When launching a business, making the bottom line is important, but staying true to one's missions and goals is a higher achievement.

These are profiles of local businesses founded on the idea of a sustainable world.

Their philosophy: Reduce, reuse and resell.

Whether keeping items from the landfill or finding new ways to reuse old products, these entrepreneurs are pioneers of the green business movement.

Their ventures, for the most part, were launched before being green became hip, though now they are benefiting from a growing momentum of eco-consciousness among consumers.

Muumuu Heaven

Step below the pearly strands at the entrance to Muumuu Heaven in Kailua and you have, indeed, walked into a boutique where vintage muumuus have found new lives.

The bright patterns and prints of their fabrics have been redesigned into creative, one-of-a-kind fashions, which have been a hit not only with first lady Michelle Obama, but with locals and visitors from Japan and the mainland.

Deb and Eric Mascia opened the boutique in February 2007, offering eco-conscious clothing, jewelry, accessories, housewares and art.

The store is itself a showcase of refurbished items—from the salvaged chandelier hanging from the ceiling to the auto fender re-purposed into a dress rack, and the recycled nails on the walls. In line with its mission, the company also contributes to 1% for the Planet, a group of businesses that donate 1 percent of sales to environmental organizations.

Everything in the store, according to Deb Mascia, is recycled or refurbished in some way.

Despite the down economy, Muumuu Heaven is doing well, recently expanding into the space next door—from about 1,400 to 3,300 square feet.

Now the shop has a separate space to showcase housewares, along with a small art gallery, and another room for fashions and accessories.

In 2009, Muumuu Heaven also made its first $1 million in sales, a landmark accomplishment for a business that started out of a home. Sales in 2009 were up about 27 percent from the previous year.

Muumuu Heaven opened a second boutique in September in the beachside Shichiri-gahama district, about an hour south of Tokyo. The store is in a converted two-story teahouse and staffed with four women who were regular visitors to the Kailua store.

“;We had an incredible fan base in Japan,”; said Deb Mascia, who is asked for her autograph while there. “;People there were blogging about us.”;

Muumuu Heaven also had the honor of designing clothing for President Barack Obama and his family using his late grandmother's muumuus.

For the president, Mascia made a polo shirt of bamboo textile embellished with the muumuu fabric, and for Michelle Obama she designed an elegant black dress with aloha print detail at the waist.

For Sasha and Malia she has made tank tops, T-shirts and ponytail holders.

Inspiration strikes Mascia at all times of day and night—she often envisions the person wearing her designs as she makes the dresses.

Dresses range IN price from about $100 to $395, depending on length, detail and fabric. Each dress is handmade and one of a kind.

“;I never, ever make two dresses the same,”; said Mascia.

For her source of muumuus, Mascia searches throughout the island, whether at thrift shops or estate sales, but according to her own eco-conscious philosophy, won't accept shipments from abroad.

While she used to do all of the sewing herself, the shop now has a team of 11 seamstresses.

A men's line, called Hope for Man, will be launched next year, in collaboration with aloha shirt connoisseur Dale Hope.

The next goal? To open a shop one day in Australia, which is Mascia's hometown.

Re-use Hawaii

Re-use Hawaii, a nonprofit offering deconstruction services, has a motto of preserve, provide and sustain.

Re-use Hawaii's goal, since it was launched in October 2007, is to keep as much demolition and construction waste as possible out of Hawaii's landfills.

An estimated 30 percent of trash in landfills comes from such waste, according to Quinn Vittum, deconstruction program manager.

A skilled crew goes to a home or building slated for demolition and breaks it down piece by piece, salvaging reusable materials from roof to floor to be sold at a discount at its warehouse in Kakaako.

While it might take two weeks instead of one day, homeowners and business owners can get a tax deduction for the value of the materials donated to Re-use Hawaii. Rates are now competitive with typical demolition bids.

The trend is catching on, according to Re-use Hawaii founder Selina Tarantino, as more builders and architects seek ways to get points for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification.

The volume of work has doubled since the nonprofit started.

“;The goal is for reuse and deconstruction to become a mainstream option,”; said Tarantino.

Instead of throwing away these materials, Re-use Hawaii sorts reusable pieces for its warehouse, which opened in April next to the University of Hawaii medical school.

The 12,000-square-foot warehouse features an open reception area, complete with a portion of a maple, hardwood floor salvaged from Punahou School's gym.

There, customers can find windows, doors, lumber, tiles, plumbing, lighting and jalousies at a discount, and even with some booths from the now-closed Stuart Anderson's Cattle Co. restaurant at Ward Centers.

Sometimes customers will uncover hard-to-find things, like a kitchen door dating back to 1909.

The warehouse, which is open Monday through Saturday, is becoming popular with do-it-yourselfers, contractors and architects working on LEED projects. Contractors also are welcome to drop off tax-deductible donations instead of driving out to the dump in Waianae.

“;It's so practical,”; said Tarantino. “;All of this would be lining the inside of the mountain in Waianae. Instead, it's here where people can buy it.”;

Eco-Fashion Bags

For Pia Kuhlemann it all started the day she gazed out at an ocean full of sailboats from a downtown high-rise.

The beautiful colors and patterns from the sails inspired her to make a surfboard bag for her boyfriend. That, in turn, evolved into the idea of making fashion handbags out of sails, similar to the Swiss Freitag bags she knew at home made out of truck tarpaulins.

To her good fortune, when she called Art Nelson Sailmaker Inc., the company had a whole truckload of sails headed for the dump.

She volunteered to take them all and, after some trial and error, launched Soo Zou in August 2008.

Now the handbags, which retail for between $65 and $150 each, are sold at etown, Muumuu Heaven and Global Creations in Haleiwa. The surf bag, however, has yet to be made.

Kuhlemann enlisted women at the Kokua Kalihi Valley Community Health Center to help cut the pieces for her. Each bag is hand-sewn.

“;With my bag designs, I try to keep the sail's main character and work with its individual story,”; she said. “;This makes for an intriguing bag—to know it had a life before out at sea.”;

Like Mascia, Kuhlemann only uses sails that are already here in the isles, and will not take any shipments from elsewhere to reduce fuel emissions. She plans to grow slowly, along with the availability of materials.

Kini Beach of Honolulu, launched by Dale Geldum and David Watt, is a wholesale producer of tote bags made out of straw mats and inflatable, plastic mattresses—typical jetsam strewn all over Waikiki beaches.

A litter-strewn shoreline is exactly where the pair first got their inspiration. Their idea, as well, was to keep trash out of landfills, beaches and oceans.

The bags are made from 99 percent recycled materials, with panels made from beach mats, and colored linings and straps from floats and inner tubes.

The pair has partnered with several Waikiki hotels to collect discarded beach mats.

Handmade Kini bags, which retail from $28 to $64, are sold in 15 locations in Hawaii, California and on the East Coast. Geldum said a new line is already in the works for the new year.

» Muumuu Heaven: www.muumuuheaven.com
» Re-use Hawaii: www.reusehawaii.org
» Soo Zou: www.soozou.com
» Kini Bags: www.kinibeach.com