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Vol. 12, Issue 103 - Friday, April 13, 2007 Hawaii Luxury
Magazine
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Back Issues
(1996-Present) ENVIRONMENT Inside | Apr. 16
F| S | S | M | T | W| T
Features
» Nightlife rolls along on
'Moonlight Mondays'
» Eclectic, dynamic group
improvises unique jazz
» Hawaii's psychos will
be lonely
» College stage career
ends with 'big climax'
» HUB Earth Day party
focuses on sustainability
» At The Movies
» Malaysian filmmaker to
attend screenings
» Nightcrawlers
» Da Kine
» Our Picks
Who should be the » In the Mix
DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM » Island Mele
starting quarterback
for the UH football
University of Hawaii students rummage through a Dumpster in » About Time
team? search of discarded recyclable items. Counterclockwise from » Crawlspace
center are Juanita Mathews, Joy Hearten-Johnson, Mary Bailey, Hawaii News
Norman Wang, Tamara Armstrong, Daniel Amato and Sean » Victim assaulted after
Sections Connelly. At top, carting a recycling bin are Vance Arakaki, left, car stalls
Local News
and Isao Harrison Kaji. » Prosecutor Charles F.
Features Marsland dies at 84
» Dick Pacific wins
Sports $176M contract
Business » Fairbanks named Miss
Editorial
Travel (Sunday)
At the HUB of a global Aloha Hula
» Halau honors its
Corrections vision heritage
» House revives bill to
Columns help pay for UH medical
school
Calendars A celebration of sustainability is billed as a "no- » Kalihi residents work on
Movies pedestrian safety
Special Packages
drone zone"
» Japanese pilot Zenji
Abe became
Subscribe By Mary Young reconciliation icon
Newsstands Special to the Star-Bulletin » Lawmakers field Siemens Energy
Directory requests for grants Efficiency
Freelancers A small group of UH-Manoa students are throwing an Earth Day » DLNR staff hit Young
party to talk about sustainability -- and their ambitious pilot project, over harbors budget Integrated Energy
E-Mail Headlines » Human services chief Solutions by
RSS/XML Sustainable Saunders. gets panel's OK Siemens: Read
» Home from Korea, at More Here!
"This is the most open, last www.siemens.com/energy/services
…
jump-on-board team you » Council panel shuffles
ever met," said project Sustainable Saunders cuts and spending in
coordinator Shanah budget Degree in
Trevenna, a graduate Interactive Launch Party: 3 to 7 » Hawaii leads fight
against drug-resistant Climate Change
student at UH's Center for p.m. next Friday gonorrhea Study Natural
Futures Studies. "We » Flight plan will change Resources
Classifieds Place: Saunders Hall, University
Autos
believe that sustainability is to cut noise of F-22A jets Management Earn
for everyone." of Hawaii-Manoa, 2424 Maile » Discarded cigarette butt
Island Homes Way sparks fire that injures 1
your Master
Jobs » Newswatch, Police/Fire Degree at IE
At the center of Sustainable Featuring: 15 "theme rooms" on www.ie.edu/biology
Government Section Saunders is the eight- » Ocean Watch
Bidding Advantage sustainability, deejay music, food » Corky's Hawaii
member HUB (for "Help Us samples for first 500 visitors » Photo Finish
Advertise Bridge"), a multidisciplinary Get a
(vegetarian, GMO-free, at least » Obituaries Sustainable MBA
group of mostly 50 percent organic) » Corrections
undergraduates. HUB Interested in
» Weather
members have spent the Details: sustainability?
Sports Apply now to our
past four months testing sustainablesaunders.hawaii.edu
» Hakala not finished; Sustainable MBA
energy-saving technologies hopes for 7 more wins
and behavior modification at program
» Lojeski wins Rainbows' weatherhead.case.edu
Saunders Hall, one of the biggest energy users among classroom top honor
buildings on campus. » New 'Mane Man' at
safety for Warriors? Green Building
Sustainable Saunders aims to transform the building into a model of » Viloria: 'I'm getting my Design
title back' Design Greener
sustainability for UH and beyond, explained HUB member Tamara

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sustainability for UH and beyond, explained HUB member Tamara Design Greener
» Losses help Shoji grow
Armstrong, an environmental studies major. "The vision that we have » Punahou fends off Mid- Buildings with
is that the University of Hawaii will sort of become the epicenter of Pacific Autodesk® 3D
sustainability for the world." » Chan to manage Aloha Solutions. Learn
Stadium for now More.
Next Friday, Saunders Hall will become an interactive forum for » Just For Kicks Autodesk.com/Sustainable-Design
…
innovative ideas about sustainability. A range of topics such as wind » Hawaii Beat
» Scoreboard
energy, biofuels and recycling -- as well as traditional knowledge, » TV & Radio
social justice and green products -- will be assigned to various
rooms for discussion. Business
» State visitor approval
Visitors can spend the afternoon on their subject of choice or wander ratings improve
» Hawaii Tourism
from room to room. Experts from the community will be on hand to Authority looking at use
share information and answer questions. Suggestions will be posted of sports logo
on paper, graffiti style, so new arrivals can see and build upon others' » City Mill is expanding its
ideas. ohana with new cartoon
characters
At the end of the day, the HUB will compile the suggestions for » TheBuzz
action or turn them over to the Hawaii 2050 Sustainability Task » Business Briefs
» Hawaii Stocks and
Force. Mutual Funds
» Market Watch
Trevenna promises the Earth Day event will be a "no-drone zone -- » WSJ Sunday
no ceremonies, no presentations, just talking story." Plus deejay » Dilbert
music and GMO-free vegetarian food samples served on Editorial
biodegradable dishware. And, like any good party, plenty of » Tax incentives needed
opportunities to network with like-minded people for adding sprinklers
» Lawmakers should
provide UH-West funds
» Corky's Editorial
Cartoon
» Letters

