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Hawaii Business' SmallBiz 2013 Editor's Choice Awards
Winning companies in five categories: Green Business, Innovation, New Business, Woman-Owned, and Long-Term
Best Green Business
KYA Sustainability Studio
Nominator: Scott Cooney, The GBO Group
KYA Sustainability Studio is a think tank that specializes in environmentally friendly and culturally sensitive design, development and architecture. Full of young and energetic associates, the studio is the brainchild of architect Ross Yamasaki and an offshoot of the KYA Design Group.
The studio started about six years ago, when Yamasaki decided to simultaneously address the brain drain of smart young people from Hawaii and the need for strategic sustainability planning by businesses and communities.
"My passion and vision existed beyond architecture," Yamasaki says. Accordingly, the employees of KYA Sustainability Studio hold degrees ranging from environmental studies and anthropology to political science, law and architecture. This multifaceted approach was partly a response to organizations working in separate niches without sufficient cooperation.
Tamara Armstrong, director of client relations at the studio, has a BA in sustainability from UH-Manoa. "When I was going to school," she says, "people still needed an explanation of what my major meant. Now the challenge is to elaborate and talk about sustainability on a deeper level."
The KYA crew believes that ecological and cultural sustainability can be merged with economic efficiency and financial benefit. While Armstrong and director of analytics Vance Arakaki contribute their technical expertise on, respectively, reducing waste and improving organizational efficiency, the team says another fundamental facet of their work is preserving Hawaii's sense of place and uniqueness. Director of policy Amy Brinker finds inspiration in the pluralism and fluidity of traditional Hawaiian culture. Thus, according to the studio, the most respectful homage that could be paid to local traditions is in embracing innovation and progress with a clear awareness of historical continuity. The team strives to pay equal attention to both local geographical factors and culture, including Hawaiian and immigrant traditions.
"My favorite example of work where we implement this set of values is our renovation of the (Honolulu International) Airport," says Armstrong. KYA says it was instrumental in the Department of Transportation's new sustainability program and that it designed guidelines for future development, addressing issues such as energy efficiency, water conservation, and waste and carbon management, along with cultural appropriateness.
KYA's modernization of HNL's lobbies 2 and 3 won a distinguished entry at the 2012 Honolulu Awards of the American Institute of Architects. "The airport is important," Brinker says, "because it's the first place most people see when they come to Hawaii. It is also the last before they leave. At the same time, we don't want it to be just another airport – it's the Hawaii airport."
Hawaiian Legacy Hardwoods
Jeffrey Dunster & Darrell Fox
Nominator: Irvin Wong, First Hawaiian Bank
Since its founding in 2005, Hawaiian Legacy Hardwoods has steadily reforested cattle pastureland with koa and other trees. Now, the company says, more than 150,000 koa trees line a 1,000-acre sloping parcel on the Hamakua Coast of Hawaii Island, re-creating what the area was like about a century ago.
"We are creating a whole ecosystem," says CEO Jeffrey Dunster. Besides koa, which Dunster calls the pioneer species, the company is planting about 10 other types of trees, including ohia and sandalwood.
HLH has both for-profit and nonprofit sides. The for-profit side plants trees for harvest, while the nonprofit side plants trees for permanent reforestation.
Irvin Wong, VP and branch manager of First Hawaiian Bank's Liliha branch, says that, in 2008, Dunster and Fox shared with him their vision for saving and restoring tropical hardwood forests. "I was intrigued by the concept," says Wong.
"Other benefits include protecting wildlife and replenishing the watershed. It is not just planting and restoring the ecosystem, but also deploying a different type of forestry model," he explains.
Many people purchase a legacy tree in memory of a loved one, Dunster says. That costs $60, $20 of which goes to a charity of the customer's choice and $1 to The Nature Conservancy.
Among the company's partners in reforestation are The Nature Conservancy, Four Seasons Resort Hualalai, American Lung Association, MOA of Hawaii and the American Cancer Society. Overall, the company's reforestation initiative currently supports more than 100 charities and organizations worldwide.
