii from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Korea as well (Smyser, 1990a).

Economic self-reliance is the key to breaking Hawaii's dependence on the offshore ownership of its major resources (Jacobs, 1984). This is done by: (1) Plugging the unnecessary leaks from our Isles by buying as much as possible from local enterprises. (2) Strengthening existing business via business assistance program and exporting more local products. (3) Encouraging new local enterprises through programs that get new businesses started and help them survive the first critical year. (4) Enhancing citizen participation by assisting local citizens to gain control over the economy by fostering employee ownership of businesses (Lovins, 1986; Meeker-Lowry, 1988).

DIVERSITY OF LIVELIHOOD OPPORTUNITIES.

A viable economy creates many different kinds of occupations for its citizens. Many decent jobs can come from meeting the islands' needs for locally grown food, made-in-Hawaii products, renewable energy, waste management, affordable housing, besides cultural and eco-tourism. Figure 1 shows the major sectors of a truly diversified Green economy. These various sectors are described in considerable detail in my book A Green Hawaii: Sourcebook For Development Alternatives.

FIGURE 1

SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

Why should this chain of fertile islands have to import three-fourths of its food? Hawaii's farmers had been losing ground to imported fruits and vegetables for years. Between 1963 and 1987 the total share of the market for locally grown fruits declined from 40% to 28%, while vegetables fell from a 47% share to 36%. Fishing repeats the same story; in recent years only 25% of the fish eaten here has come from Isle waters. The situation gets worse each year, because small, food-producing farmers can not compete with builders of golf courses, resorts, and subdivisions to buy highly-priced land. And Hawaii consumers now pay between 25-45% more for food than US Mainlanders (The Honolulu Advertiser, 10-7-90, p.A13).

THE HIDDEN COSTS OF IMPORTED FOOD. Nor does the price we pay for shipped in foods include the hidden costs of soil erosion, pollution, depletion and contamination of water supply, dependency on oil and toxic chemicals, and detrimental social impacts on human communities. Conventional accounting methods ignore these consequences. Taxpayers also subsidize the environmentally destructive agribusiness style of farming by tax write-offs, federally funded irrigation projects, credits, and commodity policies. Nearly half of the $30 billion in US farm subsidies paid out in 1986 was grabbed by only 10% of the producers - huge farm corporations (Ehrenfeld, 1987).

Large-scale farming also breaks down the agrarian lifestyle by wiping out rural communities (Berry, 1977). What are the prices we pay for the loss of knowledge about the land and methods of cultivation, the alienation experienced when people lose their sense of place and contact with nature? And what are the political consequence of being dependent on huge and powerful corporate farms and processors for most of our food?

THE SOLUTION: REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE

Despite all the drum-beating to keep the plantations in business, growing sugar for export is far from the best use of Hawaii's agricultural land. Production costs are lower on the Mainland (for sugar beets and corn-syrup sweeteners) and vastly lower in other countries. Diversified agriculture, on the other hand, brings in ten times more revenue, and employs nine times as many people, per acre. Pineapple, while barely profitable, is also considerably less valuable per acre and employs fewer people.

Hawaii's farmers can join with others around the world who are cutting costs and chemical use in favor of more "natural" methods of farming and planting diversified food crops. These methods include innovative cultivation and plowing methods that control weeds without herbicides; animal manures and nitrogen-releasing cover crops substituted for chemical fertilizers; and integrated pest control that lessen insecticide use. Straw and plant-waste mulches conserve soil moisture and enhance organic content, and crop rotation reduces pests and disease (Ehrenfeld, 1987, p.54).

In contrast to conventional industrial farming methods, a sustainable agricultural system properly internalizes environmental costs, rather than externalizes or dumps them on others and future generations. Careful soil maintenance and integrated pest-and-disease control require a greater amount of hand-care and labor-intensive farming than simply dumping more chemicals on the soil. What appears as higher store prices for organic food is simply keeping a more complete and honest set of books; that is, paying for the true environmental costs of conventional farming.

NEW INCOMES. Nevertheless, sustainable farming is profitable (Engardio, 1983, p.21; Organic Gardening, Oct. 1987, p.14.). Establishing sustainable agriculture in Hawaii would produce enormous beneficial economic, social, political, and cultural-spiritual consequences. A sizable market exists for Hawaiian farmers and food processors to replace the $2.3 billion annually spent by Hawaii's families and the $583 million spent by tourists for food.

