Austin Shelton, Ph.D., director of the University of Guam Center for Island Sustainability and Sea Grant, made the announcement in April in Busan, South Korea at the “10th Our Ocean Conference”on stage next to conference founder and 68th Secretary of State John Kerry.

The Local2030 Islands Network is a global platform advancing island-led, culturally informed sustainable development solutions. Governor of Guam Lourdes Leon Guerrero committed Guam as a founding island member of the Local2030 Islands Network and Shelton serves as a member of its steering committee. The Local2030 Islands Network facilitates the Green Growth movement in islands across the globe.

Shelton described the network’s new initiative as “Green Growth for resilient islands.”

Building on the network’s existing communities of practice — and informed by leading examples like the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) dashboards created by Hawaiʻi, Guam and Ireland, Shelton said “The network will expand peer learning, increase in-country technical capacity, foster collaboration within and across islands,

and share best practices for holistic ridge-to-reef management rooted in circularity, localization and regeneration.”

The launch of the Green Growth Partnership Community of Practice will be shared through the network’s Virtual Island Platform. This free, open-access resource aims to create new opportunities for collaboration across fields, help identify and measure SDG outcomes and support scalable solutions to critical island and ocean challenges.

“Through curriculum co-development, training programs and the continued growth of SDG dashboards, we aim to support transparent tracking of commitments — including those made here at the Our Ocean conference — and drive progress toward national and global sustainability and climate resilience goals,” Shelton said.

“Together, through a commitment to green growth and collective action, we can lead the way toward a regenerative and resilient future,” he added.

In 2023, the UOG Center for Island Sustainability and Sea Grant announced a partnership with the University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program for the expansion of Green Growth initiatives across the Western Pacific, supported by a $1.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of State through the NOAA National Sea Grant College Program. The grant supports the growth of the Local2030 Islands Network and the Green Growth initiative in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of Palau.

Soon after, Palau and the Northern Mariana Islands launched their own Green Growth initiatives in 2024. The Marshall Islands followed, with President Hilda Heine, Ed.D., announcing their commitment to launch their initiative during the 16th UOG Conference on Island Sustainability in April.

The Our Ocean Conference marked its 10th anniversary with the theme, “Our Ocean, Our Action.” The event served as a key platform for setting concrete directions for international cooperation on sustainable ocean development. It also provided a forum for global dialogue on implementing agreements to advance the future of the oceans, including the U.N. Treaty on Plastic Pollution.