On the for-profit side, investment trees are sold in lots of 100. The one-time cost is $8,841 for the 2013-14 planting season. The minimum order allows for pruning and thinning so only the best trees grow to maturity.
All trees have radio-frequency identification tags that track ownership, growth and other information. Owners can locate their individual trees on a GPS map or, eventually, by satellite imagery.
A large carbon market is operating in Europe and the state of California created a carbon market this year, though it is unclear how or if such "cap and trade" laws will be created elsewhere in the United States. "(B)ut there is little doubt that carbon markets are coming," the company's website says.
On this point, Wong says, HLH is "actually creating a new carbon-credit market here in Hawaii, which is an exciting development for the future."
Best New Business
Hawaii Human Resources
CEO: Matthew Delaney
Nominator: Scott LaRue, Atlas Insurance
There's hardly a moment Matt Delaney isn't working. With a portfolio of companies – six at last count and two more coming onboard in the next few months – he doesn't have time to be idle. Nor does he like to be.
"I love work, I'm excited about it, but I'm working 18 hours a day," he says. "I'm at that point now where I need to clone myself or find my mini-me."
Delaney and his business partner Scott Meichtry launched HiHR in 2009 with a single client – an air-conditioning contractor with 21 employees – and support 368 companies today. In the same time frame, the company went from two employees to 37. The growth, he says, puts HiHR within range of the two largest HR companies in the state and Delaney plans for that growth to continue.
"What it will do for us is provide additional stability in regard to the industry and the economy," says Delaney. "Now, we're so well diversified between construction and retail and hospitality and service that if the economy turns and construction takes a dive, this provides a bit of insulation for whatever is happening in the world."
HiHR is the original company in his Hawaii Group portfolio; the latest addition is HiNursing, a company with 48 people working in hospitals and assisted-living facilities. He's also expanding to California, his home state, where he also has a second home and spends weekends.
One of the secrets to HiHR's success is the company's ability to inspire employees, treat them well (he still provides free lunch every day) and support their lives. Employees' children are often there after school, and employees are encouraged to support charities of their choice on company time.
Scott LaRue is an independent Atlas Insurance agent who nominated HiHR for the Best New Business award. LaRue met Delaney a dozen years ago paddling outrigger canoes and figured he was "a beach bum from California." Today, LaRue sees a talented, driven entrepreneur who attracts top-notch employees and tends to bring them along with him wherever his business goes.
"Everyone in that office seems to genuinely be a good person and it all starts from the top down," says LaRue. "The true sign of a good leader is to look at the turnover in his company." Basically, says LaRue, there isn't any.
Woman-Owned Business
Yuka "Lisa" Nawano
Eggs 'n Things
Nominators: Edie Tanicala and Dean Uyeda, Bank of Hawaii
Yuka "Lisa" Nawano considers herself, more than anything, the No. 1 fan of Eggs 'n Things.
Her love affair with the restaurant began almost 20 years ago, when she visited Hawaii from her native Japan as an 18-year-old and fell in love with the pancakes at the family-owned restaurant on Ena Road in Waikiki.
Nine years later, still obsessed with the food, Nawano approached owner Jan Fukunaga about bringing an Eggs 'n Things location to Japan.
"Jan asked if I had restaurant experience and I said, 'No, but I'm a great fan of your pancakes, and I really want to do this,' " recalls Nawano. The two developed a friendship and kept in touch over the next decade.
In 2008, patience paid off when Fukunaga was ready to retire and asked Nawano if she would be interested in taking over the business. The rest is history.
Dean Uyeda, VP of Hawaii Commercial Banking at Bank of Hawaii, says Nawano has taken a successful restaurant and made it even better.
"It's easy to be complacent and content with success, but she wasn't," says Uyeda. "She took a risk by expanding, took out some debt and now she's growing."
Since taking over the business, Nawano has increased sales by more than 600 percent, increased the number of employees from 40 to 150, moved the original restaurant from Ena Road to Saratoga Road, opened two more locations and established a store.
Nawano calls herself a "hands-on" owner and tries to visit each restaurant once a day. She traces her love for the food and concept of Eggs 'n Things to her early childhood in Detroit.
