The National Tropical Botanical Garden on Kauai reached a $280,000 goal on Wednesday through the Blue Planet Foundation’s WEfficiency online lending program.
The nonprofit will use the funds to retrofit its climate control system in the LEED-Gold certified botanical research center on Kauai.
“This was the largest successful crowdsourcing funding project in Hawaii to date,” NTBG President, CEO and Chairman Chipper Wichman told Pacific Business News. "Our business model is purely based on philanthropy, so being able to partner with Blue Planet and the ‘loan-ation’ project allowed us to engage with those who would not normally be part of our donor base, which was really exciting.”
The new system is expected to save the botanical garden $60,000 annually in energy costs, while preventing 131 tons of carbon dioxide pollution.