They Didn't Have The Green Thing Back Then...

Thanks to my good friend Cliff Chen for this delightfully humorous piece of wisdom. Cliff is a senior officer in our military. Efficiency and conservation are not just abstract notions on the front line far from supply lines: getting every drop from fuel & food is a matter of life & death. No wonder our military is a leader in LED lighting, passive heating & cooling & solar energy.

...In the line at the store, the cashier told the older woman that plastic bags weren’t good for the environment. The woman apologized to her and explained, “We didn’t have the green thing back in my day.”

That’s right, they didn’t have the green thing in her day. Back then, they returned their milk bottles, Coke bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, using the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled.

But they didn’t have the green thing back her day...
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Hawaii Superferry: It's Not About The Environment



I have never written about my professional endeavors on my blog until now. However the time has come to shed some light on how legitimate environmentally friendly efforts can be hijacked by a few self-interested individuals claiming “the environment” in their name.

Hawaii Superferry is a company I founded in 2001 shortly after 9/11 grounded Hawaiis airlines for four long days. This halted Hawaii like no other place on earth because it is the world’s only island archipelago solely dependent on flying. My two cofounders and I did this to bring an affordable, energy-efficient and environmentally friendly alternative for interisland travel to Hawai`i. Hawaii Superferry successfully carried around 250,000 passengers during the time it operated, only to be derailed by a lawsuit from powerful special interests like the Sierra Club after 11 months of operation.

How did this happen?

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