Category Archives: Sustainability

Biofuel, Sustainability

Comment on Hawaii Bioenergy Master Plan

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The State’s bioenergy master plan was released for comment last week, and final comments are being accepted until October 2nd.

Why the rush?

Before it is released, the plan is already obsolete for the Big Island. Biofuels will not result in lower costs for ratepayers.

Here on the Big Island, though, we have an option that will – geothermal.

From the master plan:

“The primary objective of the bioenergy master plan shall [be to] develop a Hawaii renewable biofuels program to manage the State’s transition to energy self-sufficiency based in part on biofuels for power generation and transportation.”

Geothermal has a better chance of achieving the above objectives of self-sufficiency in power generation as well as transportation.  It does not utilize any fossil fuels in its production, does not produce any greenhouse gases to speak of and does not compete with food production. It is proven. It can even help HELCO manage the grid.

Furthermore, it is a resource benefiting native Hawaiians – through royalties and possibly rents.

Biofuels have a very poor Energy Return on Energy Invested (EROI), below 2 to 1. This is below the minimum EROI a sustainable society requires, which is considered to be 3 to 1.

By contrast, geothermal has an EROI of approximately 10 to 1, and that is not expected to change in the next few centuries.

We owe it to future generations to do the right thing.

Read the plan (see the link above) and submit comments by emailing them here no later than October 2, 2009.

Here is the comment I submitted:

Aloha:

I am Richard Ha. We farm 600 fee simple acres of various fruits and vegetables in Pepe‘ekeo. In addition, I am treasurer of the Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation.

I have several comments regarding this master plan.

If oil is $200 per barrel, one pound of that oil is worth 70 cents. Farmers estimate that it might take four pounds of stuff to make one pound of liquid. As a rough estimate, farmers know that the most they can get for the stuff they grow when the price of oil is real high is approximately 18 cents per pound. At today’s oil price, they would only get 6 cents per pound. Better to grow cucumber.

It does not matter what the stuff is.  The costs, to maintain, harvest, pre-process and transport the stuff, are related to oil prices. So as oil price rise, the cost of growing the stuff also rises. It is kind of like chasing the mechanical rabbit at the greyhound racetrack. The dogs never can catch the rabbit. So small farmers will not likely become a major supplier of biofuels.

Because of the commodity characteristics of biofuel, the producers are likely to be larger industrial type agriculture participants. There are only a few places that lend itself to that kind of farming. It is reasonable to assume that food and fuel will be competing for the same land. There should be an analysis done to evaluate this.

There should be an Energy Return on Investment (EROI) analysis of the various types of biofuels so it can be compared against other energy alternatives. It is estimated that the EROI for oil was 100 to 1 in the 1930s – i.e., it took one barrel of oil to get a hundred. This declined to 30 to 1 in the 1970s, and recently it has been hovering around 10-15 to 1. But as it becomes more and more difficult to get oil, that ratio is steadily declining.

It has been estimated that an EROI ratio of 3 to 1 is the minimum necessary to maintain a sustainable society. http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/2/1/25/pdf.
Biofuels are estimated to be less than 2 to 1.

This study should not exist in a vacuum. We know that electric vehicles are around the corner.  What is the advantage of pursuing a product that has an EROI of 2 to 1, versus one like geothermal that has an EROI of approximately 10 to 1 that will not decline for the foreseeable future?

It is my opinion that pursuing biofuels is the wrong solution to our energy problem.

Richard Ha
President,
Hamakua Springs Country Farms

Big Island, Peak Oil, Sustainability

Hawaii In The Time Of Peak Oil

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In June of last year, Gail Tverberg wrote this post at The Oil Drum Blog, and just a few days ago she reposted it:

Hawaii seems to come up often in the thinking of people aware of peak oil. On one hand, it seems like an ideal place to relocate after peak oil – no need to worry about heating a house; clothing is mostly for protection from the sun; and crops can be grown year around. On the other hand, it produces no fossil fuel itself, and it is at the end of the supply line for both food and fuel. Hawaii’s biggest industry, tourism, is already declining, and with rising fuel costs, can only decline further.

