Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii

JUNE 15 – BAMP partners with Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii for Marley Concert and Diamond Head Cleanup

Kahi — Thu, 16 May 2013 21:00:05 +0000

On June 15th Sustainable Coastlines and Surfrider will be hosting a cleanup at Diamond Head. Last years efforts resulted in 2,800 lbs removed with the help of over 200 volunteers. This year we hope to increase awareness and participation. We want to inspire stewardship for this precious coastline that is used by beach goers and surfers daily.

In order to thank volunteers and entice new ones, our friends at BAMP have donated over 20 concert tickets to the Damien Marley and Santigold Concert that is happening that night. We are running multiple giveaways for these tickets and they will be announced ways to win them sporadically leading up to the day of the cleanup. Keep updated on how you can win tickets or the VIP Prize (backstage and meet and greet with Damien Marley) by subscribing to the website, following us on Instagram @sustainablecoastlineshawaii, on Vine @sustainablecoastlineshawaii, or by liking us on Facebook.

TICKETS GIVEN AWAY AT THE END OF THE BEACH CLEANUP – YOU MUST BE PRESENT TO WIN

FIRST CONTEST:

SCH Receives $5,000 Grant From Patagonia

Kahi — Thu, 02 May 2013 00:43:54 +0000

All of us at Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii would like to extend sincere gratitude to the team at Patagonia, who recently presented us a check for $5,000 to help us fulfill our mission of “inspiring local communities to care for their coastlines through hands on beach cleanups.”

Along with the grant check, Patagonia sent along a sincere message of support: “We know your hands-on Beach Cleanups, Workshops, and your Steward-Creating Team will inspire and educate our communities about what kind of Marine Debris are washing up on our Hawaii shores. We look forward to working with and supporting you!”

Patagonia is an outdoor clothing manufacturer with a dedication to giving back to the community through its Environmental Grants Program. Patagonia commits 1% of annual sales to nonprofit organizations that are green focused and continues to look for creative ways to engage and educate the community. We are thrilled to be building a strong partnership with such a conscious, conservation-focused company and look forward to working together!

Mahalo, The Garden Isle Newspaper!

Kahi — Thu, 02 May 2013 00:21:46 +0000

Earth Day Totals

Kahi — Wed, 01 May 2013 23:21:01 +0000

On April 20th 2013 Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii and Sea Life Park hosted The Earth Day Beach Cleanup and Arts & Music Festival. With the help of many other organizations, the event became the largest beach cleanup in Hawaii history! The totals are in and are listed below:
Participants: 1,073

Trash: approx 4,500 lbs.

Recycled: through HI-5 and METHOD Ocean Plastics Recovery: 780 lbs.
All Recycling $ donated to the hard workers at the recycling place: $28.43

Special thanks to Kaneohe Marine Base specifically the Base Inspector and the Lifeguards, Straight Up Hawaii, Enactus, BYUH, Kokua Hawaii Foundation, Plastic Free Hawaii, Hawaii Army National Guard, Ocean Devotion, Kailua Sailboards and Kayaks, The Guardians of Kaupo, Sea Life Park, Prudential, Rep. Gene Ward and Staff, and the other organizations that participated in the Earth Day Event. Without your participation the event would not have been as successful. We look forward to hosting our next event on the South Shore and encourage all to participate.

CNN gives Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii some LOVE

Kahi — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 05:13:12 +0000

Our Ocean Plastics Campaign is gaining steam for a launch in the next few months. Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii is hoping to get the whole east side of Oahu involved in the collection of marine debris and sorting out the recyclable parts for reuse. The onslaught of marine debris is an accepted fact, now let’s do what we can to lighten our load on the landfills, raise awareness to the issues of marine debris, and bring a community together. Take a quick look at this video to see where the plastic you collect is going.

