 This is State Tech Hawaii, Community Matters here. The State of Clean Energy. I'm Maria Tomi and I have a guest today from the State Energy Office, Ms. Gail Suzuki-Jones. Welcome Gail. Thank you, Maria. And Gail is the program manager for a very exciting program, the Hawaii Green Business Program. So, I really look forward to hearing more about this. You've had an annual program for several years and you have a whole bunch of excellent winners and you have a program for next year. So, thank you very much for being on the program. Thank you, Maria. I brought along some slides that I thought I'd share with you that kind of highlight their program and what we're doing. The first slide shows sort of what the program is about. Do we want to? Yeah. Let's... Here we go. Okay. Can you contact me? Great. That's perfect. So, basically, the Green Business Program recognizes businesses that go beyond compliance, that are really illustrating and demonstrating energy and resource-efficient practices in Hawaii. Excellent. Our theme for this month is sustainability, climate change, mitigation, and adaptation. And so, by having recognition for these folks who have these excellent programs, they're doing good things for sustainability as well as climate change mitigation. That's correct. And every year we have an awards ceremony in the governor's office. We just had one in May and we'll be having one again next spring. And so, we want to encourage all you businesses and government entities out there to participate. We have checklists online for you to follow. And basically, you go through the checklist, you submit it to us. We then conduct a site visit if you're in compliance. We then have this awards ceremony. Like I said, once a year in the springtime. And one of the key portions of our program is that you agree to mentor at least one other business. So, word of mouth is very important in the process. So, you're trying to get others involved and on board. And it oftentimes involves a little friendly competition. Yeah. I guess so. I guess the website that you just showed has the information. But when you started this, it was several years ago and it was it? It was actually in 2002. Oh, wow. I looked back. Just 15 years ago. It's grown. It's grown a lot. And most recently we were involved with the IUCN event and working with the hotels in the hotel room block to try to get them up to speed and participate in our program. So that the attendees of the event would also get to see the practices demonstrated by these property. Excellent. So, there's a lot of good information on that website including the checklist. And you mentioned mentor. So, let's say somebody wants to do something and they want to talk to a mentor about what they did. Is that information on the website too? What we do have on the website is a section called awardees. And on that are case studies of every business that was awarded, a green business award in our program. And so it shows what they've implemented on their particular property. And it's not just hotels and resorts, but it's office retail, restaurant food service. We have venues. We also have events. So it kind of runs a gambit of different types of businesses. Yeah. So, I'm sorry. I know you brought several prepared slides and it's probably very organized in the way that would cover everything. So maybe we can take a look at another slide. Yes. Let's go to the next slide, please. So, here's a list of our partners because we're not doing this alone. I want to give credit to the Department of Health, the Office of Solid and Hazardous Waste. We're our co-partner in this, along with the City and County Board of Water Supply. Hawaii Energy also provides rebates. And we work closely with the Professional Association, so the Lodging and Tourism Association, their Engineers Advisory Council. We also work with entities such as Cooperize and HTA. We pursue grants to help support internships. And mentorship is also an important part of that process because we threw some grants from EPA. We're able to work through Cooperize to hire interns to help us expand the program. So it's pretty exciting. It not only works for the businesses, but also with individuals and sort of working their way through the green workforce. Yeah. I like that dynamic, interactive feature of it. And you know it's been successful because you've had a bunch of applicants and over 100, definitely, and growing. So we're encouraging anyone out there to take a look at our website. If you have any questions, let me know. My email address is on there as well as more resources on the website. Okay. Maybe we'll go to the next slide. I'm waiting to get to the list of, oh yes. So this is beginning to get close to that. So basically on the left side are the types of businesses and events that we recognize. And on the right side sort of highlights some of the sections of our checklist. The picture on the bottom is from the Hotel and Lodging Association. We have a number of different engineers and properties that were recognized right before the IUCN event in 2016 for going beyond compliance and participating in our program. Excellent. So it's got the energy, the waste reduction, pollution prevention, water conservation. Yeah, a whole range of things. And then the next slide please. So this begins to list the type of and the number of awardees that