When the Kohala Center started planning its energy conference a while back, I recommended they invite Gail to be the featured speaker. I had met her at the Peak Oil conference in Houston and was very familiar with her writing on The Oil Drum. As an insurance actuary, she assesses risk for the insurance industry. I like what she writes because it is clear and easy to understand.

She gave two talks in Hilo. The first was at the energy conference itself and the second, a free presentation to the Kanaka Council that I arranged.

I took her sightseeing around the Big Island over that weekend, so I got to chat with her quite a bit about oil supply matters.

Here is a very interesting post she did at the Energy Bulletin in March 2009. She wrote:

Nearly all of the economic analyses we see today have as their basic premise a view that the current financial crisis is a temporary aberration. We will have a V or U shaped recovery, especially if enough stimulus is applied, and the economy will soon be back to Business as Usual.

I believe this assumption is basically incorrect. The current financial crisis is a direct result of peak oil. There may be oscillations in the economic situation, but generally, we can’t expect things to get much better. In fact, there is a very distinct possibility that things may get very much worse in the next few years.

Whether or not one believes Gail is right — that the current financial crisis is caused by Peak Oil — it is prudent that we plan for the worse and hope for the best. I think our most reasonable path is to actively pursue geothermal energy. We must help HELCO figure out how to decommission their oil-fired plants — put them in moth balls, in standby mode, and replace them with geothermal plants, preferably ones that are geographically diversified. At the same time, we need to figure out how to leave their stockholders whole. We can do this.

The reason we need geothermal is that geothermal energy costs are stable. With geothermal, our electricity and water bills would not go up as oil prices rise. And our transportation costs could stabilize, as well. We could have a successful economy here in Hawai‘i in spite of rising oil prices.

If we don’t go geothermal, rising foreign oil costs could bankrupt us. Our society could come apart.

Switching to geothermal is not an option; it is a necessity. We all know this.

Film, Renewable Energy Sources, Sustainability

Richard in Documentary Film at Palace Theater Sat. & Sun.

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When I called photojournalist Catherine Bauknight to talk about her new documentary Hawaii A Voice for Sovereignty, she was sitting in her Pasadena home where she could see the flames of
California’s Station Fire burn the closest ridge of the mountains a
mere couple miles away.

She tells a very different story of the land in her Hawai‘i-based documentary, which plays at Hilo’s Palace Theater tomorrow (Saturday, September 5, 2009) at 7 p.m., and Sunday at 2:30 p.m.

Richard was interviewed for and appears in the movie. He told me he was going to go look for his plastic nose and bushy eyebrows so he could go see the movie this weekend but stay anonymous. I’d love to see that.

From Catherine Bauknight’s website:

Hawaii A Voice for Sovereignty, is a documentary about the native Hawaiian’s journey to sustain their culture, spirituality, and connection to the land. This modern epic documentary, filmed over four years, contains rare interviews with Native Hawaiians in their homes, at sacred sites, in mountains and the rain forests. Along with the voices of these “people of the land”, Professor Haunani-Kay Trask, Senator J. Kalani English, Grammy nominee Willie K and other Hawaiian leaders, take us into rarely seen ancient lifestyles where spirituality, culture, and care for the land form a sacred bond between humankind and the natural
world. They reveal their quest to secure their Hawaiian rights as the host  culture, and their economic, social, and ecological future. By bridging their ancient knowledge with modern technologies such as wind, solar, and wave renewable energy and agricultural land systems they move towards their goal of sustainability.

Here’s the film’s trailer.

Catherine is a seasoned photojournalist whose work has appeared in Time, Newsweek and People magazines, as well as in the New York Times, USA Today and Rolling Stone. She was one of five international journalists who covered the Tiananmen Square massacre.

She says Hawai‘i was someplace she came to relax, but after awhile she started looking around. “I started trying to figure out why the Hawaiians weren’t visible in their own environment,” she says, “and that led to this four-year documentary.”

She says she started asking questions and went from person to person getting recommendations on people to speak with who were knowledgeable about the Hawaiian culture. “They all told me, You cannot discuss the culture without discussing the relationship between the land and the people and the spiritualism and the sovereignty we are seeking.”