Alternatives to Single Use Plastic Food Service Items

tristan cummins — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 05:04:00 +0000

Here at Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii we like to get answers to questions that are on our minds. We fully support companies working hard to introduce certified compostable products into the marketplace that are alternatives to single use plastic items. You may, like us have wondered what happens to these compostable products if you aren’t composting them at home? Do they end up in the landfill? Why purchase these items if that is the case? What are these compostable products made of?

We reached out to Ari Patz the owner of Styrophobia a manufacturer of certified compostable foodservice items to get some important answers……..

Why use compostable products if we in Hawaii don’t have a composting facility?

1- To help bring composting to Hawaii. The easier it is to separate and identify what is compostable the risk of contaminating the waste stream is reduced. Also, the incentive to setup a composting facility becomes greater.

2- Toxicity. Our products are certified compostable, this means that they are toxin free and the compost generated from them can be used to grow food crops. It should be noted that biodegradable food service items are 34-97% plastic and that they represent a greater potential environmental hazard than 100% plastic items. I can go more into this, basic issue is bioaccumulation.

3- Energy consumption. We use less energy to manufacture our products, with the energy to make one plastic fork, we can make two of ours… One Styrofoam plate, we can make three of our plates.

4- End of life. Food service waste goes to one of three places for the most part, the ocean, landfill, or H-power. Our product will not harm or contaminate the ocean as they are non-toxic. In landfill, our products will often take up less room and are non-toxic so a legacy of plastic contaminant could be avoided. At H-power, our products actually produce more electricity. This may seem hard to believe, but it is true. Often fuel, or energy, values are given by weight or volume, and yes pound for pound Styrofoam has more energy value than my fiber, but the issue here is that Styrofoam is 94% air and my containers are 2.5 times heavier giving them a higher BTU value container to container. In addition, the burn rate of my containers is slower and provides a better heat for producing electricity.

What about the GMO issue?

Some of our products are made from corn. All the utensils, bags and hot cup and soup bowl lids are GMO free. All the clear plastic like material (PLA or polylactic acid) is derived from GM corn. A few things should be noted, the production of PLA does not affect the cost of corn flakes, ethanol or any other corn product as the corn used to make PLA is feed stock. In line with our ideals of only using byproducts of the agriculture industry PLA is generated largely from surplus feed stock. While I wish we were not feeding livestock corn, the fact is that we are and large amounts get thrown away, by making PLA we are utilizing something that would otherwise be trashed.

Biggest Takeaways -

There is a very important distinction between products labeled “biodegradable” and those labeled “certified compostable”. The items labeled “biodegradable” can be comprised of a high percentage of plastic (34-97%). This plastic would be left behind in the soil and could eventually wind up in the food we eat through the process of bioaccumulation, this is not a solution. Products labeled “certified compostable” are a far better alternative. These products are made entirely of plant material and would leave no plastic in the soil after they breakdown.

If the public supports companies like Styrophobia producing “certified compostable” items in the years to come it will be a huge benefit to our oceans and public health.

Johnson Ohana Charitable Foundation Supports Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii

Kahi — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 08:37:42 +0000

We are truly honored to have the support of great people like the Johnson Ohana and our close partners at the Kokua Hawaii Foundation. We look forward to working together and making all our supporters proud in the coming year and beyond.

Funding for Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii has been provided by the Johnson Ohana Charitable Foundation, founded by Jack and Kim Johnson to support environmental, art, and music education now and into the future.

Jack and Capt. Charles Moore at a Sustainable Coastlines Cleanup in Kahuku

Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii is now a 1% for the Planet Partner

lindsey kesel — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 19:31:38 +0000

1% for the Planet is a growing global network of over 1,380 member companies in 43 countries that give one percent of revenues to environmental causes, and now SCH is eligible to receive donations from 1% member companies. 1% businesses fuel this powerful non-profit network through annual contributions, which totaled over $22 million in 2010. If you are part of a 1% business, you can encourage your business to choose SCH as a donor recipient and help to perpetuate our mission of “inspiring local communities to care for their coastlines through hands-on beach cleanups of the Hawaiian Islands.

