Sustainable Initiatives by Andrea Dean

I was thrilled to have been one of 80 women chosen from over 3,000 applicants nationwide to attend the WomenRule! O’s White House Leadership Project training in New York this past June. The training was conducted by The White House Project. The White House Project is a national organization with a goal of advancing women’s leadership in all communities and sectors.


I began my professional career 20 years ago in green business consulting and I was ready to come full circle. Throughout the last year, I have been the Business & Sustainability Manager at Volcano Island Honey Company, a great example of a green business in Hawaii, and I was feeling ready to take some of what I have learned combined with my ideas to a wider client base. My winning business vision is to green business and government in Hawaii through coaching, consulting and education. (As you can see from my website!) The WomenRule! O’s White House Leadership Project training gave me the confidence boost that I needed, a deadline to work towards (the magazine release), and some practical tools to jump start my business. This is a series of articles on what I learned from all of the amazing woman presenters at WomenRule!, beginning with Susan Sobbot, President & General Manager of OPEN from American Express.


What I learned from Susan Sobbot


Focus on what only you could do and let others do the rest.
Know yourself: do what you do best and hire others to do the rest.


This is excellent advice. This really helped me to focus in on what my strengths are and to partner with other people to provide a wider range of services. My strengths are as a strategist and communicator- as a coach, trainer, strategy facilitator. I am also a good consultant, but this aspect of my business was strengthened by partnering with Tracy Solomon. Tracy is the Sustainability Coordinator at Kona Brewing Company and has brought green business practices in Hawaii to a new height. She dives deep into all of your kilowatt hours and gallons of water used- driving towards concrete environmental results. My other strategic partnership is with Mary Traynor of Akamai Promotions. Mary has been a huge help in designing and implementing my online and print publicity strategies and will bring those skills to the table for my clients as well. There is designing and implementing your green business strategy and then there is communicating it to your customers- that is where Mary comes in.


I am Super Woman and I know you are too (or you may be a SuperMan), but we really don’t have to do it all!


Ask yourself these questions:

My self-imposed Sustainability Chronicles project dictates that I undertake a new eco-action each week. Well… I have been a little behind, but here is my eco-action for the month: Organize a Seed Exchange! The Big Island community was out in full force for the Kohala Country Fair on Saturday, October 4th. The morning started with a light rain, which opened up to a beautiful sunny day- the perfect planting environment. Deep inside the Green Zone was the Seed Exchange.


With help from Eddie, Jessica, Jim, Krista, Isaiah, Mike, Connie, Ajaxx, Bill, Evan, Neil, Tim, Jim and Daz, North Kohala’s first seed exchange was a great success. Krista wrote a great article in the Kohala Mountain News which resulted in numerous requests for the Mighty Moringa! Moringa was the tree that took the day. Jessica and Jim brought kalo, sugar cane (which was a huge hit with the keiki) and GMO free strawberry papayas. Jessica was spreading the gospel of seed exchange all day- letting people know that they could take freely, and come back next year with some of their abundance to share. Neil brought ipu gourd seeds, milo, kou and coco’s. Evan was the man with the hot peppers and all the answers. Anyone with a gardening question was sent over to Evan.


Mike was an enthusiastic and energetic presence all day, talking story and sharing his veggie and herb seeds. Ajaxx and Connie, who are starting a seed bank in Hawi, gave away lots of veggie starts and sold their seed packets to support the seed bank. Bill was the man with the purple asparagus and shiso. Only the truly blessed got some of that! So many other people dropped off seeds and plants- Richard, Natalie, Tim, Richard, Susan, Nelson, Jim, Peter, and many others. Daz found a shady table and held down the seed space while visiting with friends and neighbors. Allison joined us later in the day and helped fold up all the tables and chairs.


Nancy Redfeather, the Big Island’s earth mother of seed exchanges organizes the Hawaii island Seed Exchange, which happens annually at the Amy Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden. They had over 1,000 attendees this past summer. I attended my first seed exchange a few years back at Laakea Garden in Pahoa. The Fourth Annual Eastside Seed Exchange is October 11, 2008. I was blown away by how great an event the seed exchange was. Talk about kick starting your food production! You come home with so much-everything from kalo to corn- all without paying a cent. Everything is traded or given away. Perfect.


This year’s Kohala Country Fair organizers wanted the fair to be as sustainable as possible. Compostable containers were used (and are now being composted), all recyclables were collected at recycling stations, sorted and bagged, people were encouraged to bring their own water bottles to fill at filling stations, rain water was used, local foods were eaten, and many of the vendors displayed their green wares. The whole day just had a great feeling. Happy people, happy plants.