She also kept hearing about the need for Hawaiians to have their land and live sustainable lives, and then she heard about Richard.

“I asked Woody Vaspra, who is part of the Sundance ceremonies, if he knew of anyone who was living off the land and making a living off it and also including the Hawaiian people,” she says. “He suggested Richard, and when I spoke to Richard I realized he was exactly what I was looking for – that he is going back to the land and working on becoming sustainable, and also working toward using renewable resources. It was perfect.”

(“I have no idea how we fit into the story line,” says Richard. “I just gave my standard explanation of what we do at the farm.”)

Catherine calls the film an “oral history of Native Hawaiians.”

“These are the kupunas, the scholars, people who are grassroots,” she says. “It’s a combination of Hawaiians from all walks of life, and one of the most interesting things is that their message is the same. No matter what their background, from the most grassroots to the most highly educated. The message about the Hawaiian future, the land and spirituality is the same.

“And it’s the story of the Hawaiian people all the way back to the takeover,” she says, “in their own voice – but not presented with anger, it’s presented as facts. And it leads up to the renaissance of the Hawaiian people with hope and unity.”

She says they’ve sent information to the schools here and she especially hopes people will bring kids to see this story. “I’ve been told that children as young as 7 years old have sat down and watched this film from beginning to end, and it’s 84 minutes.”

It sounds like, in addition to the oral histories by native Hawaiians, there’s a lot to catch a child’s attention. “There’s hula,” she says, “and an ancient, very spiritual style of drumming and nose flute by Willie K. He doesn’t really do that publicly, but he did it in the rainforest especially for this film. He also does this amazing live rendition of ‘Spirits in the Wind.’”

Other musicians appear in the documentary, such as Lono from Molokai, George Kahomoku, Cyril Pahinui, Richard Ho‘opi‘i and
Makana. Catherine says the film’s soundtrack will be available on CD in a couple weeks. Watch for information about that in about a week at her website.

On Wednesday the film became eligible to be nominated for an Academy Award, and so it will open at the Coliseum Cinemas in Manhattan on September 15th, and the Laemmle Theater in Hollywood on September 23rd.

And then the film will travel and screen across the Pacific islands, following the route early Polynesians took on their voyage to become Hawaiians until it gets back to New Zealand.

Now Catherine says she is looking for business sponsors, who will have their logo on the film “from now until eternity.” She says there is just a little more than a week left to sign up sponsors, and interested parties can contact her here.

Palace Theater Tickets are $7 general, $6 for seniors and students, and $5 for Friends of the Palace. Call 934-7010 for more information.

Peak Oil, Sustainability

Families of Farms: An Introduction

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I wrote in a recent post about how much I admired Uncle Sonny’s ability to grow great watermelons in a very effective and efficient way. Over the years, I have noticed that this is a characteristic I see all the time in small farmers’ operations.

So how are we going to supply food for Hawaii’s people, in the variety that the community will need, so they won’t need to travel so often? And on the community scale, how will we have enough variety to feed the community around us?

This is how the concept of “Families of Farms” came to me. I asked myself, What happens if we lease lands and hydroponic houses to area farmers?

Our idea is that we would each bring certain resources to make the whole more than the sum of the parts. We believe that this will help each of us make more money together than if we operated independently. So it’s in all of our interests to stay together.

•    We would get effective and efficient farmers working with us. Small farmers do not waste anything. And we would get more production than what we could do ourselves
•    We would get more variety than we could do ourselves
•    We would get more young farmers into farming
•    We would bring the water and electricity resource that we have
•    We would bring our technical expertise
•    We would bring our marketing and distribution system
•    We would bring our cooling facilities

We will need to adapt to a new normal. Necessity is the mother of invention.

When oil spiked to $147 per barrel last July, the world changed.  It was such a shock that it threw the world economy into a tailspin. The financial system unwind was probably triggered by this event.

Until then, we had assumed that “big volume” was better and “market share” was everything. But when the oil price spiked, so did everything to do with agriculture. Fertilizer, chemicals, cooling, transportation and packaging – all of these things rose in price with oil.

