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HĀLAU HO‘OLAKO Awarded Platinum LEED® Green Building Certification
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Olani Lilly - 887-1117 or 960-5732
HĀLAU HO‘OLAKO Awarded Platinum LEED® Green Building Certification
(Waimea, Hawai‘i May 18, 2010)
As over 300 well-wishers celebrated the 10th anniversary of Kanu o ka ‘Āina New Century Public Charter School and its non-profit organization, the Kanu o ka ‘Āina Learning ‘Ohana (dba KALO), the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) officially awarded the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum certification to their first facility.
The 9,300 square foot green building, called Hālau Ho‘olako, is Hawai‘i Islands first high performance facility, and the first building of a self-sustaining community-based Hawaiian Kauhale or learning destination currently being developed by KALO on Department of Hawaiian Home Lands in Kuhio Village in Waimea on Hawai‘i Island.
LEED® green building ratings range from Certified, to Silver and Gold, with Platinum being the highest standard, and are based on state-of-the-art strategies in six areas: Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources, Indoor Environmental Quality and Innovation and Design. According to the USGBC website, Halau Ho’olako is one of only three platinum certified projects in Hawai’i and the first school building in Hawai‘i to receive a LEED Platinum level of rating. This puts Hālau Ho‘olako among the top green buildings in Hawai‘i, the nation and even in the world.
“The kūpuna told us we needed to aloha ‘āina or practice sustainability. We took that to heart and decided to reach for the highest LEED certification possible, because it allowed us to demonstrate our commitment to the traditional value of kulia i ka nu'u – striving to reach the highest,” said Olani Lilly, KALO Project Director and sustainable building champion.
Like other Platinum LEED certified building, Hālau Ho‘olako was built to take maximum advantage of solar access and prevailing winds to reduce the cost of cooling the building. It features natural ventilation and lighting and uses renewable and recycled materials, including bamboo cabinets and recycled floors. Other green features include, 15 lighting tubes throughout the building, solar panels, dual flush toilets and waterless urinals, which according to student research save 40,000 gallons of water per year.
Beyond these environmentally friendly features, Hālau Ho‘olako also includes green innovations that are uniquely Hawaiian:
· A milk-based paint wall made by Kanu students out of re-used milk from school lunch and the native pigment ‘alae
· Interior ‘ohi‘a post finished with coconut oil made by families in grades K-2.
· Reuse of keawe fence post for landscape trim
· Antique living room furniture donated from families in the community
· Stones used for exterior rock veneer collected from Pu‘u Holoholoku utilizing traditional protocol and practices
· A roofline that reflects the surrounding mountains that surround the building
Hālau Ho‘olako was designed by Group 70 International of Honolulu Hawai’i and , constructed by Tinguely Development of Kona. Construction was supervised by Ken Melrose and Ann Cobb of Pa’ahana Inc., who worked in close collaboration with KALO Project Director Olani Lilly. “Building Hālau Ho‘olako was truly a huge learning experience for our entire learning ‘ohana,” said KALO Executive Director Taffi Wise. “But it was really our Project Director, Olani Lilly who made it all happen, bringing together local kūpuna, architects, contractors, board members, teachers and students to plan, design and complete this beautiful building.”
Probably one of the most exciting aspects of the construction of Hālau Ho’olako was the incorporation of Kanu students from kindergarten through high school at unprecedented levels. This includes first and second grade students conducting a waste audit, which resulted in paper crete stepping stones for the gardens and a milk-based wall within the building. It also involved 6-12 students building grow tables for greenhouses and propagating thousands of native plants starting two years prior to construction. Students also painted tiles for the bath rooms, built the benches surrounding the building and reused construction waste for their annual science projects.
Kanu o ka ‘Āina New Century Charter School and its non-profit arm the Kanu o ka ‘Āina Learning ‘Ohana were founded in 2000 by Hawaiian community leaders seeking a viable choice in education. Over the past decade this intergenerational learning ‘ohana has established a family of high quality womb-to-tomb programs that are culturally-driven, family-oriented and community-based serving over 250 students from preschool to post-secondary education. These programs are designed to advance Hawaiian culture for a sustainable Hawai‘i.