Born in Fujisawa City, in Kanigawa Prefecture, Nawano spent her elementary school years in the Motor City, where her father worked in the automotive industry.
"The first time I came to Eggs 'n Things, I was reminded of the American-type breakfasts my family would have in Detroit on Sunday mornings," she recalls. "Pancakes, to me, bring thoughts of happy times, family and friends. I like to share with others what I have a passion for. If I experience something really good, I want to share it. That's the biggest drive for me."
*Has received an SBA loan
Long-Term Success
Windward Boats
Joe Adams
Nominator: Martin Tadlas, Hawaii National Bank
For almost three decades, Joe Adams has navigated Windward Boatsthrough friendly and stormy economic conditions, and turned it into Hawaii's largest boat dealer.
With the help and encouragement of friends, Adams started the company out of his home in Enchanted Lake in 1984. Initially, he focused on smaller items. "I would do demonstrations on the dock and in the backyard," says Adams. "I had one bedroom full of engines, another full of inflatable boats and my garage was an improvised workshop." After six months, he was able to afford a small facility on Kailua Road.
From those humble beginnings, the business grew almost exponentially and, in 1990, acquired its current one-acre location. Adams attributes his success to introducing local customers to the option of financing, with which Windward Boats was able to add more lines and products, and emerged as Hawaii's top seller.
Though business dropped by 80 percent over a single month at the onset of the latest recession, Windward Boats stayed afloat with flexible management. As customers preferred to repair what they already had, the firm met the increased demand for service and maintenance. "We had to change with the times," Adams says, and calls the past four years the most challenging of his company's history.
A business that sells luxury goods seldom enjoys steady sailing, but Adams has smoothed out the ride by serving government and educational institutions, such as the Navy, Coast Guard, local fire departments and universities. Maintenance contracts with these organizations, explains Adams, are usually less dependent on economic circumstances.
Adams prides himself on being Yamaha's top seller in the country's western region for 12 consecutive years. This is remarkable, considering Hawaii's modest population. What also contributes to his success, Adams says, is that he hires exceptional professionals who are also watersports enthusiasts like himself.
Martin Tadlas, Kailua branch manager of Hawaii National Bank, who nominated Windward Boats for a small-business award, calls it a "flagship business" for Kailua. Tadlas also applauds Adams for his involvement in the community.
Born and raised in Kailua, Adams is a champion for sports-related causes such as the Special Olympics and AccesSurf, which introduces ocean activities to children and veterans with disabilities. "I wish there was more charity to those who really need it: the handicapped, veterans, the homeless, the starving," he says.


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Graham Library Renovated to Point Visitors to Jesus, Not Billy
The Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, N.C., was officially reopened to the public Wednesday after having been closed for several months of renovations.
To mark the reopening, a ceremony was held Tuesday that was attended by Billy Graham, himself, who has been largely out of the public eye for the past couple of years due to health-related issues.
At a dinner following the dedication ceremony, the 91-year-old preacher said the library, "which has been largely the vision and the work of Franklin, has gone far beyond our expectations."
"The reason we decided to renovate it was to make it a different type of library that would totally and completely honor the Lord Jesus Christ, where people could find Christ in almost every place," said Graham. "And I'm grateful to those that have worked and prayed, and I believe that God is going to use it in the future."
Graham had initially rejected the idea of constructing the library, not wanting a memorial or museum to honor him or his works. But after his son Franklin, who heads the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, assured him that the building would function as an ongoing evangelistic ministry and not a shrine, the elder Graham gave his support.
"He (Billy Graham) wanted it to be about the Lord Jesus Christ," Franklin Graham said Tuesday. "That's what my father preached all of his life and continues to this day. He wants to focus men and woman on Jesus Christ, God's Son."
Unfortunately, however, after touring the library following its opening in May 2007, the elder Graham reportedly said it was "too much Billy Graham."
The dairy barn-shaped library – modeled after Graham's early childhood home in Charlotte – housed a repository of Graham's personal papers, including his correspondence and sermon manuscripts; rare film footage; and more than 350 photographs recognizing the 60-year legacy of the world renowned evangelist who has preached to more than 210 million people across six continents.