1% for the Planet was started in 2002 by Yvon Choinard, founder and owner of Patagonia, and Craig Matthews, owner of Blue Ribbon Files. To learn more, visit onepercentfortheplanet.org.

The Inspired Economist’s Take On Wanderlust at Turtle Bay

tristan cummins — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 00:12:11 +0000

http://inspiredeconomist.com/2013/03/21/turtle-bay-resort-a-sustainable-place-to-host-an-even/

Turtle Bay Resort: a sustainable place to host an event?

March 21, 2013 by Scott Cooney

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Oahu’s recent Wanderlust Festival provided yoginis the opportunity to mix and mingle with some of the yoga world’s biggest names: Shiva Rae, Baron Baptiste, Shakti Sunfire, Eion Finn and Michael Franti were fixtures in the festivities. Given the yoga crowd’s penchant for mindfulness, organic foods, and all things green, the choice of location for such an event was critical for the event’s organizers. Turtle Bay Resort, where the Oahu Wanderlust festival was held, has been under fire from environmentalists and community activists over a proposed development of the pristine and legendary “country”, the North Shore of Oahu. Quick aside: The original term “Town & Country” referred to Honolulu (“town” as it’s called locally) and the wilder, less concrete parts of Oahu, especially the North Shore (“country”).

Should sustainability be a consideration in choosing a location for a festival like Wanderlust? The Turtle Bay Resort is, after all, a member of the Hawaii Green Business Program, and was awarded a 4 Green Eco-Leaf Rating from iStayGreen.org. Among Turtle Bay’s green accomplishments:

The resort shifted its pools to saltwater, eliminating the need to manufacture, store, and ship chemically based chlorine.
It sends employees out to participate in beach cleanups with Sustainable Coastlines, a local environmental group.
They have partnered with local farms to bring in some local and organic produce, though how much is very unclear from their website.
They’ve retrofitted 70% of their lighting to date, dropping their electricity use 12%.
They’ve implemented recycling across the resort (though..more on this in a sec).
They’ve upgraded to lower flow showers, toilets and urinals.
They’ve shifted to only washing bed linens every third day of a guest’s stay.
They say they’ve shifted their restaurants’ use of cups toward reusable, compostable, or post-consumer recycled material (though…more on this…yeah, in a sec).

All of which is good. If you take a detailed look, though, most items, like many companies’ initial efforts at sustainability, are primarily designed to cut costs. It’s great, but is that real sustainability, or more of an accounting decision?

Digging a little deeper, I looked into their recycling program. From what I found on site, there was little availability of recycling. There are bins in the parking lot for bottles and cans. Here in Hawaii, those are worth money, 5 cents per can/bottle. Beyond that, I couldn’t find a recycling or compost bin anywhere in the hotel, and nothing for less valuable recyclables like newspaper, magazines, #’s 3-7 plastics, or glass.

But here’s the really interesting part. Knowing that the attendees of the festival would be aghast at the lack of appropriate recycling and composting facilities, Wanderlust’s organizers pushed Turtle Bay to do a three bin system for trash, recyclables and compostables. Turtle Bay complied, but put little or no resources into it. They instead outsourced the job to Sustainable Coastlines, who happily volunteered to take on the job…for no pay. Turtle Bay provided no support staff to help festival attendees to sort their refuse. As a result, there was compost in the recycle bin, trash in the compost bin, and recyclables everywhere. When I asked Sustainable Coastlines’ volunteers what happened then, they replied that they just rolled their sleeves up and dug into the piles to do the sorting.

Note the plastic wrap, random packaging, and other noncompostable items in the compost bin?

Tristan Cummings of Sustainable Coastlines was very chipper and upbeat on the situation, saying that Turtle Bay had provided them access to golf carts to move rubbish around, and had granted them camping access for the weekend, which he said was the best perk. However, camping access wasn’t limited to the SC volunteers (it was available to all festival attendees), so if that’s the best perk offered for 3 days of sorting trash, that seems a little weaksauce, especially when you consider the economics of the situation: Wanderlust sold Turtle Bay completely out. At $350-$475 per night for many of their hundreds of rooms, the amount of money that Wanderlust brought to Turtle Bay is easily into the tens of thousands. Would hiring some folks to handle the event’s waste really have been difficult? Sustainable Coastlines did a great job handling the waste, but I found this to be the biggest failing of the weekend.

