EPA confers awards
to Hawaii’s best
clean-up crews

The agency honors conservation
efforts around the islands

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Star-Bulletin staff

The Environmental Protection Agency honored five Hawaii organizations and individuals at a ceremony in San Francisco Thursday, for their efforts to protect and preserve the environment in 2001.

A state employee, three other Hawaii residents, and a luxury hotel are among a total of 35 winners across the EPA's Region 9, which includes California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii, Guam and tribal lands.

"Thanks to the efforts of these individuals, our air, water and land will be cleaner and safer for generations to come," said Wayne Nastri, regional EPA administrator.

>>	In the government category, Gail Suzuki-Jones, of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, played a lead role in creating Aloha Shares, a statewide nonprofit organization that distributes reusable and recycled construction materials to help build and repair homes for the needy. Suzuki-Jones also helped establish Baseyard Hawaii, which allows contractors to donate used and excess material. Suzuki-Jones demonstrated that keeping materials out of landfills by reusing and recycling can help the environment and save money.
>>	Emma Yuen, of Hilo, has led her Junior Greenpeace group at Hilo High School on environmental projects such as tree planting in the mountains and cleanups at the beach over the past few years. She is Web master and a columnist for the monthly newsletter Environmental Hawaii and edits the school literary magazine.
>>	Buck Joiner, of Maui, led the Kamaole Point Park Volunteers in transforming a two-acre rat-infested dump into a beautiful ocean front public park. Joiner made good on a promise that if the county would buy the degraded property, he and other volunteers would clean it up at no cost to the government. After piles of junk were removed, the shoreline area become a nesting area for a new colony of wedge-tailed shearwaters.
>>	Ken Goldstein, of Kaneohe, has been running the Hawaii Computers for Kids Program, a grass-roots organization that recycles computers into use by Hawaii school children, for 10 years. The program has transferred more than 11,000 computers from donors to schools -- keeping them out of landfills.
>>	In the business category, The Orchid at Mauna Lani, in Kamuela, installed a liquid petroleum gas-fueled combined heat and power system in June 2001. The clean fuel system is producing 880 kilowatts hours of power, recovering waste heat for 220 tons of air conditioning and hot water heating and lessening the amount of power needed from oil-burning power plants.