But our selling price could not go up, because people’s incomes shrank as they paid more for gas, water, electricity as well as other oil-related components.

Knowing that oil is a finite resource and that the world’s population is growing at the rate of 70 million per year, it is clear that oil prices will eventually go up again, and probably higher than before. So we asked ourselves: What will the world look like in five and 10 years, and where do we want to be in that world?

In 10 years we expect that oil prices will spike higher than $147, but that time when it throws us into recession, the oil prices will probably not drop back to this cycle’s low prices.

And we do not expect that HELCO will have reacted to protect us from rising electric and fresh drinking water prices by putting more geothermal on line. We expect that people will try to save money by driving less. So there will be a new normal to adapt to.

Coming soon: Some of the ideas we are working on.

Food Security, Peak Oil, Renewable Energy Sources, Sustainability

Changing World, Changing Farm

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When I used to go visit Uncle Sonny at Maku‘u, I was just starting to farm bananas. My goal was to capture a sizeable amount of market share. I was thinking hundreds of acres, while Uncle Sonny was farming just a few acres.

It was very interesting for me to see how he produced his exceptional-quality watermelons, which were consistently sweet. It took tender loving care, very close observation, quick appropriate reaction and good old common sense.

Although Uncle Sonny had a fresh water spring on his property, and 10 acres of deep soil, he chose to operate with the bare minimum of inputs. Instead of setting up an irrigation infrastructure around a water pump, he decided that if there was a drought he’d haul water for irrigation. I couldn’t disagree; after all, he was sending money back to the Philippines every month to support a family there. Operating at that scale worked for him.

If a farmer makes money, a farmer will farm. Uncle Sonny farmed at the scale appropriate for him and it worked.

His yard was immaculate. He kept it mowed a good distance down the beach. It wasn’t only work for him; a large part of it was quality of life.

What I took away from visiting Uncle Sonny was a keen respect for small farmers. It is not about the size of your farm—it’s about quality and performance. Uncle Sonny helped me develop a good eye for that.

Our farm, Kea‘au Bananas, went on to become the largest banana farm in the state at 300 acres. About 15 years ago, we moved to Pepe‘ekeo in order to diversify geographically and also to protect against a banana virus. To diversify our production, we transitioned into hydroponic farming.

It was because of water resources that we chose Pepe‘ekeo. There are three springs and three streams at our Pepe‘ekeo farm. We have so much water that we’re now developing a 100KW hydroelectric system.

In order to refocus our marketing, we changed our name and became Hamakua Springs Country Farms. We supply Chef Alan Wong with various hydroponic products. As a result, the Hamakua Springs brand has become known for its good-quality hydroponic vegetables.

In the last five years we have been noticing an escalation in farm input cost while at the same time there has been a squeeze on customers’ discretionary income. We anticipate a future of steadily declining oil supplies; consequently, input costs will escalate and discretionary income will further decline.

Last summer, when oil hit $147, I was convinced that the world had changed forever. Business as usual was not going to work in this new world. How would we adapt? How could we change and still produce significant tonnage to feed Hawai‘i’s people?

I kept asking myself – how could we put the skills and resources of the small farmer together with the resources we have, so that the whole becomes more than the sum of its parts? And in such a way that this organization will be relevant for the future? And could we make this fun, as well as productive?

(To be continued. Coming soon: “The Family of Farms.”)

Sustainability

HELCO’s Tariff About Moving Electricity Across TMKs

Wheeling of Electricity:

1) Wheeling “is the movement of electricity, owned by a power supplier and sold to a retail consumer, over transmission and distribution lines owned by neither one.” A fee is charged by the owners of the lines for letting others use them. (www.cepc.net/rewhl.htm)

2) Wheeling is defined as ”the process of transmitting electric power from a seller’s point of generation across a third-party-owned transmission and distribution system to the seller’s retail customer.” (Hawaii PUC)

Last week I learned that HELCO’s tariff does not allow the transmission of electricity across TMKs, even if it is entirely through property a person owns.

I cannot imagine how this could be illegal. There must be some mistake.

