Sustainable Initiatives by Andrea Dean » business coach hawaii

12-21-09: Tom Baldwin on Abundant Farming with Permaculture at Uluwehi Farm

admin — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 08:38:31 +0000

In this podcast I interview Tom Baldwin. Tom and his wife Shannon Casey own Uluwehi Farm, a permaculture farm in North Kohala on the Big Island. Tom talks about what permaculture is and how it helps farms and homesteads to be more productive. Tom just got back from a trip to Australia where he sat at the feet of the permaculture master- Bill Mollison, the founder of the permaculture system. Tom will be sharing that new knowledge and his permaculture farm experience in January when he is co-teaching a Permaculture Design Certification course with Craig Elevitch and Nik Bertulis, the course starts Jan 5th.

If you are an itunes user, you can subscribe to my podcast through itunes and receive automatic weekly updates. Or you can listen below:

11-13-09: Tyler Mongan on the Honu Guide- a Guide for Sustainable Living in Hawaii

admin — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:21:36 +0000

In this podcast I interview Tyler Mongan, Founder and Publisher of the Honu Guide- a guide for sustainable living in Hawaii. The Honu Guide is a resource book that is published once a year. The Honu Guide features well written articles on sustainability issues in Hawaii, and has a coupon book and resource directory that links people to green goods, services and organizations. Their distribution model is also innovative- organizations can sell the guide as a fundraiser for their organization. Schools take note- the Honu Guide is much healthier than a Krispy Kreme doughnut fundraiser! As a green business owner and writer- I think the Honu Guide is a great way to get the word out about my work.

If you are an itunes user, you can subscribe to my podcast through itunes and receive automatic weekly updates. Or you can listen below:

Day 4: Andrea & Mary’s Girls Business Retreat Week

admin — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 08:07:20 +0000

Well the days are flying by. I finally got a new home page mocked up today. None of the info is correct, and there is still old stuff on the page, but let me know what you think of where I am going with the design.

We just installed Twitter Tools for WordPress and I am posting this blog post to test all of the cool functionality. Gotta go!

Day Two: Andrea & Mary’s Girls Business Retreat Week

admin — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:45:05 +0000

Day two was a major technical day. Mary and I both decided to consolidate our websites and blogs. I had www.coachandreadean.com and www.andreadean.com and decided just to focus all of my efforts on andreadean.com. We moved Mary’s wordpress site from akamaipromotionalstrategies.com to akamaipromotions.com. I have never moved a WordPress site from one domain to another, so that was a fun technical learning curve.

As for my site, I re-thought all of menu items and emailed the new menu and sidebar to Maya at Jelly Designs who does my custom design work. My website is a combination of a custom site and a WordPress site.

Whew! Late night…on the phone with the server hosting company for quite some time. We also got Mary’s new wireless skype headset working, which was an accomplishment.

The Natural Step: A Roadmap for Hawaii Green Business

admin — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:20:08 +0000

Sophia Bowart, Guy Kaulukukui, Samantha Birch, Giovanna Gherardi, Alex Frost and Andrea Dean (not pictured) meet to discuss using the Natural Step Sustainability Primer in Hawaii.

If you want to become a green business, organization or community- you need a plan to get there. And you need to have a common definition of sustainability that everyone can agree upon. Many businesses here in Hawaii are taking the first steps towards sustainability, picking the low hanging fruits (conserving energy, waste, water), but few are looking into the future. How can planning for sustainability help you to take advantage of new markets? How can planning for sustainability help you avoid future resource problems? How can you communicate sustainability to your customers, your suppliers?

I was a part of a group of 30 sustainability leaders on Hawaii Island who were trained in how to use The Natural Step framework for strategic planning for sustainability. The Hawaii County Resource Center and the Kohala Center partnered to bring The Natural Step senior trainers Sarah Brooks and Mike Purcell to Hawaii to train us.

Now a group of us are working to localize The Natural Step for Sustainability Primer, highlighting local examples of sustainable practices.

Net Impact: Social and Environmental Principle in Business

admin — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 06:12:14 +0000

Last week I gave a talk at the University of Hawaii, Schidler College of Business. I was invited by the local Net Impact chapter. The mission of the local chapter is to grow and support a community of leaders focused on making a positive environmental, social, and economic impact through the power of sustainable business. Our vision is to foster a new generation of business leaders who incorporate people, planet, and profits into decision-making and action to create a better world.

Following is my presentation (sorry, its a bit dark, but you can still hear it!)

09-07-09: Guy Kaulukukui on Food Self-Reliance

admin — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 21:32:47 +0000

In this podcast I interview Guy Kaulukukui, Director of the Kohala Center’s Food Self-Reliance Program.

