Kauai, Hawaii - A Model for Sustainability 

We aim to bring the Garden Isle of Kauai, Hawaii to 100% sustainability in all sectors such as agriculture, communication, education, energy, healthcare, health maintenance, sanitation, and transportation, among others. 

Our objective is for Kauai to serve as a model of sustainability for the US mainland, her other territories, and other nations.
 
We are working with leaders in Kauai’s local government, business, education, faith, and cultural communities, and we have established partnerships between the Chambers of Commerce and the schools (public, private, charter, and college) along with local community organizations and families to prepare citizens throughout the life span to reach economic prosperity through entrepreneurship, college and career readiness and building the infrastructure within community for new business growth and new industry success on the island. 

These organizations represent essential areas to build Kauai as a healthy sustainable 
Community overall.
 
Education:
 
In Hawai’i, less than 40% of the island’s students go on to earn a four-year degree. Over the course of a 40-year career, a college graduate stands to earn nearly $1 million more than one with only a high school degree - an income gap that has tripled since 1980.
 
Although we are living on an island in paradise, our young people and communities generally struggle with low educational achievement, high unemployment, incidences of suicidality, interpersonal conflict, domestic violence, and substance abuse. To achieve healthy communities we must have healthy families and individuals.
To address issues of poverty, abuse, employment readiness, economic crisis, and chronic joblessness, we would like to partner with three programs, The Relationship Literacy Program, Strive For College, and Educate.
 
The Relationship Literacy Program (www.relationshipliteracyguide.com) is an abuse and violence prevention – healthy relationship program that is comprehensive in approach, socio-culturally sensitive, and developmentally appropriate across the life span.  With programs facilitated in schools, correctional institutions, and treatment programs for over a decade, the Relationship Literacy Program teaches four (4) important areas such as the role human relationships play to develop cohesive personal and social identity. The program informs participants of the diverse, often overlooked patterns of relationship abuse and violence and ways to prevent them, as well as individual rights and corresponding responsibilities, and valuable self-management skills, both emotional and behavioral, and the concepts, principles, and tools necessary to effect healthier relationships. The Relationship Literacy Program takes such an approach to impact greater knowledge, attitude, and motivation.

Strive For College (http://striveforcollege.org/) is a nationally known non-profit organization dedicated to the issue of college access for low-income students and alleviating the inequality in access to higher education, helping students break the cycle of poverty for them and their families. Currently operating in 10 cities nationwide, Strive is proposing to bring its model to Hawai’i. This program can help close the income gap between those with a high school diploma and students with a college degree, thereby helping to raise families on the island out of poverty.
 
Educate (http://www.experienceeducate.org/team/) is an internationally known program, currently working with 100,000 diverse high school students across Uganda, helping them to affect real change in their communities through the establishment of industry. With a focus on training youth as leaders and social entrepreneurs, their curriculum is a new model of education that teaches students ways to sustainably solve intractable problems of poverty, disease, violence, and environmental degradation through entrepreneurship.
 
By addressing important social issues, these programs will help prepare young people and their families across the island for sustainable success.
 
Arts, Culture & Religion
 
With people representing every continent and the plentiful islands of the Pacific, Hawaii is culturally, ethnically, and religiously diverse, perhaps the most diverse state in the United States. Hawaii residents participate in a diversity of faith practices from Eastern religions and philosophy to traditional Hawaiian and mainstream Christianity. In addition, Hawaii residents have embraced the Arts, culture, and religion as fundamental pillars within the blended Hawaiian culture. We propose to work with four organizations that are setting strong examples in these important areas: The Story Book Theatre, Children of the Land, Kauai Bible Church, and Kauai’s Hindu Monastery.
 
Story Book Theatre of Hawaii (http://www.storybook.org/). Even before incorporation in 1986 and every year since the Story Book Theatre has been creating productions and touring the Hawaiian Islands exposing thousands of pre-school and school-age children to LIVE theatre. With major objectives to create a viable business in the production of television & radio programs for young people for local and widespread distribution, and to develop related products and services for retail, we aim to help renovate its facilities in Hanapepe connecting major art and theatre facilities on the island while expanding and sustaining programming at Story Book Theatre for years to come.
 