have been recognized under the program. And as you can see, they're not all really large properties. Oh, these are just hotels. Yeah, these are just some of the hotels on Oahu. And so it kind of runs the gambit from the smaller to the medium to the larger ones. And if you go to the next slide, we also have some hotels that are on the neighbor islands as well, Maui, Kauai, the Big Island. And then I decided to just show the lead certified properties in Hawaii to let you know that in addition to the green business program, they have gotten lead certification for a number of properties in Hawaii. In fact, Hawaii this year was, it ranked fourth in lead square footage per capita across the country for lead certified projects. So that's pretty remarkable for such a small state. Oh, wow. So not even a per capita square foot. No, it was a square footage per capita. Yeah, so it was based on our population. Okay, okay. And then the next slide please. Beyond office, beyond hotel and resort. We have office and retail awardees as well. You'll recognize a number of those entities there, both here and on the neighbor islands. And the next slide goes into entities that are restaurant and food service awardees. On our website is also a map of these entities. And so you can see it also sort of runs the range of different types of business sizes as well as their commitments as you can imagine. So going green. And then I think lastly we have a slide, actually not last. So government agencies are definitely also able to participate in the program under the resource efficiency program. And so it's not on the green business website, but on a separate website. So there's a checklist for them as well. And these are the ones that have gone through the program so far. I see your department is there. That's right, we feel like we need to lead by example and actually go through the process ourselves if we expect others to do so. Yeah, you've got federal agencies and county and oh hey, very good, very good. And then I think the next slide has the events. No, the process. Okay, so this is the process laid out in three very easy steps. The first is to contact us. The second is to complete the checklist. That's probably the most daunting part of it. But you can actually separate it into different sections and spread it out amongst individuals within your green team. And then third, the site visit and verification, where we and our team go through your particular office and our property and do a walkthrough to make sure the items on the checklist are implemented. Okay, so going back to the mentor, because a lot of times when you want to do something you like to be able to talk to somebody in the process. I mean, it's something new and you're like what's involved. So at what point do the mentors, in that checklist, at what point does the mentor become part of it? Do they contact you and say, hey, I would love a mentor? Do you have any mentors who are looking for mentees? Actually, sometimes that happens. But oftentimes if it's, say, a place as part of a chain, like a Hilton or a Hyatt or a Marriott, oftentimes within their own corporation, they have someone who's sort of like taken the lead. And so they're not really looking for other. Right, however, there are smaller hotels that I've heard from that say the larger hotel across the street has offered to help them out, which I think is really great. One example is the Equus Hotel, a smaller property, was talking to Hawaii Prince. And Hawaii Prince just shared a lot of sort of stories, both challenges and opportunities for them. So I thought that was really kind of great to hear. Yeah, and it does make a difference to have someone to show you, hey, we did this. We survived. Gato's actually easy to work with. Right, and this is how we did it. And oftentimes our interns will help research different items. Say a hotel wants to change out from a styrofoam container to a bio-based one. Our interns will research locally what's available, give them at least three different options of where they can get that product in Hawaii. So we're very open to providing technical assistance as well. Excellent. So you have a lot of agencies and organizations that are in this commercial space. And then you mentioned events. So is that the same process that if you're going to have an event, they contact you? That's a good question. Could we take the next slide, please? I just was checking to see what we have queued up. Oh, we weren't done with the... Okay, so let's finish this and then I'll get up to your question. Okay, after work is done. Yes, the recognition part, which is really exciting for a lot of these businesses. There's a ceremony in the governor's office once a year and they receive a plaque, a reclaimed wood plaque that's made here on Oahu. And they get recognition not only at this event, but we do press releases, media advisories. We put out this press packet here, which has a number of different case studies that are... Oopsie. Definitely featured in the press packet at the event and they're able to also share this with their own sort of like clients, et cetera. Yeah. Okay. Well, why don't we take a quick break? We'll be back in about a minute and we'll hear more. Okay. Thank you, Maria. This is Think Tech Hawaii, raising public awareness. If you drink, never drive. Mark Shklav, I am the host of Think