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HAWAII FOREST & TRAIL HONORED AS 2010 ROTARY CLUB OF KONA BUSINESS OF THE YEAR

Kailua Kona, Hawaii–Hawaii Forest & Trail was honored as the Rotary Club of Kona 2010 Business of the Year at their recent monthly membership meeting and luncheon.

The Rotary Club of Kona has been honoring local businesses in the West Hawaii community with quarterly awards for several years. The Business of The Year award recognizes recipients for their outstanding commitment to the community. This year, the service club decided to move from quarterly awards to honoring one business that aligned with its own dedication to community service as a source for hard work and a better life in the community. 

The 2010 Business of the Year Award honored Hawaii Forest & Trail for its commitment to environmental education, creating a healthy workplace and for e hoomaluo (conserve our natural resources), a program within the company designed to support and inspire the conservation of Hawaii’s natural resources through corporate giving, stewardship and sustainable business practices. 

“This is an exciting time for Hawaii Forest & Trail. We inspire guests everyday on our guided nature tours.  Through this inspiration, we turn guests into stakeholders in Hawaii and Hawaii Forest & Trail,” said Hawaii Forest & Trail President and Founder Rob Pacheco. “As we inspire others to conserve Hawaii’s rich natural and cultural resources, a deeper experience emerges for our visitors and community.”

Hawaii Forest & Trail has received several awards including 2009 Rand McNally Best of the Road Editor’s pick, Hot Blue 100 List, and was a recent recipient of the Ecotour Operator of the Year Award by the Hawaii Ecotourism Association.

KONA, HAWAII’S BIG ISLAND (April, 2010)

Hawaii Forest & Trail announced their new company-wide conservation initiative entitled e hoomaluo (conserve our natural resources).  The program mission is to support and inspire the conservation of Hawaii’s natural resources through corporate giving, stewardship and sustainable business practices.  In celebration of Earth Day 2010, Hawaii Forest & Trail launched the program with the introduction of reusable souvenir water bottles on their daily tours.

“At Hawaii Forest & Trail, we champion the preservation of our treasured natural resources. To celebrate Earth Day 2010, we introduced a smarter, more sustainable way to carry water. When you consider that the life of a one single use, non-biodegradable water bottle in a landfill can be as long as 100 years, you can imagine what a huge impact this initiative will have on the environment. Our aim is to inspire a solution to this huge resource drain,” expressed Cindy Pacheco, Hawaii Forest & Trail Vice-President. 

The attractive new reusable water bottles are 100% biodegradable, BPA free (bisphenol A) and made in the United States.  Every guest on a Hawaii Forest & Trail tour will receive one of the reusable bottles which can be used on tour, then taken home to continue the conservation effort.  Hawaii Forest & Trail estimates switching to these water bottles will reduce CO2 emission by over one ton annually; reduce the number of barrels of oil used to produce the bottles by 50; and reduce water usage by an estimated 12 thousand gallons.