This could mean the end of our hydro-electric project, as well as our integrated community-based agriculture plan. We had planned to put in a hydro-electric turbine on one property we owned, then run a electric line through a neighboring property we owned to our packing house, which is on a third property we own.

We have a large cooler there that we are not using. Using hydroelectricity, we wanted to help area farmers consolidate and ship products to O‘ahu, thereby sharing transportation costs while maintaining freshness and quality.

We are actively pursing a Hawaiian sustainability project, where we would use the water from a new spring we just discovered for taro growing. The vision is to use this as an educational opportunity. We planned to use the hydro-electricity to power a processing plant where we would make poi and do value added processing for ourselves and participating area farmers.

Students who were interested could lease land from us for taro growing or other types of farming. One of the bottlenecks to food security is that there are places for students to learn about farming but limited opportunities to actually get into farming. We would like to help fix that problem.

With cheap electricity, we could even cold treat plants to force flowering during the winter. The possibilities are endless. Because it is difficult to raise our workers’ pay, we had planned to set up charging stations for our workers to charge up their electric/hybrid cars.

Being able to transport electricity through adjacent, commonly owned properties is very important for Hawai‘i’s food security effort. I would even advocate for farmers to use renewable energy Kilowatt hour credits on non-contiguous sites, such as at farmers markets or at value added processing plants. For most farmers, 100KW is way large enough. At full usage it would not even approach one half of 1 percent of the total electricity used. Yet, it would make a major impact on food security. Looks like we have the tail wagging the dog here.

Biofuel, Food Security, Peak Oil, Renewable Energy Sources, Sustainability

The State of the Future

Two reports of note appeared recently.

The first is the 2009 State of the Future.

This is the stark warning from the biggest single report to look at the future of the planet – obtained by The Independent on Sunday ahead of its official publication next month.

Backed by a diverse range of leading organisations such as Unesco, the World Bank, the US army and the Rockefeller Foundation, the 2009 State of the Future report runs to 6,700 pages and draws on contributions from 2,700 experts around the globe. Its findings are described by Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the UN, as providing “invaluable insights into the future for the United Nations, its member states, and civil society.”

…Jerome Glenn, director of the Millennium Project and one of the report’s authors, said: “There are answers to our global challenges, but decisions are still not being made on the scale necessary to address them. Three great transitions would help both the world economy and its natural environment – to shift as much as possible from freshwater agriculture to saltwater agriculture; produce healthier meat without the need to grow animals; and replace gasoline cars with electric cars.”

This is very interesting for us here, trying to live sustainable lives out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The idea about shifting to salt water agriculture has to do with limited amounts of fresh water worldwide. In Hawai‘i, we have the option of doing both.

The second idea, about producing meat without having to raise animals, is driven by anticipated grain shortages worldwide. In Hawai‘i, we can use the sun’s energy to grow grass for feed to make protein. That reduces our dependence on imported feed grains.

And the third idea has to do with decreasing fossil fuel energy and transitioning to electricity. On the Big Island, we have the opportunity to bring geothermal on line as base power so we can utilize maximum amounts of renewable energy.

The sooner we get away from thinking that we must depend on liquid fuel for transportation, the better.

The second article I found of interest, written by Lester Brown, was in the May issue of Scientific American. Brown founded the World Watch Institute, and headed that organization for many years. It was an article in the World Watch Magazine many years ago that led us (Kea‘au Banana) to become the first banana farm in the world certified by the Rainforest Alliance as ECO O.K.

In this article, Brown points out that the rise in grain prices is now trend-driven. For example, Saudi Arabia just announced that it will be decreasing its grain production by 1/8 each year. This is because they would use up the water in the non-rechargeable aquifer. So they are leasing land in other countries to grow grain for their population. Similarly, 120 million Chinese and 165 million of India’s population depend on grain growing on non-recharge aquifers. Many countries are making deals to protect their populations right now.

Those countries with rapidly rising middle classes want to eat higher on the food chain, putting further pressure on grain prices. People just cannot wait to jump in a car and drive to McDonalds.

