Kuleana Program Home

We are pleased to announce a new program for volunteer sustainability coordinators at the University of Hawaii. It is based on the idea of Kuleana, a native Hawaiian term  denoting “right, privilege and responsibility” which describes a traditional land use practice establishing a relationship to care for and enjoy the benefits of a specified area.  The Kuleana Program is designed to recruit, train, support, and recognize volunteers who make a commitment to adopt sustainable ways of working in their buildings and departments.  These “Early Adopters” will receive the training and tools to engage their peers in various workplace sustainability initiatives, and would help get the word out about model behaviors for sustainability on campus.  They will also collect information and track the achievements of the program through measures such as rates of recycling and energy savings.

Volunteers recruited from staff and faculty and other long term occupants of campus buildings will:

The Kuleana Program will:

• Train volunteers on how to get started with a workplace sustainability program.
  
• Supply "toolkits" with step by step procedures and supporting material for workplace sustainability projects.
  
• Provide technical assistance and support in implementing the projects.
• Provide centralized recordkeeping, tracking, and reporting on measures of sustainability achieved.
• Facilitate communication and information exchange between program participants.
  
• Formally recognize volunteers for participation and achievement in the program.
  

The Kuleana Program is based on a very successful program at the University of British Columbia that has 145 faculty and staff enthusiastically engaging co-workers in conservation.  It has also been adopted at several U.S. Universities including Yale and Harvard. 

We expect to formally launch the program on Earth Day, April 22, 2008.  Please watch this site for more information in the weeks leading up to the launch.  If you are interested in learning more about the Kuleana Program, please contact Nat Pak, Kuleana Program Coordinator at 956-8250 or npak@hawaii.edu