Guy Kaulukukui speaking at the North Kohala Food Forum

Guy has been tasked with developing a “critical path” to food self-reliance for Hawaii Island- mapping a strategy for how the island will decrease food imports and the increase consumption of local food. Guy Kaulukukui, who has a Ph.D. in economics education is uniquely suited to this complex task of how to transition from a import economy to a locally-based economy. Guy feels that it is important to increase the demand side of the food equation by reinforcing the message of eating locally produced food as well as working on increasing efficiency on farms to decrease the costs of local produce to the public.

If you are an itunes user, you can subscribe to my podcast through itunes and receive automatic weekly updates. Or you can listen below:

07-23-09: Using a Coach to Grow Your Green Business

admin — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 08:47:58 +0000

Not everyone understands what a business coach is and the best way to use one. But instead of me telling the story- I have interviewed one of my green business clients, Forrest Arnold from HawaiiGreenRealty.com.

If you are an itunes user, you can subscribe to my podcast through itunes and receive automatic weekly updates. Or you can listen below:

Are you Ready for A Paperless Office?

admin — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 07:07:32 +0000

I must admit that I found the idea of a paperless office very attractive… but could not see how I could put it into practice. Due to a bizarre set of circumstances, I was not able to get any of my papers out of my house for the last two weeks. Suddenly- I was paperless and loving it! Now to get rid of the filing cabinet and banker boxes of papers in my closet. Hmmmm…. Following is a guest blog post by Lindsay Sydenham from efilecabinet.com. I have not used this system, but knowing what a pain (and un-green) it is to file and sort paper, I am intrigued.

Go Green by Investing in a Paperless Office by Lindsay Sydenham
It takes 24 trees to produce one ton of printing and office paper.
I must admit that I found the idea of a paperless office very attractive… but could not see how I could put it intro practice. Due to a bizarre set of circumstances, I was not able to get any of my papers out of my house for the last two weeks. Suddenly- I was paperless and loving it! Following is a guest blog post by Lindsay Sydenham from efilecabinet.com. I have not used this system, but knowing what a pain (and un-green)it is to file and sort paper, I am intrigued.

Every year 4 Million tons of copy paper is used.
The number of trees used to produce copy paper for companies each year is astounding. It’s obvious why going green is a growing concern in the United States. Being environmentally conscious is finally becoming a priority in the business world. Businesses all over the country are looking for opportunities to become environmentally conscious in their business practices. Eco-friendly initiatives are not only beneficial for the environment, but they can save companies a considerable amount of money. It’s like the saying, “Hit two birds with one stone!”

One of the major ways that companies are going green is by investing in a paperless office. Ditch the paper and move to a completely electronic system. Paper is thrown away in the garbage in the United States more than any other material. Most businesses keep their records and information in hardcopy form, not databases, thus contributing heavily to the destruction of the earth’s forests.
The solution? Go paperless! Both small businesses and large businesses can benefit from investing in a paperless office where everything is stored safely in a large database. A document management system is perfect for businesses because it can help them to reduce their carbon footprint by lowering paper consumption. It can also substantially decrease the expenses associated with paper processing since there is no longer a pressing need for printing supplies, storage space, and the paper itself.
If you own your own business or work for a business that you think could benefit from going paperless, take five minutes today to request a live demo and get walked through the process of going paperless. The live demo will provide you the opportunity to have all of your questions answered. You can also take a look at a paperless office ROI calculator to calculate how much money you could save your business by moving to a paperless system. The ROI calculator will take information about the cost of employees, paper and use in your office and will compare the overall cost to the cost of a paperless management system. You will be shocked at what you will find!

Sources:
Paper Waste Statistics
Paperless Office

Sustainability Strategic Planning with The Natural Step Framework on Hawaii Island

admin — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 07:29:59 +0000

I am looking for a few Sustainability Business Leaders who would like apply The Natural Step framework in their businesses.

I was recently part of a group of 30 sustainability leaders on Hawaii Island who were trained in how to use The Natural Step framework for strategic planning for sustainability. The Hawaii County Resource Center and the Kohala Center partnered to bring The Natural Step senior trainers Sarah Brooks and Mike Purcell to Hawaii to train us. Following are snippets from the training in which we applied the Natural Step framework towards sustainability issues in our County.

Mike Purcell, Natural Step Senior Trainer

Sarah Brooks, Natural Step Senior Trainer

Lynn VanLeuwan

Stefan Kropidlowski

Kathy Pomeroy

Ryan Peters