If global warming detrimentally affects China’s mountain glaciers, which provide water for summer crop production, it is likely China will go on the open market and compete with the U.S. for its own grain supply. Knowing that is possible, we need to see about growing our own cattle and fish food. Fortunately, we can.

The prospect of peaking oil production has direct consequences for world food security, as modern agriculture depends heavily upon the use of fossil fuels. Most tractors use gasoline or diesel fuel. Irrigation pumps use diesel fuel, natural gas, or coal-fired electricity. Fertilizer production is also energy-intensive. Natural gas is used to synthesize the basic ammonia building block in nitrogen fertilizers. The mining, manufacture, and international transport of phosphates and potash all depend on oil.

But surprisingly, the most energy-intensive segment of the food chain is the kitchen. Much more energy is used to refrigerate and prepare food in the home than is used to produce it in the first place. The big energy user in the food system is the kitchen refrigerator, not the farm tractor. While oil dominates the production end of the food system, electricity dominates the consumption end.

In Hawai‘i, farmers need to get out from under the dominance of oil in the production end of agriculture. The grass fed beef cattle industry is doing just that. Avoidance of petroleum-based packaging wherever possible helps, too.

Legislation and incentives that help farmers move toward renewable energy sources are very helpful. It is very important that Ag and energy policies be coordinated. We need to address questions like: “Should we plant trees for transportation fuel, instead of grass for cattle feed?” We need a detailed analysis of the consequences. We know for sure that grass equals beef at any scale. At what scale will trees make biofuels?

How about someone figure out how to convert internal combustion engine farm tractors to ones that are battery driven? Can our Community College folks do that? Can we make our own nitrogen fertilizer from renewable sources? How about it, U.H. Engineering School?

The 2009 State of the Future report suggests: “Replace gasoline cars with electric cars.” Absolutely, and use our geothermal resource to produce that electricity.

We on the Big Island have exciting opportunities ahead of us if we just focus on the future. Not, no can. CAN!

Sustainability

Sustainable Agriculture

From the Los Angeles Times food section:

THE CALIFORNIA COOK
‘Organic’ label doesn’t guarantee quality or taste
Just because it’s organic doesn’t mean it’s the best. Let flavor dictate.

By RUSS PARSONS
July 1, 2009

…The real world isn’t black and white at all. Between pure organics and the reckless use of chemicals, there is a huge gray area, and this is where most farming is done.

Ignoring this means that not only are you being misinformed, but you’re also taking your eye off the real mission of supporting small farmers who grow wonderful food.

The sustainable agriculture movement recognizes this, claiming as one of its central tenets the much vaguer requirement of “environmental responsibility,” and plainly state that this doesn’t necessarily require growing strictly organically.

At Hamakua Springs, we try to grow our crops sustainably. This gives us the flexibility to do the common sense kinds of things we need to do for the long run.

At most places on the mainland, it is easier and cheaper to grow crops organically, because the winter cold kills off lots of the bad guy bugs every year. In Hawai‘i, organic farmers need to use more chemicals than their mainland counterparts. The intense insect and disease pressure in our subtropical Hawai‘i climate is probably why organic farming is such a small part of the total food produced here.

At Hamakua Springs, we use organic techniques whenever it makes sense, but having the flexibility to choose the best solution for a situation helps us to produce lots of food.

And as far as the image of organic farming being the domain of small family farms, that is, for the most part, no truer than with conventional farms. A study by UC Santa Cruz professor Julie Guthman, included in her splendid book “Agrarian Dreams,” found that the sizes and ownerships of working organic and conventional fruit and vegetable farms are not that different.

The real problem with most farming today is with a commodity marketing system that demands that every decision be made based on what will be cheapest, not what will result in the best flavor. That — not a simple choice between organic and conventional — is what makes even small farms behave like industrial giants and ship fruits and vegetables that may look great but have no taste.

At Hamakua Springs, we have made a conscious decision to grow what tastes best. Then we do what we need to do to get the crop to market. Could we grow tomatoes with a longer shelf life? Yes, if we wanted tomatoes with no flavor. Could we grow more disease-resistant tomatoes? Absolutely, if we did not care about taste. Could we grow tomatoes that are shinier and more attractive than what we now grow? Sure, and we would grow those if they tasted as good as what we grow.

