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August 2014 Same Canoe Newsletter Hawaii Island
Green Village News, Maker Space, The Green Think Community Design Challenge, Green School News,
Innovative Solar Power, Solar Cooking and Water Filter Options Vol 29
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August Events
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Hawaii Farmers Union Introduction in Kohala
Thursday, Aug. 14th
6pm, Kapa'au
Old Courthouse
The Hawaii Farmers Union is part of a nationwide organization that is closely aligned with many local food grower's interests: building healthy soils, growing and selling nutritious and organic foods, and advocating for a GMO free Hawaii. Come learn about the Hawaii Farmers Union, what they stand for and what they have to offer Kohala farmers.
Current farmers, gardeners and land owners wanting to begin or expand operations are welcome - your voice is WANTED! A Kohala Chapter is forming.
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Green School Open House in South Kona
Saturday, August 16th
9:30am-noon
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Maker Space
Are you following the Maker Movement?
Or maybe you have long been a Maker.
"A new wave of innovation"
From workbenches in home garages and co-op lofts in low income neighborhoods, all the way to the Whitehouse, Makers are designing innovative products that are often green economy tools. This is all about growing a new entrepreneurial culture in America - a democratization of manufacturing. "You never know where this kind of innovation can lead."
"Today's DIY is tomorrow's Made in America." Quotes from President Obama at the 2014 Maker Faire. Click on the solar cooker image above to listen to the National Maker Day keynote and see some pretty cool inventions.
Definition of Maker Culture
courtesy Wikipedia
'Maker culture' emphasizes learning-through-doing (constructivism) in a social environment. Maker culture emphasizes informal, networked, peer-led, and shared learning motivated by fun and self-fulfillment.
Maker culture encourages novel applications of technologies, and the exploration of intersections between traditionally separate domains and ways of working including metal-working, calligraphy, film making, and computer programming.
Community interaction and knowledge sharing are often mediated through networked technologies, with websites and social media tools forming the basis of knowledge repositories and a central channel for information sharing and exchange of ideas, and focused through social meetings in shared community workshops called Maker Spaces.
Maker Spaces in Education
Maker culture has attracted the interest of educators concerned about students' disengagement from STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) in formal educational settings. Maker culture is seen as having the potential to contribute to a more participatory approach and create new pathways into topics that will make them more alive and relevant to learners.
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Visit our
The Best Water Filter
Recent news about the dual concerns of arsenic and atrazine in water - both potential hazards in Hawaiian soils due to sugar cane plantation and other agricultural practices - led One Island on a search for the best water filter.
We have been testing a Berkey unit and are very happy with the results. It provides superior filtration, is easy to use, and has long lasting filters.
One Island is now offering the Berkey water filter systems through our Buying Club and encourage you to learn more about these elegantly designed stainless steel filter options.
Clean water at home, on the go, or
at work, this is an excellent
Green Think product.
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| GoSun Solar Cooks!
A Maker Success!
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Building a Green Village
Food . Housing . Education . Health . Culture . Renewable Energy
What do you imagine when you hear the term Green Village? We invite you to share your vision of what a green community would look like. What aspects of your current community would you keep? What new features would you add? What issues and challenges would need to be overcome?
Join a Green Think community design challenge.
No idea is too small, no dream too big
The Green Think challenge is a jump start for One Island's new
Green Village Project - learn more through out the newsletter
For the next nine months, One Island will be hosting Green Think programs including a design challenge to bring forth great local ideas, technologies, innovations and solutions. We welcome you to share your concepts, inventions or links to proven models on the new Hawaii Green Think Community Blog. This is an islandwide design challenge - everyone is welcome to participate. Top designs and concepts, selected by a panel of judges, will be announced on May 1st, 2015. Start gearing up for the challenge!
For inspiration on the Green Think Challenge, four important Sustainability Cornerstones are described below. We'll also share examples of the projects One Island is working on with the aim of developing Green Village resources.
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Green Think 1
Local Food / Local Economy
the First Cornerstone
The growing support for increasing access to local foods is a great building block for creating a local economy, but just HOW are we going to make this happen? Clearly we need more farmers, more land in production, and more consumers ready to support this growth as a step towards food security. Secure, local food supplies are a primary cornerstone of a strong local economy.
What are the actual steps to get from good intentions to a measurable increase in local food production? And what are the barriers we need to overcome?
These are important Green Think questions.
 At One Island we are tackling several ongoing Food System / Local Economy projects. From micro to macro, we are working to implement efforts that foster significant change.
This is the 10th year of managing our farm in Honaunau and the learning never stops.
This year, we are entering into a new land use agreement in Kohala for a sister site. Sustainability is about more than managing land of course - it is about human behavioral changes.
How do we change our patterns to become more aligned with our hopes and dreams?
Share your ideas on the Green Think blog
Take a look at what One Island is working on:
- Knowledge One Island continues to offer how-to-grow-it farmer, natural resource, and local food garden education programs.
- Land Use We are convening groups of land owners who want to see a portion of their property go into food production and are willing to take a look at innovative land use agreements.
- Growing Third, we are connecting new and experienced farmers with one another and with new land and resources.