According to Cummings: “The yogis were open to hearing what our members had to say at our information booth. As with any large group of people you’ll find some who are well informed on the topic and others who have yet to be turned on to the issue of marine debris. The people I spoke with were receptive and interested in the topic. I think yogis in general have a respect for the environment that comes along with living an examined lifestyle.”

The other major blemish on the resort’s green image is the restaurants on site. Whether they’re sourcing local and organic or not (hard to tell, as I said earlier), they serve a high end, high carbon footprint menu, and dish it up with lots of plastic. Here’s a photo I took of a typical table setting at one of Turtle Bay’s establishments. Each table in the place was similarly covered in single-use plastics. Watching people drink, they either immediately removed the straws, or pushed them aside as they were drinking. There’s an easy, quick win–get rid of the silly straws. It’s a ton of plastic junk, costs money, produces waste you have to clean up and move later, requires reordering, creates extra work for bartenders…and few, if any folks, use them.

Only the wine glass was reusable.

In addition to the single-use disposables with which most of the cuisine is served, the food leaves something to be desired in terms of sustainability. It’s packed with GMO ingredients, imported goods, and foods with heavy carbon footprints. My girlfriend and I, both vegetarians for 20+ years, arrived a few days before the event to start looking into stories we wanted to write about the event. The menus at the restaurants on site were enough to chase us to neighboring Haleiwa, a town 15 minutes away, in order to eat a decent meal. Among the offerings at Turtle Bay:

Lei Lei’s Bar & Grill features prime rib, escargot, calamari, ahi, shrimp, salmon, ribs, chicken…you get the idea. Not much of this is grown here in Hawaii, and there’s not a single item on Lei Lei’s menu that is organic. The only vegetarian entree? Bleached white pasta with veggies and cream sauce, for $21.95.
Surfer the Bar also has nothing labeled organic and just one vegetarian entree, a $16 garden burger.
The Hang Ten bar menu similarly has a $14 veggie burger, nothing organic, and plenty of food coma inducing, gut-busting, imported dishes, like the “Kanak Attack Nachos” (Kanak Attack is Hawaiian slang for food coma).
The most upscale of the restaurants, Ola, has some all natural beef from North Shore farms and one vegetarian entree (which does look delicious), but not much else, and for prices that I’d think would normally suggest you’d be getting an all organic, all local, fresh, healthy, GMO-free and delicious meal.

But the really interesting part is that all of these places changed up their menus for the weekend of Wanderlust, and started serving good, healthy fare, and really calling attention to anything local or natural that they were serving. Is that really that difficult to do on a regular basis as opposed to a one-off? I hope the resort saw the financial impact of the green community in full force for one terrific weekend and decides to move much farther on its sustainability journey.

Earth Day Beach Cleanup and Music Festival

Kahi — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 02:22:04 +0000

Join us on 4/20 as we host an Earth Day Beach Cleanup and Music Festival. From 9:30 to Noon we will be cleaning beaches from Pyramid Rock on Kaneohe Marine Base all the way to Sandy Beach. Then everyone is invited to join us at Sea Life Park for an afternoon of live music, guest speakers, games, keiki activities, all the parks shows, and more for only $5. Join the conversation on the Facebook Event Page HERE.

We are trying to make this the largest cleanup in Hawaii history so please share and rally people to come. No need to sign up prior. Just choose one of the beaches listed on the flyer and show up at 9:30. The rest will be taken care of.

If you are a non-profit or for-profit looking to be a part of the event. Please contact lindsey@sustainablecoastlineshawaii.org for more details. We still have room at our after cleanup event for a few vendors.