Categorized | Environment

Sustainability Innovation Challenge Award winners

MEDIA RELEASE

One Island’s learning center in Honaunau was host to the Sustainability Innovation Challenge Award showcase and prize winner announcements Oct. 6 at the 3rd annual Green Living Fair.

More than 50 people from across the island converged to see the Innovation Award exhibitors and enjoy tours of the One Island facility. The award winners were presented with locally grown plumeria leis and their prizes were the focus of an information-rich community circle.

Two top award winners, Leimana Pelton, a bamboo builder, and Tim Hall, an alternative energy developer, spoke to the group to share the history of the emergence of their award-winning concepts and inspired products.

Both of these inventors were originally sculptors who moved to the Big Island more than 15 years ago and found themselves compelled to respond to the natural energy of the island. As so many who move here do, they began to reinvent themselves.

Out of this process of re-invention, each began to follow a passion for issues that called for their attention: how to build sustainably using locally harvestable materials to create elegant structures, and how to use sun, wind and even lunar energy to generate affordable power using off-the-shelf, low cost materials.

Thirteen awards were handed out to applicants island wide, including one to the Belly Acres Eco Village, entered by Graham Ellis of Puna, as the People’s Choice Award, and another to Beyond Organic Growing System, entered by Dr. Jana Bogs of Kohala, as the Best of Agriculture Award.

“One of the most valuable outcomes of the Innovation Awards was the opportunity to draw these creative minds out of their isolated workshops and give them an opportunity to meet one another and learn about each other’s work – and a chance to share their ideas with the public” said Stephen Shrader, the Green Business Incubator Coordinator for One Island.

“At their suggestion, we plan to reconvene a weekend overnight retreat for inventors early in 2013,” Shrader said. “Our goal is to encourage them in moving to the next step in their development process.”

The public was invited to vote online in advance for the People’s Choice award and five judges presided over the full competition. At the fair, the public had a chance to see five green building displays,
four agriculture displays, five alternative energy displays, and three ingenious (and amazingly silent) electric vehicles – a solar powered golf cart, a solar powered trike, and two electric motorcycles.

The guests took a tour of the 7-acre grounds including a solar cooled greenhouse, water catchment and conservation systems, and multiple ethnobotanical garden displays – ancient grains, super foods, medicine wheel, spice, and fruit orchard exhibits demonstrating some of the many ways living green can be accomplished.

Judges were Karen Kemp, Tane Datta, Nancy Redfeather, Caroline Carl and Hugh Baker.

Award Winners:

* Leimana Pelton, Best of Show

* Gary Young, Best of Alternative Transportation

* Dr. Jana Bogs, Best of Agriculture

* Joseph Bellomo, Best Green Building

* Graham Ellis, People’s Choice Award

* Tim Hall, Best Alternative Energy Concept

* Jeff Stone, Best Alternative Energy Product

* Allan Jensen, 2nd Place Alternative Transportation

* William Greenwald, 3rd Place Alternative Transportation

* Danny Li, 2nd Place Green Building

* Aaron Anderson, 3rd Place Green Building

* Tim Lloyd, 2nd Place Agriculture

* Richard Bailey, 3rd Place Agriculture

— Find out more:
www.one-island.org/innovationchallenge

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