Sustainable Initiatives by Andrea Dean » sustainability

Growing Farmers in North Kohala

admin — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:04:03 +0000

Check out my article The “Cool Factor” Bonds Youth and Farming in the November-December issue of Ke Ola Magazine.

The article is about the Uluwehi Farms / Hawaii Youth Agriculture Project CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) in North Kohala. The project is growing food and farmers.

One of our “green businesses” in Hawaii is farming, but the high cost of land and inputs, and the low cost of imported food, have driven many farmers off the land. It is generally agreed that in order to re-localize our food production we need to have more farmers, and that means making farming an attractive and financially viable career option for our youth. Dashiell Kuhr of Uluwehi Farms / Hawaii Youth Agriculture Project / The Kohala Center (growing food and farmers takes many hands!) is one of the people helping to foster agricultural entrepreneurship among youth on Hawai’i Island.

Related Links:
North Kohala Food Forum
Hawaii Island School Garden Network
Hawaii Homegrown Food Network
Podcast on the Kohala Center’s Food Self-Reliance Program

Big Vision for the Big Island- Step by Natural Step

admin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:22:27 +0000

Check out my new story in this month’s Innov8 magazine (the Go!/Mokulele in flight magazine) about The Natural Step framework. The Natural Step is a framework/process that helps companies and communities plan for sustainability. The County of Hawaii just adopted The Natural Step as it’s framework for sustainability planning.

Gary Hooser, the real sustainability candidate getting geared up for 2010

admin — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 02:58:11 +0000

Today I met with Gary Hooser in Hawi. Gary is running for Lieutenant Governor in 2010. It may be a little early for some of us to start thinking about who we are going to vote for in 2010… but it is a great time to lend your support to the campaign and help get the grassroots network in place.

Gary has a track record in the Senate of forwarding Sustainability legislation and we can expect him to help lead sustainability initiatives as the Lieutenant Governor. You can follow Gary on twitter and friend him on Facebook. If you want be a part of the network to get Gary elected, you can contact Gary Hooser on his website.

Growing a Green Business in Hawaii- Lessons Learned at O’s White House Leadership Project

admin — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 19:42:43 +0000

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:

What do you do best?

What can only you do in your business?

Who can you strategically partner with to grow your business?

Green Collar Activism

admin — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 07:24:10 +0000

This weeks eco-action was testifying during a Food and Energy Sustainability Committee meeting of the Hawaii County Council. It all began a few months ago when I read an interview with Van Jones in the Sun Magazine entitled Bridging the Green Divide. The interview really helped to me to rethink the environmental transformation of our nation and our economy. I dropped off a copy of the article at Council Chairperson Pete Hoffmann’s office and he took the ball and ran with it. Van Jones’s organization is called Green for All and they have a Local Government Green Jobs Pledge. The pledge offers specific strategies to governments to help build “a green economy from the bottom up.” Van Jones’s new book is called The Green Collar Economy- How one solution can fix our two biggest problems- meaning the economy and the environment. Van Jones and Majora Carter co-founded Green for All and they advocate that Green Collar Jobs are: good strong middle class jobs, provide pathways out of poverty, require new skills, tend to be local jobs, strengthen communities and Oh By The Way… solve our environmental problems.

Green For All and its partners lobbied to make sure that the 2007 Energy Bill included two critical provisions: the Green Jobs Act and the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program. The purpose of these programs is to make investments in green-collar job creation and job training which they believe to be essential to building a green economy which lifts people out of poverty. The Green for All Vision is so beautiful because it seeks to improve living and working conditions for low-income people, who are impacted more heavily by environmental problems than “eco-elites” like you and I who can afford to buy hybrid cars, organic foods and live in clean and beautiful places with alternative energy.

The Hawaii County Council Resolution 731-08 was passed unanimously and encouraged the County Administration to pursue getting a piece of the funding that will come to states (hopefully, after Congress votes to fund the Act in the 2009 appropriations bill). Send an email to our Congressional delegation telling them to support full funding for the Green Jobs Act and the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program in the 2009 Appropriations Bill. Hawaii County Council Resolution 731-08 also asks the administration to prepare a list of green collar jobs that would be needed to make the County energy self-sustainable by March 1, 2009, as per the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative.

Also on hand to testify was Brent Norris from Green Collar Technologies, a non-profit organization with a mission to educate green collar workers on Hawai`i Island.

The resolution will now have to pass the full Council, but that does not look like a problem since 6 out of 8 council members were in the committee meeting and voted aye. A great first step to be sure. Now I would like to see the County Council, and for that matter the State Legislature, adopt the Green Jobs Pledge.