Farming has evolved quite a bit in the last few years.

In large part, this is a credit to the organic farming movement, as many of the ideas and techniques it pioneered have now worked their way into the mainstream, reducing the use of chemicals even among farmers who aren’t completely organic.

Community, Eating Locally, Renewable Energy Sources, Sustainability

Ulupono Initiative

Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay, and his wife Pam just announced the launch of their Ulupono Initiative. It’s:

a Hawai‘i-based business and social investment initiative rooted in the local wisdom that a healthy environment and a healthy economy go hand in hand. The Ulupono Initiative will invest in and help scale innovative Hawai‘i-based organizations to catalyze economic and social change in the areas of waste reduction, local food production and renewable energy. By growing a progressive, thriving economy based on sustainability, the Ulupono Initiative ultimately aims to improve the quality of life for Hawai‘i’s people.

This will make a major difference in Hawaii’s ability to survive into the future.

I see this as a way to support free enterprise projects that can move the ball downfield in the areas mentioned. I see that this initiative can also support non-profits where applicable. All in all, it’s a very good way to utilize the energy of the people.

From the Ulupono Initiative website, some examples of the types of investments the organization is making:

The Ulupono Initiative invests in organizations and companies working to improve Hawai’i’s economy by expanding the supply of renewable energy. For example:

Sopogy is a solar energy solutions provider dedicated to inventing, manufacturing and selling the worlds most innovative and affordable solar collectors. The Honolulu firm started as an Energy Laboratory incubator initiative. The Omidyars recognized creative leadership with an innovative product that was scalable to a global level. Sopogy demonstrated the qualities of an ideal Ulupono investment. It’s a local firm with a better business model that is ripe for expansion. With catalytic investment, Sopogy has expanded to supply a global marketplace with its trademarked concentrated solar power technology.

The Ulupono Initiative invests in organizations and companies working to expand Hawai’is supply of locally grown food. For example:

MA’O Organic Farms is a certified organic farm run by the Waianae Community Redevelopment Corporation (WCRC), a non-profit organization established by area residents, traditional practitioners, teachers, and business experts to address important needs of the Waianae community: youth empowerment, sustainable economic development, agriculture, health, and Hawaiian culture. Young people are engaged through a pathway of educational opportunities while they work to operate an organic farm that grows premium quality fruits and vegetables. With Omidyar family matching funds of the Legacy Lands Act and with support from Hawai’i Community Foundation, MA’O purchased land to triple its acreage. Because high growth creates new management challenges, strategic assistance has also been provided in formulating the plans to scale the farm to its new size, with the end goal of helping the program increase the number of students served and meet growing demand for its local, organic produce.

The Hawai’i Island School Gardens Network is managed by The Kohala Center on the Island of Hawai’i. By supporting dedicated staff and offering small matching grants, the program is expanding the number of school gardens and is sparking excitement within the community. Children are growing food locally, selling and marketing their product, and tracking production. The program hopes to inspire a new generation of Hawaii farmers while it increases the production and consumption of locally produced, nutritious food.

Hawai’i BioEnergy LLC is a limited liability company established by three of Hawai’is largest landowners (Kamehameha Schools, Grove Farm Company, and Maui Land & Pineapple Company), in partnership with global leaders in the venture capital community with an emphasis in sustainability (Khosla Ventures, Finistere Ventures, and ourselves). Hawai’i BioEnergy’s mission is to reduce Hawai’is energy costs, greenhouse gas emissions, and dependence on fossil fuels and improve local agriculture through research and development of local renewable bioenergy projects. Among Hawai’i BioEnergy’s initiatives are projects conducting research and development on various sites in Hawai’i to lead to the commercialization of producing biofuels from micro-algae in Hawai’i. Learn more about Hawai’i BioEnergy.

