Social media for social change

Jazzy Buerano ’17 is helping to stop plastic pollution in Hawai‘i and beyond

At a time when environmental pollution can seem utterly overwhelming, Jasmine (Jazzy) Buerano ’17 and her team at Sustainable Coastlines Hawai‘i (SCH) are working to create concrete, practical change through their large-scale beach clean ups, local partnerships, and most recently, social media.

While TikTok and Instagram dominate the way information is shared these days, many organizations have been slow to make this type of marketing a priority. Sustainable Coastlines Hawai‘i, on the other hand, has leaned into the social media space.

With her official title of “Inspiration Coordinator,” Buerano’s goal is to motivate and educate SCH’s local and global community of activists, scientists, artists, and changemakers. “We live in a world where attention spans are two or three seconds,” she explains. “And when plastic pollution is out of sight, it’s out of mind. We’re using a platform for storytelling, inclusivity, and amplifying what other organizations are doing to turn off the tap on plastic in their communities.” Buerano has helped to grow SCH’s social media following significantly since joining in June of 2022, which includes over 128,000 followers on Instagram.

While the tendency to immediately scroll might make it difficult to impart social change, viral information can also be an incredibly helpful tool. When Buerano took over on TikTok, the account sat at a respectable 25K. Just one viral video, which now has over 45 million views across platforms like Instagram and Tiktok, accumulated an additional 15,000+ followers. SCH now has over 43,000 followers on the platform.

Social media, however, isn’t the only work that Buerano does. “I’m also a photographer because that’s kind of where I come from first,” she says. “I’ve always been a writer and photographer ever since HPA.” Jazzy’s love of photography began at a young age, while accompanying her father, a professional photographer at the time, to photo shoots and observing his editing process.

While attending HPA, Jazzy honed her technical skills through Patrick O’Leary’s photography class. “Aside from my dad being someone who really pushed me into art, it was Mr. O’Leary who helped me foster more of the knowledge around photography when I was at HPA.”

“I had so much opportunity to go out and shoot,” Buerano recalls. “So many beautiful natural canvases. It was amazing.” Jazzy’s dad also gifted her his own full-frame camera, a significant upgrade from the crop sensor she had started with. “It’s been seven, almost eight years now, and I still use it,” she says “For me, it’s something that I’m never going to give away.”

After HPA, Jazzy graduated from California Polytechnic, San Luis Obispo, with a degree in communications and concentration in environmental studies. When she first entered the job market, she found it challenging to find an organization that would complement her unique skill set and support her professional goals.

By chance, one of Jazzy’s best friends from college sent her the job description at SCH, knowing it could be the perfect fit. When Jazzy discovered that another good friend had previously worked for SCH, she took that as a sign to apply…and a few months later she got the opportunity to be a voice for change.

Now approaching a year in the position, she is using her creative writing skillset and eye for photography to help SCH make meaningful change in her own backyard.

“People want to save themselves and they want to save their communities,” says Jazzy, “but this is an age of, ‘if you don’t see it, how are you going to connect the dots?’. Creating that connection, that's something that's really special about SCH and how we show up. When people have a stakehold in their community, they're more inclined to get inspired and create the actionable change we all want to see in this world.” •