Moments in Time
I’d like you to meet Josh Stanbro. On May 1st, he became the City & County of Honolulu’s first Chief Resilience Officer. Josh, Adam Pereira — Information Officer for the Office of the Mayor, and I sat in the Mayor’s conference room at 5:30 p.m. on a Wednesday talking about the moments in life that brought us to where we are today.
But first, here’s a bit of background. In 2016, voters of the City and County of Honolulu approved the City Charter Amendment 7, that would establish the Office of Climate Change, Sustainability, and Resiliency. On May 1st, Stanbro became Hawaii’s first Chief Resilience Officer. His job is to build out a strategy to strengthen Oahu’s and its individual residents’ capacities to “bounce back” and “bounce forward” because the world is changing humanity and humanity is changing the world.
November 8, 2016
On Tuesday, November 8, I was streaming the election results online. I was in complete shock. That day changed my life.
Stanbro spent nearly his entire career working in philanthropy. I asked him what triggered his move to the public sector. He let out a big sigh and said, “Honestly, it was the November election.” I knew where he was coming from because that moment changed my life too. “Knowing at that point that the federal government wouldn’t be riding into the rescue in terms of setting standards that hold emissions in check, suddenly made me realize that we all have to mobilize and dedicate as much time and talent as we can at the state and city level to do this ourselves…and take responsibility for our own future.”
June 1–5, 2017
On June 1st, the President of the United States announced he would withdraw the country from the Paris Agreement on climate change. He cited that the unprecedented agreement, established in December 2015 at the 21st Conference of the Parties and signed by 168 nations, was unfair to the citizens of the United States.
Four days later, Stanbro experienced his most rewarding day on the job. Governor David Ige and the Mayors of Hawaii County, Honolulu, and Maui reestablished their commitment to the Paris Climate Accord together. Right now governors, mayors, legislators, CEOs, teachers, and entrepreneurs are driving change from the bottom up. 14 states and Puerto Rico have signed on to the United States Climate Alliance, reaffirming their commitment “to contribute to the global effort to address climate change.” And, over a dozen companies have pledged billions of dollars in low-carbon investments.
On Wednesday, October 11th; stakeholders convened to define what a climate action plan would look like, how we would track greenhouse gas emissions at the local level, and what a commitment to the Paris Climate Accord means to each community. In the work I do at Elemental Excelerator, deploying new technologies that help to make Hawaii more resilient, we believe that communities are the right increment of change. It’s where culture is established, where emissions are created, and where change is felt.
Four Weeks in 1992
Before Stanbro jetted off to the Palolo Neighborhood Board Meeting, Pereira went back into his office to hopefully pack up and enjoy the rest of his evening, and I hopped on my bike to have dinner with friends; I asked our Chief Resilience Officer how he chose a mission-oriented career path.
He thought back to his experience sailing from Honolulu to Cook Islands. Stanbro had just finished college and was looking for a way to get down to Australia. His parents being sailors, he knew the practice of putting a three by five card on a bulletin board saying “deckhand, willing to go anywhere south.” A few days later he got a call from the captain of an escort boat accompanying a polynesian voyaging canoe from New Zealand back to the Cook Islands. Growing up in Northern California, it was the first time he had heard of navigation using the stars as a guide.
It was then that he realized that passionate people can overcome unbelievable odds, and that was resilience. In Stanbro’s position today, leading the Office of Climate Change, Sustainability, and Resiliency for the City and County of Honolulu; he is empowering people to build the capacity within themselves and their communities to adapt to change.
As a caveat, he’s not doing this alone. Stanbro and his staff want your input via an online survey (www.bitly.com/oahuresiliencesurvey) or in-person at an upcoming neighborhood board meeting. In Hokulea’s return to the island of Oahu, after a three-year voyage around the world, Nainoa Thompson said, “You can’t protect what you don’t understand and you won’t if you don’t care. And you can’t do it by yourself.”
Originally published in the Star Advertiser in October 2017