The Ulupono Initiative invests in organizations and companies using technology in innovative ways to engage the entire community in creating Hawai’is sustainable future. For example:

Kanu Hawai’i is an innovative social movement supported in part by a matching grant from the Omidyar family. It utilizes the power of web 2.0 tools to catalyze individual commitments into community action in harmony with island values. Kanu is pioneering new methods of engaging the citizens in the effort to build more compassionate, self-reliant, and sustainable communities. It is a model for civic engagement and social change with incredible potential, here and in other communities.

You can read more about the Ulupono Initiative in its press release.

Community, Education, Mauna Kea, Sustainability

Money For Education

This afternoon, University of Hawai‘i President David McClain issued this statement:

After discussions with academic and community leaders on the Big Island, and review with the Board of Regents, I can say that should TMT come to Mauna Kea, the Hawaiian community and community-at-large will benefit through an annual $1 million community benefit package, which will provide funding for locally chosen and managed educational programs on Hawai‘i Island. This will begin once all permits for the project have been received.

The compensation to the University of Hawai‘i, which is expected to begin at “first light,” will be split equitably between a higher education package to be used for selected initiatives of the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo and Hawai‘i Community College on Hawai‘i Island, and observing time for University of Hawai‘i scientists.

David McClain
President, University of Hawai‘i

What catches my attention is the part about an annual amount of $1 million for locally chosen and managed educational programs on Hawai‘i Island.

I know how important early education is. My Pop was the greatest influence on me. I learned the most important things, which lasted through my entire life, when I was 10 years old.

If we teach our keiki the values they need to make a society that is successful and thriving “when the boat no come,” we will have done our jobs. This $1 million that will be dedicated to keiki education annually is key to the survival of future generations. It is no longer about us – it is about the future generations.

We must learn and perpetuate what it was that allowed Hawaiians to survive for hundreds of years out in the middle of the ocean without boats coming in every day with goods from someplace else.

In the future, our values will need to revolve around aloha. We will need to assume responsibility—kuleana. We need to make more friends and stay closer to our families.

We live in the modern world, so how do we use what we have and meld it with the values that worked? We need to have a balance of science and culture in order for all of us to do what we do to help our greater society.

My Pop told me: “There are a thousand reasons why ‘No can.’ I only looking for one reason why ‘Can.’”

***

Yesterday was King Kamehameha Day. I think of King Kamehameha as a doer, not a talker. He took what was available to him and used it to the best advantage.

Statue

Since we are going to do a sign waving in support of the Thirty Meter Telescope today, in front of the King Kamehameha statue, I thought that I would go take pictures.

Over the last couple of weeks many of us did radio spots in support of the Thirty Meter Telescope. Running throughout the spots is the word “pono.” Those ads started running today.

Download HCU_Keawe_Wallace
Download HCU_Richard_Dale
Download HCU_Rockne_Penny
Download HCU_William_Penny

We will have more soon.

***

I went on three live radio programs yesterday morning. First with Kat and Keala at KWXX, then a few minutes with DC at Da Beat, and then on with Ken Hupp at KPUA.

I talked about how I volunteered to be on the TMT committee of the Hawaii Island Economic Development Board when I first heard that the TMT was considering coming to Hawai‘i. I felt strongly that if it was to be done, it needed to be done right. I talked about going to Keaukaha Elementary School to see its principal Lehua Veincent and asking where they go on excursions.

He told me the bus was too expensive so they walked around the community. I was shocked. How was it possible that in the shadows of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of telescopes on Mauna Kea, Keaukaha Elementary School did not have enough money to go on excursions?

My friends Duane Kanuha, Leslie, Macario and I said, “This no can,” and we decided to do something about it. We went out in the community and told the story. We said that for $600 people could adopt a class at Keaukaha Elementary School, so they could rent a bus and pay entry fees to ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center or another destination.

The idea is to inspire the kids. My Pop inspired me when I was in the fourth grade and his effect lasted a lifetime. I think the same can result from ‘Imiloa.

The Moores, a large funder of the TMT, found out about the Adopt-A-Class project and liked it. They adopted all the students of the Big Island.

I told the audience about the $1 million dollar fund that will be used for the education of our keiki. We are relying on the people we appoint to administer the fund.  We want to appoint people to the Board based on their passion for taking care of the community for the long run.