Connecting farmers with land access is a critical part of changing our food system practices. Helping growers produce more local food is a local economy building block.
Got a Green Think Local Food Idea?
Click here to share it.
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August Green Think Food System Event: A Hawaii Farmers Union Meeting is being hosted on Thursday, August 14th, 6pm, Kapa'au, Old Courthouse
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Green Think 2
 Affordable Housing the Second Cornerstone Green Village design ideas are welcome on the Green Think blog. Sketches too! This year, One Island has begun a new project that is focusing the next 5-10 years on developing affordable housing for farm workers and green living advocates. We invite your Green Think input, online today, and at forthcoming community planning sessions for this new project.
Affordable housing is a cornerstone of sustainability.
The Kohala Green Village is One Island's new flagship green-built housing project designed to support real change in the quantity of local foods grown on our island. In order to move from good intentions to actual increases in food production, we need to foster more green enterprises. Our island must develop its housing infrastructure to support the new jobs that are essential to build a local sustainable economy and sustainable food system. It is a simple equation: No housing? No workers. No workers? No change in farm production.
Community Housing Land Trust
In addition to farm worker housing, we are also developing a Community Housing Land Trust model that will provide affordable green-built home ownership opportunities for people active in the green living movement and employees of green business enterprises. Curious about how a Land Trust with equity housing works? Visit an inspirational sister project on Lopez Island that has well mastered the Green Think challenge and is building clusters of green villages. This can happen in Hawaii too! http://www.lopezclt.org/
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Green Think 3
Education and Wellbeing
the Third Cornerstone
 The new Green School being hosted by One Island is a dynamic part of our change mission. Opening in September, our first cycle of youth and family programming features The Food Chain Game TM. Combining resources from the Food Chain Game with the Hawaii Island School Garden Network and the Jane Goodall Institute's Roots 'n Shoots,
One Island is launching a powerful platform to inspire and empower young change agents. And there is even more afoot for adults and families too!
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Next Green School gathering is an Open House on
Saturday, August 16th, 10am-noon, in Honaunau.
RSVP to [email protected] for directions
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Winter of 2015, One Island is expanding on its 'Living an Inspired Life' education and workshop series. This series of speakers and activities touch the heart and soul of sustainability. These events speak to our inner work as individuals and to our personal health and wellbeing. Each program encourages self-reflection and increasing our effectiveness as community change agents. Join us in exploring ways to reignite the fire for personal and social change.
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Green Think 4
 Renewable Energy the Fourth Cornerstone Necessity is the Mother of Invention and this is nowhere more evident than in the human ingenuity responding to fossil fuel depletion and climate change impacts. While we can't all be a Tesla, we can each make choices that minimize our own carbon foot prints. One Island promotes changes in thinking, behavior and purchasing that empower us to vote for change through the choices we make. Free Market economy? Why not a Green Market Economy? We welcome you to share your renewable energy concepts, designs or inventions on the Green Think blog an online Maker Space. One Island has been funding innovative micro solar projects since 2007 with great results. The technologies keep arising to better meet our green living goals. Our online Buying Club features some great Green Think products.
New in the Buying Club
The images above and to the left are a fun new technology we are testing at One Island - the GoSun Solar Stove. To support this green economy small business, we invested in their start-up Kickstarter campaign in 2013 and now the new, hot off the press, model has arrived! Click here to see the three oven styles and learn how to order your own wonder machine.
We are also offering a path to cutting your electricity costs through the Pure Energies program that puts solar power on your roof and saves you 50% on your monthly electric bills. This is a great way to go green with no money down, and to save on your utility bills every month.
See below to learn more.
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Got Solar?
Zero-down
Solar Power News
from
One Island
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Turn Green Think into Green Action
Cut your Hawaii power bills in HALF!
One Island recommends looking into the Pure Energies net-metered solar program
that will lower your monthly electric costs per KwH to less than half HELCO's current rates.
Plus, they lock-in the price for years to come.
As HELCO's rates inevitably rise, yours remain at about $.20 a KwH.
Sound too good to be true? This is a nationwide program with proven results.
Plus we have a local on-island representative, Susan Cox, a.k.a. Green Power Girl.
How Does it Work? Home owners sign a power purchase agreement with Pure Energies and, with zero-down, Pure Energies has a Hawaii-based installer put one of their solar panel systems on your roof. You then pay for power at a greatly reduced rate with a guarantee the price per kilowatt hour remains the same for the life of a 15-20 year agreement. AND, you don't have to do any maintenance on the system. If you sell the home, the new owners take on the agreement and the savings is a bonus for them as well.
A Great Green Think Step!
Requires good credit, adequate sun, and a location where net-metering is available. Residential only. Other lease-to-own or direct purchase options are available.
Click to request a free solar analysis and zero-down contract information
or email [email protected]
Solar power is a choice we can make that is a valuable contribution towards reducing climate change impacts - a good way to be part of the solution.
One Island's Pure Energies partner also serves households in: CA, AZ, CO, MD, MA, CT, NJ, NY.
Let friends and families know!
Pure Energies is a One Island Green School Fundraising Partner
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