Hawaii's food producers would receive nearly $500 million at "farm gate" prices for growing most of the food eaten in the Islands. (Table 1.) That would more than double what small Isle farmers, ranchers, and fishermen received in 1990. By setting up cooperative plants to process one-half of the crop, that amount would double again. Growing our own feedstock for the increased number of cattle and poultry we would raise would generate another $50-$70 million. So Isle farmers would end up with a net direct income of more than $1 billion. The multiplier effect would produce more than $2 billion in total economic activities streaming through Hawaii's economy (Schneider, 1986, p.54; Bank of Hawaii, 1987).

These dollar figures include only meeting our own food needs. Hawaii's farmers could grow more crops for valuable export markets: flowers and nursery products ($56 million in 1988 dollars), macadamia nuts ($36 million), coffee ($4.8 million), ginger root ($4.5 million), and taro ($1.7 million). That would add another $100 million to the direct farm-income stream (Hi Data Bk: 1988, pp.514, 516). Then, if the hundreds of millions that could come from new export crops, such as vanilla, oranges, fish, forest products, and so forth were added on, the total value for agriculture and aquaculture would come close to $1.5 billion. This would be five times greater than the $305 million brought in by sugar and pineapple in 1989 (Statistics Of Hawaiian Agriculture, 1989, p.5). These profits would also stay at home.

(Sources: State Of Hawaii Data Book: 1988, p.515; fish data from p.532 & estimates based on "Hawaii Seafood Consumption," Department of Business and Economic Development, 1989. For rice see footnote .)

NEW JOBS. Producing and processing our own food would create more than 30,000 new jobs for Hawaii residents now filled by western and foreign farm workers, cross-country truckers, food packers, and warehouse laborers. These new jobs would come from growing our own produce, feed, and rice; raising beef, pork, and poultry; fishing and aquaculturing; and in growing new crops. An equal number of people employed in processing locally grown food, and those working in ancillary businesses that supply farm equipment, seeds, insurance, accounting, etc. would also added to Hawaii's economy. And the move to producing our own food would create a group of economically and politically independent citizens.

POLICIES TO BRING ABOUT SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

Sustainable agriculture can produce reasonably priced food for residents, provide a decent livelihood for Isle farmers, and protect the Earth's resources for the needs of future generations (Cox and Atkins, 1979). Promoting sustainable agriculture on a large-scale basis requires enacting public programs that guide land-use decisions and technology by an ethic of land stewardship, favor small farmers instead of big agribusiness corporations, and encourage entry into farming. Costs can be reduced by establishing land banks and land trusts to make land for farming affordable; requiring strict adherence to existing agricultural zoning; diminishing input costs by using alternative energy sources, and reduced chemical and water use. Marketing is a second necessary ingredient, because a real commitment to local farming calls for enhancing existing markets and opening up new outlets for Hawaii's agriculture. This can be best done by promoting "Buy Local" program and legislative mandates that require publicly supported facilities such as schools, hospitals, prisons, and cafeterias to purchase locally-grown and produced food. The Department of Agriculture could assist in setting up farmers' markets and consumers' co-ops, and other direct marketing mechanisms.

Income support is a third leg of a viable farming system. Conventional industrial-style farming passes on the many costs of its method of production - pollution, resource depletion, environmental destruction, chemical contamination - to the society at large. Sustainable farmers should be paid for their work as conservers of the land. They should be subsidized for maintaining the countryside's diversity and beauty, and their efforts at reforestation, water conservation, and ending land erosion. The State should provide capital grants and low-cost loans for innovations that enhanced sustainability, such as buying equipment for composting, handling livestock waste, generating methane gas for running farm equipment, installing wind turbines and solar-powered heating and cooling systems, and water conservation. Marketing co-partnerships must be encouraged. Groups of consumers can directly contract with local farmers to share equally in the harvest. Low-cost loans, income subsidies, and training can be offered to interested homeless and unemployed people who needed to get a new start, and for families who wanted to buy family-sized farms. Farmer co-op marketing and processing facilities must receive financial and administrative support.

Research, education and technical assistance must be redirected toward sustainable farming. Extension services must be expanded to assist farmers in converting to sustainable methods, and to instruct new farmers in regenerative methods as well as renewable energy, management techniques, co-ops organizations, marketing, etc.

These Islands easily have enough fertile land and water to meet the demands of local consumers. Programs such as these are already being practiced on the Mainland and around the world (Rohter, 1992, ch 12), and if implement here, would make self-reliant. sustainable agriculture feasible in Hawaii too.

GREENBELTS AND URBAN ECONOMIES

Just as agriculture can shift from export-oriented plantations and industrial farming methods to regenerative farming principles, so too can Hawaii's urban communities be based on environmental and social sustainability (Register, 1986). These "eco-cities" can follow the "greenbelt" model, wherein suburban sprawl is contained within a system of agricultural and recreational lands that set limits to the growth of a city (Calthorpe, 1986).

