STAND. COM. REP. NO 326

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 707

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Higher Education and the Arts, to which was referred S.B. No. 707 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to establish an Office of Sustainability on the system level for the University of Hawaii and to provide funding for key staff to coordinate the implementation of the Board of Regents' sustainability policy across all ten campuses of the University of Hawaii System.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the University of Hawaii System and seventeen individuals.

Your Committee finds that the establishment of an Office of Sustainability would permit the University to aggressively and efficiently pursue numerous multi-faceted priorities relating to sustainability, the reinvestment of funds to better manage project energy consumption and costs, and to convene the annual Sustainability in Higher Education Summit.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Higher Education and the Arts that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 707 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Higher Education and the Arts,

____________________________

BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair