Kokua - how a festival can be more green...

Got back home earlier this week from a great weekend in Waikiki Oahu for a weekend of sustainable education, philanthropy, and of course – great music.

The Kokua Festival has come along way in its 5 year run, and as a former concert promoter myself I was really impressed with the thought of bringing sustainability into the festival experience. Can you imagine how much progress we’d make if as much thought that went into greening the Kokua Festival went into greening every event, organization, etc?

 

We have all heard about bottled water and the ecological impact from the whole process – let alone all of the empties that are left behind after a typical concert. You could pick up a Kokua 08 reusable aluminum bottle from SIGG, and get free refills of water all day long to stay hydrated in the hot sun all day.

Watch Simple’s So Cal and Hawaii Sales Rep Chris demonstrate the process -

get the reuseable bottle

fill bottle up with free water at the water station

And enjoy!

All of the plates, utensils, and napkins were made from biodegradable materials like corn and potato starch. Even the beer cups were biodegradable!

 

And when you were finished with your waste, there was a big volunteer effort from the Kokua Hawaii Foundation, and lots of different bins to place your recyclables, biodegradables, and pig food in the right place.

What was your Earth Day resolution? If you were at Kokua, you might have been on camera making your pledge, so stick to it! (Shout out to our good friend Ed at Oniric Records who interviewed all the attendees who made a pledge, and knows how to rock a hemp jacket like a pro!).

 

Instead of printing a whole new one - even the stage backdrop was reused from last years! It was updated with the new artwork on just the boarder.

 

Here is a picture that shows what would happen to Waikiki if the ice caps melted, and the ocean rose by a meter...yikes. Not cool.

 

To all who came by the booth, it was great to meet you and thanks for checking out what our nice little shoe brand is doing to save the footwear industry from shoe-making.

 

And cash in Simple’s hand from selling shoes at Kokua means cash in the Kokua Hawaii Foundation’s hand so they can keep doing the good work they do. Too bad the cash wasn't in euros...

 

Comments

[Jennifer]

Hey Grizz! Glad to see you made it back home in 1 piece! Fantastic documentation of the booths, we went around to them all but this helps cement it in our minds.

Styrophobia.com forever! Corn starch is our friend!

It was nice to meet you face to face - a human face to the simple shoes brand. Going home myself in about 18 hours but I'm sure I'll catch you next year.

PS- a retail location in Chicago here soon please? Thanks!