Singer Jack Johnson doesn’t mind the label of environmentalist, but knows he’s part of an industry that isn’t exactly environmentally friendly.
“To be honest, we fly around the world in airplanes, and we tour,” he said during a preview of the “Plastic Fantastic?” exhibit at Honolulu Museum of Art Spalding House that opened Feb. 3. “It’s a pretty taxing industry that we’re a part of. My goal was never to try to receive that title or anything, it was just more about trying to look at the industry that I was part of and how we could be more responsible.”
PLASTIC FREE HAWAII MURAL CONTEST
Open to students K-12. Murals must incorporate marine debris or single-use plastics like bottle caps collected from cleanups or recycling drives. Email photos of completed murals to plasticfree@kokuahawaiifoundation.org
by Feb. 20. Select murals will go on display at the Honolulu Theatre for Youth’s “H20: The Story of Water and Hawai‘i” in the spring. Visit kokuahawaiifoundation.org.
After concerts early in his career, Johnson remembers hanging out with the crew on stage, looking out at a sea of plastic water bottles left on the lawn by some 20,000 fans.
“I just couldn’t feel OK about that, knowing I was contributing to it,” he said. “They would always say, ‘We’re recycling them all.’ That’s a good second step, but the first step should be to reduce.”
In an effort to “green” his tours, Jackson took Willie Nelson’s advice and filled his tour trucks with biodiesel, and encouraged fans to refill their own bottles at water stations.
With his wife, Kim Johnson, who was a math teacher in California before he enlisted her to become his manager in 2002, he founded the nonprofit Kokua Hawai‘i Foundation with a mission to support environmental education in Hawaii’s schools and communities.
The program strives to “provide students with experiences that will enhance their appreciation for and understanding of their environment so they will be lifelong stewards of the earth.” It encourages recycling and school gardens.
“Having kids, you think about the world around you and what kind of world you want them to live in,” Kim Johnson said. “It was just these natural next steps on what was important to us.”
In November the foundation committed $100,000 to help fourth-graders visit parks as part of the federal “Every Kid in a Park” initiative. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, it worked with the Polynesian Voyaging Society and other groups to organize a beach cleanup at James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge’s Kahuku Beach.
Then there are fun ways to get students engaged, like the Plastic Free Hawaii School Mural Contest, now in its second year. The contest invites students to create a mural out of plastic (either bottle caps or other debris collected from beach cleanups), with an inspirational message. The grand-prize winner gets a water bottle refill station for their school. The deadline for entries is Feb. 20. For more information, visit bit.ly/1StTnDm. Samples of last year’s murals can be viewed at thegreenleaf.staradvertiserblogs.com.
Kim Johnson said she would not necessarily classify herself as an environmentalist, but she, Jack and their three kids, ages 6, 9 and 12, have embraced a single-use plastic-free lifestyle as much as possible.
While she still likes to store stuff in plastic organizer boxes, the family does a lot of what the Plastic Free Hawaii program advocates: They bring their own bags to the store, drink from reusable water bottles and eat with bamboo utensils. At restaurants they request no straws.
Their wastebasket? It’s not lined. It’s the kids’ chore to empty and rinse it out.
Nina Wu writes about environmental issues. Reach her at 529-4892 or nwu@staradvertiser.com. Read more at thegreenleaf.staradvertiserblogs.com.
