2015 HPU Teacher of the Year Regina Ostergaard-Klem, Ph.D., brings the community into the classroom, and the classroom into the community

Hawai‘i Pacific University Associate Professor of Environmental Science Regina Ostergaard-Klem, Ph.D., began her academic career in industrial engineering, a non-traditional path for an environmental scientist. “Studying engineering instilled a pragmatic approach to problem-solving,” Ostergaard-Klem shared, “and provided me with an analytic framework to evaluate problems with a lot of variables and multiple objectives.” After receiving her Ph.D. in Systems Analysis and Economics for Public Decision Making from The Johns Hopkins University, she worked at the United States Agency for International Development before coming to HPU in 2008. “I think that my diverse professional experiences, from database development to international policy analysis, give me a rich collection of real-world anecdotes that help me illustrate sustainable development in the classroom,” said Ostergaard-Klem.

Ostergaard-Klem is thrilled to add to her collection of hands-on experiences during a CIEE International Faculty Development seminar in China this summer. “Rarely does a class period go by without some reference to China, whether related to carbon offsetting, rare earth elements or eco-cities in China,” said Ostergaard-Klem. China’s decisions have tremendous implications for domestic and international sustainability. “Real-life examples gained from traveling through China, directly incorporated into my curriculum, will have an even greater impact on my students.”

Ostergaard-Klem is also preparing her students for the World Conservation Congress (WCC), to be held in Honolulu in 2016. “This is the Olympics of conservation, a gathering of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the oldest and largest international environmental organization. The WCC happens every four years, and it’s never been hosted in the U.S. before,” said Ostergaard-Klem. “We’re expecting between eight and 10 thousand participants.” The IUCN has traditionally been centered on species conservation. However, the organization has become increasingly concerned with balancing ecosystems and community impacts, making this a great moment to present Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) research, Ostergaard-Klem’s primary focus, to conservation professionals. (GPI, a supplement to GDP, adjusts for negative and positive effects of economic activity.) HPU and the University of Hawai‘i are collaborating to provide Conservation Campus programs, affiliate events providing training and teaching experiences for WCC participants and students from around the world. “My primary goal is to make sure the conference provides tremendous opportunities for enrichment and professional networking for HPU students,” said Ostergaard-Klem. “This is also an opportunity for local leaders from the business and environmental community in Hawaii to engage and share best-practices with their counterparts from all over the world.” Given that the conference will be held on an island, “I hope WCC is an opportunity to further support island partnerships such as that with the President of the Republic of the Marshall Islands and HPU alumnus Christopher Loeak (BA ’79).”

This story originally appeared in the summer 2015 issue of HPU Today.

Regina Ostergaard-Klem, Ph.D., provides global leadership in environmental science through community-based research

Hawai‘i is known for rich research opportunities in volcanology, marine biology and astronomy. The 2015 Hawai‘i Pacific University Teacher of the Year Regina Ostergaard-Klem, Ph.D., is on a mission to add environmental science and sustainability to that honor roll. Because of Hawai‘i’s unique combination of diverse ecosystems, an economy dependent upon those resources, and cultural connections to nature, HPU students can do globally relevant sustainability research without ever leaving the islands. “Business and the environment have a symbiotic relationship that is critical to quality of life in Hawai‘i,” noted Ostergaard-Klem, an Associate Professor of Environmental Science. “There is no more interesting place on earth to study sustainability.”

Ostergaard-Klem’s primary research focus is the customization of the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) to the unique needs of Hawai‘i. GPI was developed two decades ago as a supplement to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). GPI and GDP start at the same point, but GPI is then adjusted for negative and positive effects of economic activity, such as saltwater intrusion in a well, or the value of grandparents watching their grandchildren. GPI expresses these economic pluses and minuses as a dollar value, in order to aid policy planners in modeling trade-offs. Business leaders will recognize GPI as the macro expression of a movement also taking place at the micro level that includes Corporate Sustainability Plans, B-Corporations and the Global Reporting Initiative. “The low hanging fruit for companies is the reduction of waste, which is good for the environment by eliminating externalities and good for business by saving money,” said Ostergaard-Klem. “GPI is a way to track how well our whole economy is doing at reducing externalities.”

Ostergaard-Klem, her University of Hawai‘i collaborator Kirsten L.L. Oleson, Ph.D., and their army of graduate and undergraduate students produce a GPI for Hawai‘i, showcased in the State of Hawaii Environmental Council annual reports. Ostergaard-Klem explained the process: “GPI reporting is driven by data collated across different agencies and organizations that do not necessarily talk to one another. The GPI framework can be a model for other initiatives like Aloha + Challenge and its Sustainability Dashboard project. Our students gain real-world experience collaborating with community organizations to develop locally important deliverables, a key part of Ostergaard-Klem’s teaching philosophy. “It’s not that I’m parenting the students, but I think about my courses within the context of the student’s career development, rather than simply as an opportunity to teach the subject matter on the syllabus,” said Ostergaard-Klem. “I try to give them real-world skills.”

Research in Hawai‘i has the potential to lead the development of globally relevant protocols for localizing GPI. The original GPI formula includes items that are unimportant in Hawai‘i, such as human-made air pollution, while undervaluing others, such as sea-level rise from climate change. Ostergaard-Klem has shared her work on the localization of GPI with local organizations like the Hawai‘i Chapter of the American Planning Association and the Hawaii Economic Association and will present to the United States Society for Ecological Economics In October. These sessions help policy makers, planners, and economists realize the limits of GDP, while providing them with GPI as a more comprehensive alternative. Ostergaard-Klem has found that “planners and policy makers are often trying to piece together information on policy impacts, so our GPI reporting is very useful for them.”

This article originally appeared in the summer 2015 issue of HPU Today.