All new (and redesigned) urban development projects in Hawaii should be based on a mixed-use, urban eco-city model. Small businesses, cafes and restaurants, professional and government offices, arts and crafts, can be scattered about in a mixture of homes, low-rise apartments, parks, play and picnic areas, sidewalk cafes, and commercial activities. Adhering to energy-efficient building strategies would reduce expensive lighting and cooling needs. Recycling water and waste also preserve precious resources and save additional substantial sums of money for homeowners and renters (Van der Ryn and Calthorpe, 1986; Walters, et al, 1991)

Eco-cities provide a rich multiplicity of work opportunities. For example, consider the kind of jobs that could be created in Oahu's new "second city" - Kapolei - being built about 20 miles north of Waikiki. As Figure 2 shows, if it was properly designed a good mixture of occupations, ranging from solar technicians to accountants to craft workers, would be available for residents within a series of "eco-villages" and nearby Campbell Industrial Park.

DIVERSE EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES IN KAPOLEI
A PROTOTYPE ECO-CITY

* Farm supply centers for 'Ewa and Wai'anae farmers, aquaculturists, and urban gardeners, selling seed, equipment, tools, and composters, and doing repairs.

* Food processing (for local consumption, restaurants and tourism). Distribution services to nearby resorts and cities.

* Small-scale urban agriculture, mostly for Kapolei's own consumption.

* Farmers' markets.

* Sewage and garbage recycling for methane fuel and compost.

* Alternative energy projects: building solar panels, wind turbines, and methane generators in Kapolei and Campbell Industrial Park.

* Environmental Enhancement Centers. Research and consulting in regenerative agriculture and forestry, aquaculture, recycling systems, and solar energy.

* Recycling center, reprocessing and related manufacturing: rebuilding home appliances, cars and trucks.

* Resource conservation: bicycle repair shops, home repairs and hardware stores.

* Solar installation.

* High tech industries, such as computer software design, ocean technology, bio-technology research and experimentation, telecommunications.

* Affordable housing: construction advisors/educators. Local products bought: lumber from Wai`anae, recycled materials, furniture, reconditioned appliances.

* Habitat Design Centers: Professionals and consultants who integrate housing, parks, and work sites into livable communities. Offering services in legal, financial, construction, and consulting and management, to projects in Hawaii and other Pacific nations.

* Teachers of gardening, home building, self-sufficiency household skills, co-op and small-business expertise.

* Lumber yards and building supplies, with wood grown on Isle reforested areas.

* Small businesses making things formerly imported: furniture, home furnishings, clothing, office supplies, books and art supplies.

* Cottage industries, handcrafts.

* Landscaping and maintenance people for Kapolei's many parks and streets.

* Bed & Breakfast, inns, & hostels for visitors who want to see life in a "greenbelt village"

* Business support services: management, banks and financing, insurance, accounting, duplicating centers, electronic communications centers.

JOBS IN A CONSERVER SOCIETY

All forms of businesses that conserve energy and resources would be encouraged in a Green Hawaii. Rising energy costs and environmental consciousness, especially the need to reduce carbon emissions, air pollution, acid rain, and toxic wastes, has already prompted a systematic recycling of metal, glass, paper, and other materials. In Europe and the United States, millions now work in environmental industries, and manufacturers have designed more durable and longer lasting goods, since extending the life of products uses vastly less energy and resources than fabricating new ones (Elkington, 1982, 1986; Renner, 1992).

In a conserver society many new jobs are created in the "4R" industries: repair, reconditioning, re-use, and recycling . The substitution of "reconditioning" for "production" offers real self-reliant wealth creation. The European Economic Community has found, for example, that extending the average life of cars from 10 to 20 years by means of reconditioning creates many more jobs than are lost. Recycling and reusing discarded materials provide a double savings for the community. Recycling reduces both resource depletion and pollution, and reduces the cost of waste disposal. Recycling enterprises create one new job for approximately every 250 tons of materials recycled (Meeker-Lowry, 1988, p.168). Since the Islands generated about 10 times that much waste daily in 1990, nearly 2,000 jobs would be created just by recycling half of its waste. Using the collected materials to make new products would create even more jobs.

