Pathways to Sustainability 2017
The companies featured provide solutions that are innovative, efficient, and save money. This guide will help you plan better practices that will benefit your company and community. CLICK HERE TO VIEW SECTION
Sustainability
You Are What You Surf
Last fall, Cliff Kapono could be found surfing waves off the coasts of Ireland, Spain, Britain and Morocco. After a brief stop home in Hilo this January, he planned to head south to Chile and then west to Indonesia. Kapono’s…
The Future of Farming
Imagine a world in which robots, drones and artificial intelligence plant, monitor, harvest, and deliver your food. This may sound like science fiction, but it is, in fact, the emerging reality in farming. “We’re seeing robots that can plant, water…
Not Your Father's Stock
Three Big Island breeders have welcomed 14 new alpacas to their pastures, part of what they say is a small but growing market in the state for the South American animals that resemble miniature llamas. Big…
Water Warning
Most people are smart enough to stay out of the ocean when signs warn about bacteria in the water. The problem is we don’t always get that warning, or get it quickly enough, because Hawaii has 303 miles of recreational…
Three Things You Can Do to Protect Hawaii's Water
Hokulea apprentice navigator Austin Kino has turned his passion into a business by launching Holokino Hawaii, a sailing-canoe tour based out of the Kahala Hotel and Resort. The goal is a cultural experience,…
How Hawaii's Beach Waters Rank
Was Your Beach Tested? The state uses a tiered system based on risk to determine which beach waters to sample for bacteria. Tier 1: These beaches take priority because they are heavily used and have factors that could influence higher…
Rapid Ohia Death - Threat to Hawaii's Water
The low-slung warehouse sits on the edge of a small industrial park just outside Waimea. Behind it are the humped, green foothills of Kohala, the oldest of the Big Island’s five volcanoes, and low, heavy clouds inch down the mountain…
The Need for Feed
The high cost of animal feed has long hindered the meat, poultry, dairy and seafood industries in the Islands, but local efforts on several fronts aim to reduce those expenses. Shipping feed from the Mainland costs about $150 to $200…
Bring Back Our Beach!
Oahu, Kauai and Maui are outlined by nearly 170 miles of sandy beaches, but about 70 percent of them are slowly shrinking from erosion, storms and a rising sea, according to a USGS report. Hawaii has the technology and expertise…
Giving Forests New Life
Sheri Mann, Forester and Kauai Island district manager works with the State to conserve nature's wonders. NAME: Sheri Mann AGE: 48 JOB: Forester and Kauai Island district manager, Division of Forestry and Wildlife, state Department of Land and Natural Resources…
Farmers Find Paradise
Life and business partners Scott Buske and Megan Collins have adventurous souls that led them to an overgrown orchard on the Big Island and a whole series of tasty foods they are selling to locals and the world. “I always…
Hawaii Business Environmental Report: Mosquitoes
Mosquitoes have already caused a dengue fever outbreak in Hawaii. Zika and other mosquito-borne diseases may be close behind. Here’s what scientists are doing and what you should do. For most of Kepa Police’s life, mosquitoes were minor annoyances, simply…
Worth Considering: Building with Shipping Containers
Last November, the Hale Mauliola Housing Navigation Service Center opened on Sand Island. It made national news for creating homeless shelters from retrofitted shipping containers. Some people were appalled, others applauded the frugality and portability of the design. In Nevada,…
Hawaii Business Environmental Report: Pesticides
Critics say use of the chemicals by seed companies endangers the health of Hawaii’s people, but the companies insist they are using pesticides safely and following federal regulations. A recent report suggests a way forward on the issue. Malia Chun…
Hawaii Business Environmental Report: Fuel Leaks
Two years ago, 27,000 gallons of jet fuel leaked from the military’s giant Red Hill underground storage tanks. The Navy more fully explains what went wrong then and answers the question: Will further or bigger leaks happen and contaminate a…
Third Wave
Hawaii is ground zero for energy innovation, and the leading incubator for that innovation is the Energy Excelerator. Back in 2014, when Hawaii Business first reported on EEx, 50 startups applied to join its initial cohort. This year, there were…
Data-Driven Farming
Inspiration: Farmers told Vincent Kimura they needed an affordable way to protect their crops and increase their yields. Once he had an idea to address that problem, he teamed with Ryan Ozawa, Isar Mostafanezhad and Justin Hedani to create the…
What's It Worth: Preserving the Game
Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino When locals want to immortalize game animals from a hunt, they go to Gordon Lau Jr., owner of Oahu Taxidermy Service. “If they catch something really nice, they want to mount it,” says the former carpenter.…
Talk Story with Eric Gleason
Eric Gleason President, NextEra Energy Hawaii President, NextEra Energy Transmission After a career in investment banking – interrupted by a couple of years backpacking around the world with his wife – Gleason has spent the last six years in the…
Nonprofit Corner: Connecting People to Forests
Native plant restoration is an ongoing process at the Kaupulehu Dryland Forest in North Kona – one of more than a dozen projects by the nonprofit Hawaii Forest Institute. “Not all (Hawaii) forests are native forests,” notes Rob Pacheco, who…
Wasted
We may buy that clamshell of beautiful, ripe strawberries with the best of intentions – pancakes! cobbler! fruit salad! – but when the end of the week comes and they’re getting soft and fuzzy in the back of the produce drawer,…
What's It Worth: Will Work for Food
It’s an economical and eco-friendly way to eliminate overgrowth on land, and the workers are cute and quiet. Chris Wilcox, then a boat captain for a fish-farming operation on Hawaii Island, switched gears in 2013 and started Big Island Goat…
Batteries: The Other Half of Hawaii’s Energy Future
Batteries are old. In a sense, the last major development in battery technology was the invention of the lead-acid battery in 1859 by the French physicist Gaston Plante. Earlier batteries had short lives, quickly losing their charge as their electrodes…