Columns | Apr. 16

Corky's Hawaii
Corky Trinidad
Ocean Watch
Susan Scott
Photo Finish
S-B Photographers
In the Mix
Jason Genegabus
Just For Kicks
DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM Al Chase
HUB group members from left: Norman Wang, Juanita TheBuzz
Mathews, Shanah Trevenna, Isao Harrison Kaji, Sean Connelly, Erika Engle
Joy Hearten-Johnson, Vance Arakiki, Mary Bailey, Daniel Amato Editorial Cartoon
and Tamara Armstrong. Corky Trinidad

Tools
Energy hog becomes guinea pig for sustainability Email this article
When the University of Hawaii at Manoa's annual electric bill Printer-friendly
surpassed $15 million last year, Interim Chancellor Denise Konan E-mail Features Dept.
selected a single building -- Saunders Hall -- on which to test
energy-saving solutions.
Saunders seems a fitting choice for the pilot project. At $760,000
annually, its energy cost is on the high side for a nonlaboratory
building. The College of Social Sciences is located there. And the
building's occupants asked to participate, says Susan Chandler,
interim director of the Public Policy Center.
"We sort of stepped up to the plate and said we want to do this,"
said Chandler. "Because we have a dean (Richard Dubanoski) who's
really enthusiastic, we have student groups, and then, you know,
we're social sciences. So we wanted to say, it's not just the hard-
science folks, the natural-science folks -- people can make a big
difference, too."
Shanah Trevenna, a Ph.D. candidate at the Center for Futures
Studies, was hired as student coordinator for the project Sustainable
Saunders. A St. Thomas, Ontario, native with charisma and energy -
- and a background in mechanical engineering -- Trevenna started
organizing student forums on sustainability.
The same students kept showing up, said Mary Bailey, a travel
industry management major who is coordinating the project's launch
party. They banded together to form a steering committee, which
they call the HUB. By January, Sustainable Saunders was rolling.
The first phase, being completed this semester, is to encourage
behavior changes and measure the effects: small habits that add up,
such as turning off computers at night, or changing to more efficient
light bulbs.
"We're trying to collect data on every single aspect of these changes

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 that we're making," said Bailey. "That way, when other entities want
to possibly look to us, we can give them the exact data, and we can
know exactly how much money it cost and how much money did we
save from making these changes."
Data is collected by newly installed energy meters as well as old-
fashioned observation and note-taking. The HUB's faculty advisor,
David Nixon, enlisted the help of students in his sustainability class.
"I have one student who is simply standing in front of the elevators,"
said Nixon. "She's a sociology major, and she wants to understand
why people take the elevator one floor."
The next phase calls for more technology and more upfront
investment by UH. Pending financing (the HUB is also applying for
grants and seeking local sponsorships), plans include an interactive
green touch-screen kiosk to track water and electricity use in real
time; a "green roof" that uses plants to cool air in and around the
building (six native plant species are being tested); and passive solar
lighting using fiber optics.
Each HUB member serves on at least one of the group's working
teams, including recycling, energy, green roof, worm bin and
communication. The energy team, led by Trevenna, has been
conducting weekly public workshops this semester to explore
alternative technologies.
Tamara Armstrong, aided by members of her economics class, has
been leading weekly "Dumpster dives" to analyze Saunders' trash
output. She also manages a dedicated recycling program on each of
the building's seven floors. When her team looks at trash output,
Armstrong says, "We can see the large chunks are Styrofoam,
paper cups, tissue paper, and all of those things can be diverted
through behavior changes that we could work with the university and
the different vendors."
Joy Hearten, an environmental studies major, is experimenting with
vermiculture -- processing and composting waste with worms that
feed on food scraps and paper waste.
Trevenna says Sustainable Saunders will take at least two years to
complete. But the HUB, which has drafted a business plan, has
longer-range goals. "In the long run we'd like to offer ourselves as
kind of like a brand," said Juanita Mathews. "So if you have a
sustainable business, you can put our logo on your product or on
your window. So if people walk by, they know this business adheres
to this set of practices."
"We want to make sure that people understand that this is doable,"
said Bailey. "You just need some energetic, passionate people on
your side and it will happen."

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