It also featured some of Graham's historic evangelistic events; his innovative use of radio, television, and films to reach out to millions of people around the world; meetings with presidents and world leaders; his work for racial equality and religious freedom; and a glimpse into his personal life.
"He (Graham) doesn't want attention to go to him," said Graham's younger sister, Jean Ford, after the library's initial opening. "And yet it just does."
In light of this and other issues, the library was closed for renovations – changed so that there would be a clear presentation of the Gospel as visitors go through from room to room.
"We want this library to be like an ongoing crusade," Franklin Graham said in remarks at Tuesday's dedication ceremony inside the lobby of the library.
"This library is a ministry, and that's what we wanted. That's what we intended," the 57-year-old evangelist added. "And these changes that we have made have strengthened the ministry."
Among the additions to the library are new video presentations, a glimpse at the current ministry activities of BGEA, and testimonies of those whose lives God has touched through the evangelist's ministry.
Also added were thousands of books from Graham's personal library and other artifacts, such as his desk and chair, a Bible he used for preparing sermons and one of his briefcases.
In his prayer of dedication for the library, Billy Graham prayed for God's blessing to be upon the library "in a new way."
"Bless Franklin, as he leads our whole organization and Samaritan's Purse, and Lord I pray that you bless the people that work here," he prayed. "We commit this library and museum to you. In Jesus' name, Amen."
Having preached to over 210 million people in over 185 countries, Graham is believed to have spoken face-to-face with more people in more places than anyone in history.
He has also been a friend to every U.S. president since Harry Truman and has been listed by the Gallup organization as one of the "Ten Most Admired Men in the World" an unmatched 52 (45 consecutive) times.
Since retiring from public ministry due to his failing health, Graham has been largely confined to his home in Montreat, N.C. The aged preacher has suffered from Parkinson's disease for about 15 years, has had fluid on the brain, pneumonia, broken hips, and recently revealed that he is suffering from prostate cancer.
His wife, Ruth Bell Graham, died four days after her 87th birthday in 2007.
Ruth Graham was buried at the Billy Graham Library, where Graham said he too would be later buried one day.

subset: commoncrawl


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Is This Your Hat?
9 years ago
Miscellaneous thoughts on politics, people, math, science and other cool (if sometimes frustrating) stuff from somewhere near my favorite coffee shop.
Some are generic, but of the media-specific time-space transportation modes, how many can you identify? (9 different shows; click the pic to embiggen)
I would like to go back, not to the Big Bang (which I would assume several scientists would love to marvel at) but before it (maybe a few billion years, give or take). What came before the Big Bang? Was there just a singularity sitting there for all eternity or was the previous universe collapsing in on itself?
Somewhere in the vicinity of 3.5 Billion years ago (give or take a few hundred million years), in a puddle of goo struck by lightning (probably), life formed. Our knowledge about this event is understandably very very shaky, due to both the distance back in time, and the lack of preservation of the kind of biological activity we're interested in. The rock record isn't very useful here; past a certain point too much has been metamorphosed, and organic molecules broken down too much to be informative.
I think I will take advantage of the non-limitation to Earth clause and couple that with the time-lapse clause. It might be fun to observe how Martian tectonism quieted down over time, and collecting data from that event would advance our current understanding of tectonics and planetary geology. We know that Mars has been, for all intents and purposes, tectonically quiet for quite a while.
So, there's no *If* about it. I time travel every day. The thing is, so do most geologists. That's what we do. Geology is a type of investigative reporting where we piece together stories from hundreds of millions of years ago by extracting eyewitness accounts from whichever rocks happened to be witness to the events that interest us. Being a dastardly sort of geologists, I simply do this by torture. I stick the rocks in a steel chamber, suck the air out, and then blast them with an ion beam until they talk.