Most Isle communities now export recyclables. We should instead close the economic loop by converting our waste into re-manufactured products consumed locally. This would help us reduce imports of virgin resources, increase employment, and add value to products removed from the waste stream. For example, a ton of loose waste office paper can be sold for only $30; but pulped and converted into writing paper, its value climbs to $920 per ton (Salvaging the Future, 1990). Micro steel and aluminum mills can use melted-down worn-out automobiles, household appliances, and construction and industrial materials for locally needed metals. Hawaii's non-biodegradable plastics can be recycled into a host of valuable products: wall insulation, paint brushes, fiberfill for pillows, sleeping bags, jackets, detergent containers, strapping material, paint supplements, road construction materials, and rot-free and termite-proof plastic lumber, decking, and fencing materials perfect for Hawaii's climate.

The demand for recovered products can be enhanced by requiring government agencies to buy goods that contain a certain percentage of recycled materials. Reports, legislation, and tax forms can be printed on recycled paper; government vehicles can be lubricated with re-refined oil; and public roads can be paved with mixtures of recycled tires. Tax incentives and promotional campaigns likewise encourage businesses and citizens to buy recycled products too.

Hawaii can also become a world-famous source for research and consulting in environmental restoration and ecologically-appropriate businesses. Experts in regenerative agriculture and forestry, aquaculture, recycling systems, and solar energy can serve as advisors to Asian Rim and Pacific governments. Hawaii's Pacific Ocean Science and Technology Center, Natural Energy Laboratory, and Pacific International Center For High Technology Research already attract millions of dollars from government and private corporations for ocean and solar-energy related research projects (Smyser, 1990).

ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY

Political democratic ideals can only be fulfilled when economic democracy is encouraged (Dahl, 1985; Mason, 1982). Beginning in the 1830s, the Plantation Era spawned a small group of Isle Barons - the Big Five - who dominated all facets of the economy and politics (Kent, 1983). In the 1960s, major corporations from all over the world began to buy up large chunks of Hawaii land and businesses. Since the mid-1980s almost all major economic decisions affecting the people of Hawaii have been directed from distant corporate headquarters.

A community-oriented economy, in contrast, keeps business profits in Hawaii, rather than being drained off by offshore corporate owners. Producers' co-ops and worker-owned businesses would more equitably distribute earnings among employees. Co-opters would also manage their own enterprises either directly (in small enterprises) or through delegates, who decide on financial plans, determine salaries and bonuses, make investment and development decisions, and select administrators.

COOPERATIVES. Hawaii's farmers, like millions of their peers around the world, can join together in cooperatives to sell crops and livestock, to buy production supplies, and to obtain services such as insurance, financing, health insurance, and telephones. Fishing co-ops aid boat owners in processing and marketing their fish and allow them to buy supplies, equipment, and services at reduced costs. Crafts-people's co-ops help sustain quality handicraft production by furnishing necessary supplies and training programs, and provide marketing programs at both retail and wholesale sales. Small businesses can join together to buy insurance (fire, liability, health) and banking services. Consumer co-ops can run the spectrum from merchandise such as groceries, dry goods, books, furniture, bicycles, and drugs to services such as medical and dental care, housing, credit unions, mutual insurance, annuities and pensions, memorial societies, nursery schools, and housing (Abrahamsen, 1976).

WORKER-OWNED AND RUN BUSINESSES Workers own and manage many businesses, large and small, around the world (Zwerdling, 1978). In England the John Lewis Partnership employs 25,000 people; Baxi Heating is owned by its labor force of 900 workers (Ekins, 1986, p.285). In the San Francisco Bay area, more than 200 worker-owned and managed small enterprises run food stores, garages, bakeries, carpentry shops, schools, and law firms (Tokar, 1987, p.109). The most dramatic success story of a democratically owned workplace is Spain's Mondragon Cooperative, which consists of 170 worker-owned and controlled businesses employing over 21,000 people, with more than $1.6 billion in sales. By the late 1960s Mondragon had become one of the most successful industrial groups in all of Spain, being the leading producer of industrial machine tools and consumer goods such as refrigerators, washing machines, and cookers. The cooperative's businesses include manufacturing, agriculture and food processing, a chain of over 200 co-op retail stores, and a co-op bank with assets of $2.9 billion and 400,000 accounts - all run as worker-owned and managed democratic cooperatives (Morrison, 1991; Oakeshott, 1978).

HUMANISTIC CAPITALISM. While community-owned enterprises offer a countervailing force to economic dependency, private businesses owned by Hawaii residents offer another source of economic independence. A new model of "Humanistic Capitalism" can be practiced based on small privately-owned businesses that involve employees in decision-making and share profits. New rules for successful businesses are emerging based not on ruthless competition but cooperation; openness, rather than secrecy; networking, rather than separateness (Hawkins, 1976). Welfare for the future, stewardship of the planet, and meeting human needs can be goals that co-exist with making monetary profits. Many business people want to provide healthy foods, good tools, creative toys, honest services, and other useful products to their customers, and respect the environment and the Isles' social culture.

