Toolkits

Educational Resources to support and improve involvement and effectiveness of individual citizens, non-profit organizations, businesses, grassroots community groups to move towards sustainability.

Hawaii Sustainability Primer

The purpose of this primer is to cut through the confusion surrounding the term ‘sustainability’ and provide the reader with an overview of: 1. The root causes of ‘unsustainability’ in the world today; 2. An internationally recognized, science-based definition of sustainability; and 3. A strategic framework for applying sustainability in day-to-day planning and decision making. Developed by The Natural Step Canada and edited for a Hawaii audience by the County of Hawaii and The Kohala Center. The Natural Step Framework was adopted through Resolution 249 by Hawaii County Council on November 4, 2009.

Hawai‘i Island Homegrown: Start-up guide for an organic self-reliance garden

Many people would like to be growing more of their own food, but don’t know where or how to start. This guide is for people with little or no organic gardening or farming experience, living on a typical landscaped house lot on Hawai‘i Island. The guide offers tips on how to successfully begin gardening and includes a range of information resources for continued learning. Start a garden. Save money, be healthy, and reduce your carbon footprint.

Collaboration Primer

What is collaboration? How do we collaborative more effectively and efficiently? This document provides an easy to understand overview on how we can better work together. Most of the case studies and examples are based on the Health Care Industry.

Discovering Community Power

A guide to mobilizing local assets and your organization's capacity. A Community-Building Workbook from the Asset-Based Community Development Institute.

Hawai‘i Backyard Conservation Guide

Hawai‘i Backyard Conservation Guide provides practices you can use to conserve and improve natural resources in your own backyard. The guide contains tips you can use to protect the environment, preserve or recover wildlife habitats, and create an attractive and enjoyable back yard.

Nonprofit Organization toolkit

Tools, resources and information for existing and would-be nonprofit organizations