Big applause to Councilmember Pete Hoffmann for introducing the resolution and to the rest of the councilmembers on the Food and Energy Sustainability Committee for their unanimous support.

Air Drying

admin — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 05:19:02 +0000

I know it’s a sin, but I love drying my clothes in the dryer. Unlike my husband who grew up enjoying the Yankee pleasure of stiff, abrasive towels, I grew up in suburban Long Island where my towels were fluffed in the dryer. I am still getting used to being exfoliated after every shower but am finding that I use the same towel many more times. The towel softens up after a while and the thought of going through the stiffy phase again is a deterrent.

It’s 9:40 at night and I just realized that I forgot my wet laundry in the washer. With a sound akin to a whine I said to my husband Topher, “Can you put my clothes in the dryer?” In his authoritative, bossy voice, he answered- “Honey, you got to walk the walk and talk the talk.” I was so tired but Topher talked me down and offered to come and help me. So there we were hanging laundry at 10 pm at night in the dark. It was certainly a lot more fun doing it together. Hell- I guess it was so cool that I am writing about it now. I wouldn’t be writing about what it was we were sacrificing. Most likely some form of mindless entertainment. Ahhh… another eco diva’s delicate morals not defiled.

Finally, She Remembers Her Reusable Bags

admin — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:34:49 +0000

Sustainability Chronicles continues with Andrea finding a reusable shopping bag she can remember because it is cleverly hidden in the bottom of her purse!

No More Styrofoam Take Out Containers

admin — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 08:49:39 +0000

My eco action for this week is to ban Styrofoam and other take-out containers from my life. I bought these great glass containers at Wal-Mart and will keep them in my car to use when I have leftovers or take-out at a restaurant.

The Search for Eco Fashion

admin — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 03:18:59 +0000

In preparation for a business trip on the East Coast, I needed some new clothes. (I will explore the concept of needs vs. wants another time!) Before upscale resorts located in Hawaii, clothes shopping was something that you had to do at K-Mart. Now, of course, we have on-line shopping and many cool little boutiques in the resort areas. I decided to see if I could find any eco-clothes. I kept my eyes peeled for organic cotton and bamboo, although I am personally partial to organic cotton.

One shop in Kailua-Kona called Eden had a brand called Green Dragon. I can see that the surf industry has finally caught the green wave. Taking a hint from Patagonia, the original, and still the leader in environmentally friendly business. At the surf shops, I found quite a few organic cotton t-shirts for guys from Quicksilver, Local Motion. Quicksilver also has a Choose Your Cause hangtag, which indicates that they will donate 3% of net sales to teh Quicksilver foundation. You can then go online and Choose your Cause. I bought a great t-shirt that was made by a local company called The Organik.

There was limited environmentally friendly clothing options for women in the stores. I also did a pretty good online search, but was not able to find anything that fit my needs for business and organic. I ended up ordering a casual shirt from Patagonia and then went standard for the rest.

Paper or Plastic, Again?

admin — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 02:31:09 +0000

Yup- did it again, standing at the check out with no canvas bag. Once again, I carted the groceries to the car, but this time there was a full cart, not just OJ and apples. Luckily there was a big box in my trunk that I had just emptied a bunch of used books out of. I filled it with my groceries, proud of my ingenuity. When I got home I just carried the box upstairs. Such an elegant solution – that is until it broke and I dumped the groceries, eggs and all, at the top of the stairs. However… I did save 8 -10 plastic bags!

It has become obvious to me that I need a two prong approach.
1. I need a reusable shopping bag that fits in my purse, LIVES in my purse. I found a great selection at ReusableBags.com
I am still waiting for it to arrive, but I have high hopes for this.
2. In the event that I forget to put the reusable bags back into my purse after emptying them, which is likely given my current track record, I need a back-up system. I just purchased a plastic (the ubiquitous plastic) milk crate from Wal-Mart (boy, it’s hard to stay pure) and now I keep that in the trunk of my car.

This turned out to work very well. Once again, I found myself standing in the checkout line at the grocery store, “Paper or Plastic?” “Neither” I burst out, I will role the cart to my car and empty the groceries into my new milk crate. The cashier was so curious about this system that she offered to help me. She handed me the groceries and I put them into the crate. The cashier suggested I just bring in the crate next time and put it in the cart. Yet another innovation! Carrying the milk crate upstairs was easier than carrying a bunch of bags. Long live the pinky finger! Never again to be strangulated by plastic bags.