Building a More Sustainable Future
HCDC is reinventing real estate development to meet Hawaii's housing needs while moving towards the State’s 100% renewable energy goals.
What’s the Status of Renewables in Hawaii?
In 2015, Governor David Ige signed one of the most comprehensive and ambitious renewables bills in the country. This collection of four bills puts Hawaii on track to achieve 100% renewable energy by 2045. This legislation was meant to inspire innovation and growth in our renewable sectors, including options like community solar (which allows those living in apartments or other multi-family dwellings to purchase solar from off-site), battery energy storage, wind energy, and limited geothermal development.
This is important because, as most residents know, Hawaii has the highest price for electricity in the nation; Hawaii is also the state most dependent upon imported fossil fuels for energy production. This is slowly changing. Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) shows in their 2019-2020 Sustainability Report that on one day in 2019, Oahu reached a daily peak of 60% renewables, while the average daily renewables usage was 25%. For comparison, Maui had an average of 41% renewables and Big Island had an average of 35% – all of these figures demonstrate that Hawaii is well on its way to moving towards the mandate of 100% by 2045.
How HCDC is moving Hawaii Forward?
HCDC was founded to address two of Hawaii’s most critical needs: housing and energy costs.
We are committed to expanding the inventory of available and affordable housing for our middle-income residents. Our vertically-integrated construction and development consultancy brings together experts from across construction and development fields to help landowners utilize the provisions of Bill 7 to expand workforce housing within the urban core.
Bill 7 is a workforce housing pilot project, approved by Honolulu City Council in 2019. This legislation makes it easier than ever before for landowners to convert older apartment and mixed-use buildings into modern, denser developments in order to greatly expand Honolulu’s housing stock. The potential is huge: with these provisions, it’s estimated that there could be an increase of 2500 new units over the course of the five-year plan.
It’s a key mandate of ours to create new housing, but that’s only part of our mission. Our developments are all LEED Platinum certified and built using Net Zero principles. This means that each building will produce on-site all the energy needed to power the lights and appliances, charge the vehicles, and cool the living areas.
Implementation varies, but our buildings will achieve Net Zero by using energy and water-efficient fixtures to reduce the total usage, and this use will be offset by having on-site solar and wind production. There will be electric and fuel cell vehicle charging and filling vehicle stations available for owners to use, too, encouraging the most sustainable transportation for the residents.
Learn more about our Net Zero initiatives and what LEED Platinum means for you in our other articles. To inquire about our consulting services and see if your property qualifies for Bill 7 incentives and redevelopment, Schedule a Consult here.
