It’s been a few months since we wrote about 5 environmental health trends to watch in 2023 and I was curious about how environmental health agency leaders are feeling about the topic now. After chatting with EH leaders on LinkedIn, John Kolman, District Health Officer at Hawaii State Department of Health, was kind enough to offer up additional feedback, which turned into a great conversation about the broader EH industry. I think you’ll find John’s thoughts insightful, especially as we proceed full speed ahead into what will likely be a very unique year for our industry.

John, tell us about your background and role at the Hawaii State Department of Health.

Sure, I’ve been in environmental and public health for over two decades. I went to school to learn the profession and spent my early career learning the trade in the field, as a drinking water inspector and later adding experience with solid waste programs. I became an environmental health leader at Maricopa County, Arizona a decade ago before transitioning into the private sector business world as a consultant and adjunct faculty at Northern Arizona University. In 2021 I felt the calling for public service again and accepted a leadership role for the state of Hawaii.

Tell us what makes Hawaii such a unique place to manage EH and public health?

The collection of islands in Hawaii is what makes it such a beautiful and unique place to live. Which is also what makes it challenging for environmental and public health because we have disconnected land masses and a large number of tourists that visit the islands each month.

To put this into perspective, before the pandemic we had the same number of tourists visit each month as the entire residential population that lives on each island. For example, on the Big Island we have 220,000 residents and that’s how many tourists would visit each month. We’re seeing tourist travel return to pre-pandemic levels which is great, but it has also been impactful as we try to back fill employees that left during COVID.

What environmental health trends are you most concerned about?

There are a few trends I’m watching closely that you didn’t mention in your blog post. The first being succession management. In the private sector, large companies are often very good at planning for leadership changes, such as a CEO retiring. These companies spend a lot of time and resources training future leaders. When one retires, they often promote leaders from within the organization to carry the mantle. I’m concerned we aren’t doing enough succession management right now within environmental and public health. The pandemic really changed the landscape of our profession overnight, as many experienced leaders went into early retirement or left the industry altogether. There is now a huge leadership gap in our industry and a brain drain of experienced professionals has impacted all of us.

You mentioned other concerning trends. What are they?

I also think about how environmental and public health teams are in a very unique budget cycle in 2023. Most of the COVID relief funds have gone away, which means it will be a critical year for agencies to “right size” their budgets. By “right size” I mean we must get better at managing our budgets for programs, agency teams, and the toolkits we use such as technology. We need to find more innovative solutions to drive positive impact in our communities, that is measurable, while also being fiscally responsible. In some ways I think my experience in private sector owning a business helped me get better at this process.

Any final trends we should consider?

Yes, the last trend is a large, difficult one that you touched on briefly in your blog post. We must come together over climate change. In Hawaii, we are already seeing coastline erosion due to extreme weather patterns, which leads to salt water infestations in septic tanks and fresh water systems. Without bold solutions for climate change, I worry a lot about where we are headed for our water and food systems. By the way, there are smaller things we can accomplish right now related to food safety. Did you know that ready use produce requires a lot more water to manage properly? We used to pass the responsibility to wash produce to the end consumers. Reimplementing a process like that would be a step in the right direction to help us conserve water.

Where can readers learn more about you?

You can find me on LinkedIn or learn more about the Hawaii State Department of Health on our website. We are actively looking to hire more environmental and public health employees, so make sure to visit our site and apply for any relevant openings. We need more future leaders, inspectors, and back office staff in our profession.

Thanks again John for your insights today and I look forward to visiting you in Hawaii soon! :)