Tech Hawaii's Law Across the Sea. Law Across the Sea is on Think Tech Hawaii every other Monday at 11 a.m. Please join me where my guests talk about law topics and ideas and music and Hawaii and all across the sea from Hawaii and back again, aloha. Welcome back. So we're talking to Gail Suzuki-Jones about the Hawaii Green Business Program. So we were talking before the break about the process to apply for and hopefully get recognition for the good things that these companies and agencies are doing. Why do they go through this? I mean, why participate? Well, our next slide features some of the reasons why these businesses do participate in the program. A lot of times they don't necessarily get, oops, this is, I guess not the next one. Anyway, this- Oh, the previous one. Yeah. Yeah. Actually- The one before this? Okay. Sorry. Okay. Okay. So let's just talk. Okay. So why do they participate? They get recognition, positive press for a lot of their measures that they've implemented. A lot of times corporations in our community don't necessarily always get the best press. And so this actually focuses on some of the environmental, social, and cultural items that they're doing and giving back to the community. They're- So their customers would appreciate it. Right. Their customers, the community that they're located in. And then it's also about some, I had mentioned earlier, friendly competition. The other hotels that are their neighbors hear about it and think to themselves, wow, I need to keep up with, you know, so-and-so. And so I need to participate and or I haven't participated in a number of years, it's time for me to get back on with it. And so they also see that as a way to keep up with their neighbors. I can also imagine, you know, knowing that in my office, you know, sometimes folks are like, hey, we got to do this because it's a better way to do it. It's better for the environment. Don't waste that. Hey, recycle that, you know. And so I'm sure some of that is probably also for the desire of the employees to be able- To do the right thing. Yeah. Yes, it is. And the good thing about our program is we have the checklist. And a lot of times entities will be going through the checklist and saying, okay, I have done this, oh no, I've never thought about doing that. We can try to implement that this year during our process. And they always want to come in with a higher score, higher than what they did the last time. So has the checklist evolved at all from when this first started to now? I mean, I can imagine that some folks not only see things on the list that they hadn't thought of, but also say, hey, you know, we're doing this great thing. Why don't you add it to your list? Actually that has come up a number of different times. So it has evolved. We started off looking at the Bay Area Green Business Program a number of years ago and sort of localized it for Hawaii. And since that time, there are a number of green business programs that have popped up all over the country. We've looked at their checklist. We've tried to glean from them what we think would be appropriate here. And like you say, add-on suggestions from other participants in our program that have done some pretty exciting and innovative things. Yeah. So it's a great opportunity to learn from each other, to challenge each other, to take pride in the accomplishments. To go back to a question I had earlier about the events. So that's got to be a different process. Yes, definitely. Applying for the Green Event Award is usually done, it's like a one-time thing versus an ongoing process. So you know your event is coming up in a month or two. You take a look at the checklist. You go through it preliminarily and say, okay, I think this is what we're going to do. You contact us. You let us know what's going to happen. We then sort of advise you on things that you could do, things that are easy to do that won't cost a lot of money if you want to sort of up the number of points in your checklist and be a little greener. And then during the event you document what you've done and you submit the checklist and the documentation and we review it and sometimes if we're able to attend the event we will attend the event and help you document it ourselves and see where you stand. There's a minimum of 25 points, which is not a lot if you look at some of the items and there are a number of events that have gotten recognized this past year. I think our list is the next slide. Which was the last one. Yes, so if you sort of scroll down, hotels and venues that got recognized this past May are on the left. Restaurant and retail entities on the left as well. Then office and green events on the right side. So as you can see there's a whole variety of different types of folks that have gotten involved in this. From small events to large events like the Sony Open. What types of things would you do to make your event more sustainable? Good question. So for example, one of the events that I think UH did was the sustainability event and I don't know if you can see this. It's called a spork. So instead of using plastic ware, they gave their participants these sporks to use throughout the day and so this reduces the amount of waste and this says plastic free Hawaii. I think it's provided by Kokua Hawaii Foundation and non-profit. So you're keeping the plastic out of the waste stream