Guam Green Growth ensures sustainable future by leveraging partnerships

The Guam Green Growth is an island-wide initiative to locally implement the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development goals. They work to achieve a sustainable future for Guam through many partnerships with the public and private sector.

According to a press release, the University of Guam is one of 11 universities to win a 2021 Excellence and Innovation Award from the American Association of State Colleges and Universities or AASCU. The UOG Center for Island Sustainability received the Sustainability and Sustainable Development Award for facilitating climate and sustainability solutions in the community through the island-wide Guam Green Growth (G3) initiative.

UOG Center for Island Sustainability Director Dr. Austin Shelton explained what this means for the organization moving forward.

"Now, we have the Guam Green Growth action framework in place. We have hundreds of different goals and action items that are in place to move us towards a sustainable future. We're going to continue implementing those action items such as getting our Guam Green Growth community garden off the ground, continue to produce more aquaculture opportunities and then pretty soon open the G3 circular economy makerspace and innovation hub at the CHamoru Village where we will be able to take what our traditionally waste products and turn them into new marketable products and help contribute to the merging green economy of our island," Dr. Shelton explained.

Shelton shared that it is a truly distinct honor to be recognized for their dedication to creating a sustainable future for Guam.

"We're really proud to be recognized for this honor and we really thank all of the 99 working group members for making this possible," he added.

"We're really thankful that we were chosen as one of just a handful of universities out of the 400 members of the American Association for State Colleges and Universities. It shows that Guam is truly leading the way in island sustainability at the local, national, and international level. So thank you to all the people who have made this award possible, especially to our 99 working group members who have been putting in the work to help our island implement the 17 united nations sustainable development goals in locally and culturally effective ways."

The university will be recognized among the other awardees during the 2021 AASCU Annual Meeting on November 7 in Florida.

For more information about their mission and growing initiatives, visit their website at guamgreengrowth.org.