This is the Vallecito Conglomerate. It's been metamorphosed, but its sedimentary features are still preserved. It's got big clasts, mostly of vein quartz and banded iron formation, and big trough cross-bedding. It's only found in a small but spectacular part of the Weminuche Wilderness, although there are similar rocks in other places from around the same time. And this one is at least a couple thousand feet thick.
I'd like to travel back to the Lower Cambrian to answer the question – "Why is this rock red?" (...) So, we have a major change in sea water chemistry. We also have the 'Cambrian Explosion' occurring at precisely that same time. Up to this point in the Cambrian we have the 'small shelly fauna' but it is now that the triboltes and echinoderms kick in. This surely cannot be a coincidence.
Churchill may be a unique, lonely place today, but on my Ordovician island it is far lonelier – for it is silent except for the waves lapping on the shore. The silence is occasionally disturbed by tropical thunder, and rarely by giant hurricanes driving monstrous waves and huge boulders against the shore. There are no gull cries, but the smells may not be all that different – no doubt there is rotting seaweed on the Ordovician shores, too. (...) Every time machine should be stocked with nutcrackers, bibs, and a supply of melted butter.
I want to see a mass extinction — a big, catastrophic, geologic-record-punctuating event. The formation of the moon would be really fun, too, but it's not as controversial anymore (to most people). There are still poorly-understood mass extinctions — in particular, the biggest one of them all: the P-T. I want to see who's right and who's wrong, and I want to see what happened, all for myself.
So the first thing I'd do would be to whack on some SPF30, because everyone who works on British geology says "It was like the Caribbean", so there's a good opportunity to combine Serious Research with taking the edge off my Northern European pallour (fearsome predators permitting).
I want to be there while the Silesian Mississippi Valley Type district forms. This is not only the largest MVT Pb-Zn district of the planet with 730 Mt of ore but also there is evidence that the largest district of its kind was formed in an increadibly short amount of time! In the hypogenic karst cavities of the Silesian deposits you can find speleothems (see image) growing up and downwards. The point is they don't grow vertically up and down - they show indication of growing into the direction of fluid flow
Actually if I had a time machine I would go through the whole of geologic time on the spot where I'm on (Nigeria) to see how the land I live on has changed through time. But to narrow down I'll go for the cretaceous when the Benue trough was evolving. there are still a few important questions to be answered:
A separate drainage system related to extensional stresses to the southwest evolved which eventually captured the river, and from there the giant canyon was carved in just a few million years. I have many times imagined seeing that first trickle of water that spilled over the low divide, and how it would have become a torrent, and within hours the work of building a new canyon would have begun.Coconino at Ordinary High Water Mark wants to tour a wetter environment than the current arid climate of the southwest US... she is going to (along with Anne, next) guide us through the Missoula floods, and the contemporary pluvial lakes that so dominated basin and range during the glacial intervals.
The repeated Missoula floods (potentially 40+, from the varve-like slackwater deposits in southeastern Washington called the Touchet beds) carved out the Channeled Scablands of eastern Washington. The lakes, coulees, and river channels of the scablands were carved by the massive floodwaters (up to 500 cubic miles) that occurred repeatedly through the Pleistocene. They were identified in the 1920's by Harlan Bretz, who was derided as the flood theory of scablands creation just didn't mesh with the theory of uniformitarianism.
An extraordinary sight: a lake in Death Valley! (visit the post for glorious full-size)
A little after 19,000 years ago, water in Glacial Lake Missoula ruptured the ice dam, and the collected water went rushing downstream at speeds reaching 100 km/hr. Peak discharge in the Spokane Valley has been estimated at 17 +/- 3 million cubic meters per second, and drainage of the lake took several days.
Figure 3. Dry Falls and Grand Coulee near Coulee City, Washington, June 2004. The falls are 122 m high and 5.6 km wide. Photo by the author.
10.000 to 18.000 years ago the great glaciers retreaded for the last time, uncovering a barren landscape, lacking vegetation cover. The basins carved by the glaciers where filled by time with water and mud, transported by rivers still feeded by small glaciers. This mud will form the grey clays. Still more time passes, the climate is warmer, the last ice melted, and the basin now is a lake surrounded by dense forests. One day of 11.000 years ago suddenly a black cloud covers the sky, and a fine, grey dust falls on the lake, where it sinks to the ground and deposits. Some hundred km distant from the lake the Laacher See Volcano erupted, covering half Europe with a small band of distinctive, grey ash.