and then you have a reusable utensil. Another item is paper straws versus plastic straws. And they've become more prevalent and popular. Is there any consideration of transportation? Oh yes, definitely. A number of entities have decided to offer a bike valet. I think Sony Open did that for the past two years and they use the Hawaii Bicycling League to sort of run that portion of it. Oh that's great. So even if there's not a beaky stop there, they still have the ability for people to bike there and use alternative transportation. Yeah, and on paper, the consumables, the paper and stuff like that. Oh yeah, definitely. We try to reduce the amount of paper that's handed out, have them post things online as much as possible before the event and also indicate to the attendees what they can do ahead of time to prepare themselves for the event. Yeah, that's a good idea. I do like paper agendas at a time because you can figure out, especially if there are concurrent sessions. Right, right. A lot of entities have gotten into doing signage at the event, which you think is maybe not as convenient. But what's good about signage is it brings people together and you end up talking to people about what are you going to go to or where's this or that and you meet entities. It becomes more of a social interactive process rather than just your program. Right, right. So a combined, I think, would be. Right, and apps, a lot of events are doing apps. So you have an excuse to be looking at your foundry. That's right, that's right. Yeah, yeah. So do you have any upcoming deadlines? How does this, let's say somebody is inspired and excited about this and they go and they look and they say, yeah, well, we can do that. We can do it better than them even, you know. What should they do? Well, is there a deadline? There is a deadline. It's a rolling deadline and basically the end of this calendar year, December 30th, is probably our preferred deadline. If you're very close to having it done and need an extension into after the holidays, we're very flexible because our award ceremony comes up in about April or May and we have to conduct the site visits before that. So we have to get you through the whole process before then. Well, it's already, you know, middle of June. That's right. This would be a perfect time to get started, definitely. And my website and contact information is, I think it was on the first slide that was shown and so that's something people can use to contact me. Hawaii Green Business Program, you can always just do a search through that. That's my email address as well as phone number. Yeah, so on the deadline, let's talk about the events. How much advance notice? You mentioned one or two months before. I don't suppose they can call you the day of and say, hey, we're doing great things. We've been too busy. That's probably not. It's not preferred. It's preferable that you contact us ahead of time. And it also gives you time to sort of plan for things that you may not have considered. Even going through the checklist, there's certain things that you need to set up the infrastructure for ahead of time to make it really succeed. So one final question on the government agencies and what types of things they do. Do you have any examples of what they've done that has? Sure, sure. So for government agencies, there's certain, let's say, rules and regulations that are in place. And government should be complying with some of these things, such as having your Building Energy Star labeled and or going through the process of getting at least the data input into Energy Star. And that's a free online tool that our office will also help entities with. So that's one thing. It's basically measuring and posting one year's worth of energy use data. If you're a tenant in a building, some very simple behavior changes are setting your printers to double-sided copies, which they already should be defaulted to. Your screen savers should be on the sleep mode. And then also for the lights, turning off the lights when you leave the room, if there's nobody else there. That's something very straightforward. But a lot of places don't necessarily practice these things. So behavior change is something that I think doesn't cost a lot of money, but it definitely takes some time to change people's patterns. Right, habits are very strong. That's right. So does a whole department have to participate in order to be recognized, or could one agency in a department? Yeah, that's a good question. One agency or one office within an agency, our building and our department participated on the state energy office level of the state office tower. So we have a whole floor there, and we were able to implement the practices with the help of DAGs and the cooperation of DAGs. And we have our building energies are labeled as well as LEED certified. Good job, yeah. Well, there you have it. You've got private companies, public agencies, events, and we've just started to scratch this because we haven't heard a lot of stories yet. But maybe someday we can reach out to some of your winners, and if they're willing to share some information, hear more from them. Until then, you can see their pictures and their stories on the website. That's right. Thanks so much, Gail. Thank you, Maria. Appreciate it. This has been Think Tech Hawaii's Energy Wednesday. Thank you. Thank you.