Hawaii Home + Remodeling

By: Natalie Schack
Issue: April 2020

What does the future of Hawaii hold? Hawaiian Electric wants to make sure it’s green. The company’s Project Footprint Initiative was launched in 2019 with the aim of creating a system that incentivizes customers to help build a more sustainable future. Customers can do this by adjusting their energy consumption and behavior and adopting more eco-friendly practices to reduce their carbon footprint. The overall goal? A state powered entirely by clean energy by 2045.

It’s a big goal, but one that Hawaiian Electric envisions happening with many small steps. Customers receive gifts and rewards for making environmentally friendly adjustments; those adjustments range from something as simple as billing choices (opting for paperless) to bigger decisions such as purchasing or leasing an electric car, or installing rooftop solar. 

Now, one year into the Project Footprint Initiative, people are starting to take notice. As the climate crisis looms, and the global community rallies behind large-scale change, Project Footprint’s visionary success is more relevant than ever. The Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative named the project national runner-up for its best practices award, while Chartwell Inc. placed the project among its top three finalists for its people’s choice award for video. And E-Source awarded Project Footprint first place for best branding campaign.

For Project Footprint, the name of the game is all about mobilizing and inspiring communities to rethink how they live and work. It’s about understanding that the actions taken today affect the Islands tomorrow. 

For 2020, Project Footprint is joining forces with the Hawaiian Legacy Reforestation Initiative, a nonprofit. For $90 and up, customers can “plant” one of the Reforestation Initiative’s endemic native trees – to memorialize a passed loved one, perhaps, or to celebrate a new life or milestone, while offsetting carbon emissions. Not only will each tree help Hawaii’s future be more sustainable, customers will be able to follow the progress of their investments: Each tree is tagged with an RFID chip and GPS technology, so customers can keep tabs on how their trees are growing and how healthy they are. 

What does the future hold? With initiatives like Project Footprint, forecasts are looking greener – and greater – than ever.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION 

Green Hawaii was published as a supplement to Hawaii Home + Remodeling magazine's April 2020 issue. To find out more about how you can go green all year, visit our Green section. 

Source: Hawaii Home + Remodeling