Sustainable Initiatives by Andrea Dean

Well, here is your golden opportunity to come aboard the Golden Princess while it is docked in Hilo Harbor. And the best thing about it is you can support the Hawaii Island School Garden Network.

If you don’t know- Nancy Redfeather has been hard at work and has helped network together and launch about 50 school garden programs here on the Big Island. This is crucial work for educating our youth about healthy food and for growing future farmers- a critical piece in our local food self-reliance pie.

From Nancy: On Friday October 16, the Hawai’i Island School Garden Network will host a gala luncheon aboard the Golden Princess when she is docked in Hilo. The purpose of this luncheon is to share the successes and the challenges of building this new curriculum for all the schools on Hawai’i Island. At least 20 of our School Garden Teachers will be in attendance, along with Mayor Kenoi, Senators Kokubun and Takemine, and many other supporters. We cordially invite each of you to join us and support the future for our keiki and communities.

All tickets for this wonderful event must be purchased by September 30. Please contact Molly Hui at The Kohala Center for easy ticket purchase. mhui@kohalacenter.org

Please forward this email to anyone who supports building this living laboratory for our keiki and youth. The School Gardens and Agriculture Programs at our High Schools provide nutritional education, physical exercise, connect our youth with their food and cultural values, introduce them to concepts of a healthy ecosystem and stewardship, and help them to connect their classroom studies with “hands-on” work. Ma ka hana ka ike… By doing the work we will learn. These ideas when practiced will help us build a sustainable island community.

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

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:

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:47 — 4.8MB)

In this podcast I interview Sarah Brooks, Senior Sustainability Advisor from The Natural Step organization, which is based in Ontario, Canada. The Natural Step framework is being used all over the world by large and small companies and communities to plan for sustainability.


Sarah Brooks and her colleague Mike Purcell were brought to the Big Island by The Hawaii County Resource Center and The Kohala Center to train about 30 Hawaii Island residents in how to apply the Natural Step framework in sustainability planning in their companies, organizations, and communities.


If you are interested in learning more about how The Natural Step can enhance your business, community and the environment- please register for my free webinar. I am also happy to come talk story with you at your place of business.


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

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:34 — 4.8MB)