The geologic event I choose is the isostatic rebound of the Hudson Bay region. At the end of the Pleistocene and the beginning the Holocene, the massive ice sheets covering northern North America began to melt. As the weight of thousands of meters of ice over the Hudson Bay region was removed, the surface began to rise.
As the land continued to rise, new shorelines were repeatedly being formed, as the old shorelines were elevated higher. In some places, over 175 old shorelines ring the present bay level. This is equated to over 300 m over rebound in places. And it is still rising.
I want to see a vibrant ecosystem with big trees. I want to see the water of the Potomac River look like water; I want to go swimming in it. I want to see what bird migration looked like before it dropped off so precipitously. I want to see a passenger pigeon, a carolina parakeet. I want to see for myself what a healthy amphibian population looks like. And bison fording the Potomac in Alexandria...
...And, once I've seen that former world, I can't guarantee that I'd come back.
I'll admit right out that I am curious what it feels like to be in a M7.8 earthquake. So far, my personal experience maxes out at M5.4, which was entirely exciting and not at all terrifying in my book. I suspect M7.8 would be well past the boundary between excitement and fear... (...) I would be so excited to watch the faults of California get drawn in on the map for the first time, outlining mountain ranges, bounding geologic provinces, highlighting the network of hazard that we still strive to understand and mitigate today. And to be able to witness that while also observing the rebuilding of San Francisco...Definitely a time of wonder and excitement, even though it came out of tragedy.
Looking southward from San Francisco along the San Andreas Fault. Picture from here.
Now we jump into the unkown future, and we are able to see the exact unfolding of the next large-caldera-forming eruption at Yellowstone. We are finally able to answer our many questions. When will the next caldera at Yellowstone erupt, how long will the eruption take, where will the ash flows flow, how thick will they be, and how hot? Will we all be on Mars or orbiting in space so we won't be wiped out? Where exactly in the developing Snake River Plain will the caldera form, will the magma come through Yellowstone Lake thus making the normally and hugely explosive eruption even more explosive? These are some of the many questions that occur to me when thinking of the Yellowstone area. I'd prefer to watch this sometime in the distant future, and not too soon on any human scale.
I want to see what's going to happen with Basin and Range in western North America. Will North America remain a single block as Basin and Range spreading subsides? Will a single subcontinent break off and beome a Texas- or Alaska-sized island heading off to the northwest? Or will this region, composed of numerous terranes stitched together over the last 70-80 million years, break up and form a new generation of lithospheric ships, drifting independently on a Mohorovičić sea?
Tear along the perforated lines?


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CTEP Grant: Business, Management and Administration and Finance
Office: Career and Technical Education
View Published NGO Document (Microsoft Word)
Purpose: The Career and Technical Education Partnership (CTEP) grant is a comprehensive statewide initiative to address implementation of all 16 career clusters and related Career and Technical Student Organizations (CTSOs). This NGO will focus on the systemic statewide planning and implementation of activities related to the career and technical education (CTE) programs in Business, Management & Administration, and Finance. The CTEP priorities over the next three years include: identification and/or development of resources and sample curriculum to assist New Jersey secondary school districts and postsecondary CTE programs in developing quality CTE programs of study; to create a statewide model for at least one new CTE program of study; delivery of high-quality professional development for secondary school districts and/or postsecondary CTE programs; and administration and leadership of the identified CTSO to ensure activities are aligned to New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards and industry standards. This CTEP program is a continuation grant awarded in the first year to Mercer County Community College. This NGO covers the third year of a four-year grant cycle. Based on the availability of state and federal resources, this third year of the grant program will begin September 1, 2012 and end on August 31, 2013.
Eligible Agencies: Mercer County Community College
|Approximate Number of Awards: 1
|Grant Program Type: Continuation
|Total Amt. Available: $346,500
|Application Due Date: 8/6/2012