Children of the Land Polynesian Culture Center (http://thechildrenoftheland.com/). Starting in 2004, Children of the Land Polynesian Culture Center teaches Hawaiian and Polynesian cultural arts through classes, events, camps, performances and exhibitions to island youth and visitors. With a vision that is timeless, the Children of the Land aims to increase awareness, participation, connection to, and understanding of Hawaiian and Polynesian culture through living and teaching traditional dance, drumming, music, language, crafts, healing arts, and ancient ways of living and wisdom, environmental stewardship, sustainability, and Aloha. Many of the youth in their programs come from low-income families and would not otherwise be able to afford these programs.
Currently, they are looking for land for their Polynesian Culture and Life classes. The intention is to create several low-impact shade structures along with sustainable, organic gardens, and fruit trees and use the land as a model for children to learn how to live on the land sustainably through traditional Polynesian ways of planting, living, and working with the herbs and medicines. To pass on cultural wisdom to the children of the next generation. We would help them achieve this goal, and sustain their mission.
Kauai Bible Church (http://kauaibiblechurch.com/KBC/Home.html) is a small but growing independent Christian church established in 1972. With 200-300 regular and seasonal members currently and a diversity of outreaches that minister to the physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs of the Kauai community, Kauai Bible church conducts 4 services on Sundays, supports local and international missions, facilitates a monthly outreach to the homeless living on the beach and unchurched camping in parks, and conducts multiple home groups during the week. In addition, its leadership participates in a diversity of community-based initiatives on Kauai.
 
Situated on 30 acres, Kauai Bible Church plans to include the construction of a 600 – 900 seat church, grades 1-12 School to include classrooms, a Children’s Chapel, and office spaces. Construction includes 3 Parsonages for pastors and/or caretaking staff, a Retreat Center to include recreational facilities such as playing fields for children and teens along with camp site shelters, as well as a Retirement Facility condo style, and a Halfway House Facility “Hope House” for newly released prisoners in need of drug rehabilitation and a positive living environment. As a phased development, projects will complete over time in clusters on the property. We aim to support their building of contemporary green structures with a planned giving program to sustain them.
 
Kauai’s Hindu Monastery (http://www.himalayanacademy.com/) Founded in 1970, Kauai's Hindu Monastery is a traditional South-Indian-style monastery-temple complex on 363 acres. With sustainable practices in the areas of energy (solar) and agriculture, it is the home of Bodhinatha and his order of 21 swamis, yogis and sadhakas from six nations. Shared spiritual activity is the anchor of each day in which monks serve in one of five areas: temple and kitchen, members and teaching, administration and finance, grounds and maintenance, publications and media. Hindu pilgrims have been coming to the Monastery from around the world for over 40 years to worship and seek audience and darshan with the Guru Mahasannidhanam. The monastery is the headquarters and theological seminary of Saiva Siddhanta Church. It is also home to Himalayan Academy, Hinduism Today magazine and Hindu Heritage Endowment. Currently building the newest temple, the Iraivan temple will be completed depending on availability of craftsmen in India and the rate of donations. They are determined to create a spiritual gem to amaze and inspire the world. We aim to help them continue their mission of peace and sustainable living.
 
Kauai Industry areas:
 
In addition to improving college and career readiness among our youth, promoting entrepreneurship, and embracing more readily cultural, social and religious institutions that support personal and community well-being, there are key industry areas necessary to achieve healthy sustainable living island-wide.
 

Energy

 
On Kauai, the high cost per kilowatt hour of energy has everyone concerned, even our primary energy company, Kauai Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC). With multiple projects in solar and hydro, energy demand and consumption still remains high and expensive. On an island where land is culturally and economically valuable, burying waste in landfills is costly and conflicts with community values. One possible solution is the use of waste products as energy producing sources. We would like to build a comprehensive waste recycling and energy-producing facility, something already proposed but in need of funding and expert oversight. We want to be a major contributor to solving both the ongoing production and management of waste, as well as lowering the costs of energy on the island.

Agriculture

 
Less than 10% of the food consumed on Kauai is grown on Kauai. This is a very surprising statistics to many. To change this we need both an industry shift that encourages and rewards the use of land to grow food, and a shift in perspective among individuals and families to value the labor associated with agricultural production. From community gardens to hydroponics (soil-less) to Aquaponics and other methodologies fish, green leafy vegetables, salad mix, herbs and spices, and lots of fruit and edible plant life and flowers are being grown all over the island in pockets by companies, schools, community organizations, families and individuals.  We propose to connect this disorientated effort to defined achievable goals with substantive outcomes from planting to harvesting to industry-based retail and consumption.
 
Transportation
 
Kauai is 25 miles wide and 33 miles long, and almost circular with one major road that traverses most of the island but for the mountains of the Napali coastline. Wholly dependent on oil, any number of electric vehicles (trucks, cars, scooters, bicycles) could service the island much more inexpensively than gasoline-powered vehicles. In addition traffic snarls in varying spots along the roadway each day, and the roads come to a grinding halt in the event of an emergency such as a vehicle accident, injury, or fatality. We propose offering residents a choice between viable electric vehicles to their current gasoline-powered vehicles and exploring the possible development of a light rail system along the mountainside. Years ago Kauai used rail to move sugar and pineapple, this time it can use rail to transport people from shoreline to shoreline.