Hilton Head Monthly Connecting the Lowcountry 
We gathered a team of environmental experts to test your eco-friendly knowhow in all manner of global and local issues. Click the image to take our quiz and find out your green IQ, than share your score on our Facebook page for a chance to win a great prize package including reusable grocery bags, a copy of "Hilton Head Island: Sand, Sea, and Sun," and gift certificates to Captain Woody's.
LIFE AT SEA LEVEL is a slow-down life, like the flow of tides. They inch forward and back: covering, nourishing, seeping a-ground. The great Atlantic Ocean and the heavy salt air are our familiar environs, but day after day, are never the same. This is a secret known to watermen from Calibogue Sound to Long Island Sound, and Sri Lanka to the Netherlands. This is the Lowcountry way where, as the mariners say: Life is easy under the sail.
Their curved fins cut clean wakes in the glistening sea. Every so often, one of them spews a plume of water into the air, spritzing the gaggle of gulls teeming above.
People gather at the water’s edge and point at the spectacle. Everyone loves these Atlantic bottlenose dolphins; everyone wants to get closer to them. Suddenly, as if they could read the humans’ thoughts, these great silvery beings roll into the water and vanish. (Above photo by Rob Kaufman)
He’s been “gone fishin’” since the age of 3. One of his first memories of fishing with mom and dad on the waters around Hilton Head Island was hooking a sea trout, letting go of his rod and reel in youthful terror, and then spotting the cork and retrieving the lost fishing gear with fish attached — an hour later.
And now this lifetime of experience (not to mention impressive maritime pedigree) has landed Drew Davis the big one: his own charter business. And if that name sounds familiar, it’s because this start-up entrepreneur got his incubation on his mom and dad’s fishing boats.
Drew’s dad, Fuzzy Davis, is a local legend who works as outdoors pursuits director at Richmond Hill, Ga.’s internationally renowned Ford Plantation, just south of Savannah. Also, Mother Davis, Kim, is an outstanding offshore fisherwoman and “admiral of the house.”
Green by proxyThere can be great value in a brand — a name or product we invest in and count on. But as our community continues on its green journey, how can we know which of these green brands, labels, advertisements and certifications are authentic and which are simply engaged in “greenwashing,” the practice of misleading consumers about the environmental practices of a company or the benefits it claims for marketing purposes?
It may make us feel good to support something with a green label on it, but a disappointing experience can do more harm than good. Whether dealing with laundry detergent, office supplies or a full community certification we must take care to become educated, verify the value proposition and avoid believing everything we read.
Whether you’re a singledigit handicap, a hacker or just a Heritage fan, you know that golf is an essential part of the island’s identity and economy. But golf is also the topic of much debate in the environmental community.
This column focuses on green initiatives that can support longterm sustainability for the planet, its people and prosperity. When it comes to golf, we appreciate the economic benefits that the Heritage brings and the thousands of golfers who play here every year — that’s golf’s contribution to prosperity. Everyone who plays the game and enjoys its social aspects understands how it enhances our quality of life — that’s its contribution to people. Golf also exposes players to wildlife, vegetation and green spaces — its contribution to the planet.
The road to sustainability is long, but the benefits are many. In addition to being responsible, of course, research has shown that “more consumers are considering environmental issues when making travel plans and purchases,” according to the South Carolina Green Hospitality Alliance. Here’s how the island is adjusting.
After a lengthy series of starts and stops, islandwide recycling becomes a reality on April 1. Here’s how to get on board.
When the garbage truck pulls up to your Hilton Head Island home to pick up your recyclable trash on April 1, it won’t be an April Fool’s prank: It’ll be Republic Services inaugurating its new franchise agreement on a timetable that coincides nicely with Earth month.
That day, Republic will begin its franchise with the Town of Hilton Head Island for garbage and recyclable trash pickup, a contract that will take its customer base from 4,000 to about 14,000, according to site manager Chris Frost.
For years, Hilton Head Island has lacked a bona fide outdoor farmers market. Rebecca Smith and Pamela Ovens have helped change all that.
For a place so reverent of natural beauty that even the stop signs used to blend in with the landscape, the absence of a bona fide outdoor farmers market on Hilton Head Island seemed downright ludicrous to islander Rebecca Smith.
“Everybody’s going green, and Hilton Head’s getting lost in the dust. We need to jazz it up,” says Smith, who is doing her part by spearheading the new Farmers Market Hilton Head Island at Honey Horn, set to open April 1.
Take a look behind the scenes of the construction of Tanger Outlet Center I, the first LEED-certified shopping center in Beaufort County
If Tanger Outlet Center Hilton Head I looks brand new to you, it isn’t. Sure, you may have seen the mall completely leveled last winter. You may have noticed it being totally rebuilt, from the sewer ines to the buildings to the parking lots. But those involved with the $50 million transformation will tell you — quite proudly — that’s it’s far from new.
The 22-acre center, set to reopen March 31, is being called the first LEED-certified green shopping center in Beaufort County, which means, among other things, that quite a bit of the old center was recycled for the new one, including 100 percent of the old concrete, most of the steel and gravel and close to 100 tons of landscape material.
