Honolulu made strides in its green efforts over the past year that included prioritizing solar panel permitting, adding electric buses to its fleet and decreasing electricity use by almost 5%, according to its annual sustainability report released Friday — Earth Day.

“We’re in this for the long term; this is not an overnight situation,” Mayor Rick Blangiardi said at a news conference. “Just know that the city and county is most serious about our efforts.

“This is a very complicated situation, yet no small contribution goes unneeded.”

The city put 14 new electric buses into service, and the report said there are now 17 electric buses in the city fleet and an updated charging system that can charge nine of the vehicles at the same time.

The city Department of Planning and Permitting, meanwhile, reported it has been able to streamline the permit process for residential solar panels. Delays in processing the permits were cited as one reason why it was difficult to install solar panels and batteries to store solar energy for peak usage times.

Also mentioned in the report was federal funding for disaster hazard mitigation the city secured following massive floods on the North Shore in March 2021. The amount was about $800,000 more than the total received in 2020.

Office of Climate Change, Sustainability and Resiliency Deputy Director Nicola Hedge attributed that to an additional staff member who has been working on applying for federal funding.

“They’ve been really able to ensure that Honolulu is pulling down more of our fair share of the federal funding,” she said.

“Particularly as it relates to hazard mitigation and various projects and planning efforts that we know we need to take, we look forward to increasing that over time, seeing that trends continue to go up.”

The Blangiardi administration also boasted that it was over halfway to its goal of planting 100,000 trees by 2025.

And although the ban on single-use plastic bags and food utensils went into effect in 2021, the city has not yet been able to record what, if any, effects it’s had on landfill diversion, since landfill composition studies are not done yearly.

In the most recent study, plastics made up 9% of Oahu’s trash.

On the energy front, the sustainability report noted the city decreased its electricity use by about 5% and increased its use of renewable energy by 2.8%.

The city has a mandated goal of 100% renewable energy by 2045. It is currently at 32.8%.

The progress by the city, however, hasn’t helped ease the high burden of energy costs on low-income households.

The report said that in the Waianae area, where the median annual household income is $31,603, families were spending 7.3% of their money on energy bills. In comparison, the average Oahu household spends about 2.1% of its annual income on energy bills.

Also at Friday’s news conference was Hawaiian Electric Vice President of Government and Community Relations Jim Kelly, who warned that electricity costs will likely continue to rise.

“We want to make sure that people are using electricity responsibly, that they were looking for opportunities to conserve, as bills have gone up in the last month and we’re seeing increased prices,” he said.

“Every watt that you’re not using, that’s fossil fuels that we’re not having to burn to make the electricity.”

Kelly added that it’s most crucial to cut down on power use during peak times between 5 and 9 p.m.

When it was his time to speak, Board of Water Supply Chief Engineer Ernie Lau once again urged residents to conserve water.

With summer approaching, BWS officials have been encouraging residents to cut back on water use to stave off mandatory restrictions due to the shutdown of three of its wells in connection with the Red Hill fuel contamination crisis.

“Treat water as a gift. Cherish it,” Lau said.

“I look forward to further savings from our community. And it can be done in very simple ways, like taking a shorter shower. Just a few minutes less will save water.”