FINANCING THE COMMUNITY-BASED ECONOMY

Creating a communitarian economy confronts the critical question of finances. Hawaii especially needs to de-couple itself economically from off-Island investors who come mostly to build high profit projects, such as resorts, hotels, golf courses, condominiums, and shopping centers. Alternative sources for financing affordable housing, community-based enterprises, co-ops, worker-owned businesses, renewable energy and conservation, public marketplaces, credit unions and community banks, land trusts, and urban neighborhood revitalization must be found.

It is a myth that Hawaii must depend on off-Island investors and speculators for capitol to create jobs. In fact Hawaii has since 1975 been a net exporter of capital (except for the two recession years of 1980 and 1981). This outflow includes government surpluses invested abroad, corporate pension funds, insurance flows, lending by financial institutions and changes in their portfolio holdings, and an entire array of other individual, corporate, or public investment outside of the state (First Hawaiian Bank, 1991).

Many strategies are available to fund and organize community-centered and democratic-workplace projects in Hawaii: federal and state funding and loans for lenders, cooperatives, and residents; public and privately funded foundations; joint ventures between public and private, profit and non-profit agencies; sweat-equity and community-equity programs; social investment programs; and creative mixtures of these elements. Sufficient financial resources can be tapped to make a Green economy work, if the leadership and citizens of the Islands wants it.

THE POLITICS OF CHANGE:
OVERCOMING POLITICAL DEPENDENCY

For the last 200 years, Hawaii has been under the sway of a capitalist value system that single-mindedly promotes the kind of "economic development" that creates major ecological and social problems. Once Sugar was King, and caused its share of problems. Hawaii's economy today is now largely dependent on the continuing growth of one industry - tourism - that rampantly destroys the environment and distorts the economy, producing grossly inflated land, housing, and cost-of-living costs, yet pays below-average wages. Offshore corporations own most of Hawaii's large facilities and businesses. In a setting where power is controlled by an elite, it is no wonder that the majority of the Hawaii's electorate do not even vote, let alone participate in decision-making, because they are distrustful, cynical, and disaffected. Changing Hawaii's economic structure thus calls for the same kind of perestroika that took place in Eastern Europe today.

Genuine democracy requires a political transition from top-down decision-making by a small elite, to face-to-face, citizen-based, local decision-making. It also means dispersed economic power. Workplace democracy equalizes social power and schools people in responsible, participatory citizenship. Community and worker-owned cooperatives need to become a common form of economic enterprise. Institutions based on these "new" values are working well throughout the world. Whether a "Green Economy" will come about in Hawaii is not a question of adequate theory or proven examples, but of political will and effort.

Bringing about change requires first the mobilization of existing Isle political activists, and facilitating a new consensus of common goals anchored in the values I have called the Green vision. Already thousands of citizens around the Islands are involved in grassroots efforts to improve schools; oppose golf courses, resort, spaceport and geothermal developments; and work on environmental issues, such as water pollution, recycling, reforestation, etc. Others activists labor for affordable housing, leasehold conversion, rent caps, and caring for the homeless. Perhaps most important for change are the many kanaka maoli (native Hawaiian) groups who are actively promoting Hawaiian rights and Sovereignty. Redistributing land and water rights - which lie at the heart of Hawaii's political economy - will have profound effects on Hawaii's governing elites (Cooper and Daws, 1985).

Growing citizen involvement needs to change the political process itself, so that it features initiative and referendum, term limits and strict limits on political contributions, multiple member districts, and granting real decision-making power to neighborhood boards and community associations (Barber, 1984). Community-based school management must be instituted and the Department of Education decentralized, so that parents, teachers, and students can directly run their own schools. Community and Island-wide task forces must be established to push through a host of changes in land planning, affordable housing, leasehold conversion and rental caps, environmental protection, the development of alternative energy and conservation, water usage, family farming, and urban re-development (Berg, 1989).

Social change is a multidimensional process (Korten, 1992). Ultimately the citizens of Hawaii must engage in a process of ever-deepening questioning of the values and dominant assumptions of our culture. The very purpose of "economic growth" - that most cherished of modern goals - must be examined and redefined. The single-minded emphasis on material growth prevailing today must be replaced with the values of environmental sustainability and community - what Hawaiians call malama `âina and `ohana. Otherwise these islands once called Paradise will be completely overwhelmed and lost forever to the forces of modernity and the new World Order.

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