The 8th Hawaii Energy Conference (HEC) explored the energy transition in Hawaii with a focus on investment in people and projects. Presented by Maui Economic Development Board (MEDB) and supported by the County of Maui Office of Economic Development, the annual conference, virtual this year, featured keynotes, panel discussions, interviews, networking, and exhibits. The conference addressed how to invest in the people while designing energy projects that are resilient, financially viable, and respectful to the community.
The panel discussion titled ‘Investing Respectfully in Hawaii’, moderated by Frank De Rego, Jr., MEDB Director of Business Development, Vice Chairman of the HEC Program Committee, and President of the Maui Native Hawaiian Chamber of Commerce, employed a cultural and indigenous lens to focus on the dos and don’ts of developing energy projects in Hawaii. De Rego was joined by Carol-Marie Ka’onohi Lee, Po’o, ‘Aha Moku O Honua’ula Council; Suzanne Singer, Founder and Executive Director, Native Renewables; and Wren Wescoatt, Director of Development, Hawaii Longroad Energy.
De Rego observed, “The panelists agreed, cultural knowledge and community participation are key to implementing new energy projects, while conference attendees benefited from the cultural ‘ike (knowledge) shared.”
Lee said, “Developers contact me to learn the lay of the land about areas they want to develop. We work with the method of managing the land from mauka to makai because mauka affects the ocean. Developers need to understand basic native Hawaiian values, and historical and generational knowledge, to better serve the community.”
Singer explained, “The mainland and Hawaii have strong cultural ties to community and land, both vital to the development of renewable energy projects. The cultural knowledge and values of our indigenous Navajo and Hopi nations, many of whom are off the electric grid, is essential to discussions with developers about our economy and energy transition.”
Wescoatt added, “Building trust and respect within the context of equitable community development is vital. As a local representative in clean energy transition, my job is to help stakeholders understand the culture and values of the host community. A successful project here in Hawaii does not just produce clean energy, it needs to reflect and respect the values of the community.”
In order to build trust in renewable energy development, there has to be a sincere and pono two-way conversation.
Wren Wescoatt, Director of Development, Hawaii Longroad Energy
David and Ululani Yamashiro of Ululani’s Hawaiian Shave Ice, a participant in Maui Economic Development Board’s Maui Business Connect program, collaborated with Maui moms Jenny Coon and Nicki Barsamian to launch their second children’s book, Huli the Hawaiian Chicken Searches for Snow. During the Covid-19 pandemic when many where discouraged by its impacts, Coon and Barsamian created Huli.
Coon had been laid off from her position as the Sales and Special Events Coordinator at Trilogy Excursions and found herself at home with her young daughters. Her toddler was learning about rhyming words and her favorite word to rhyme was chicken, which inspired Coon to create a story featuring a Hawaiian chicken. Barsamian, formerly a middle school art teacher at Kamehameha Schools Maui, had made the choice to stay home with her two young daughters when Coon approached her to illustrate her story.
“These silly rhyming words became the springboard to write about Huli,” said Coon. “Barsamian and I partnered up and thought, what better way to learn about this beautiful island we live on, than to write and illustrate a fun story alongside our children, featuring our neighborhood?”
A percentage of each new book sale goes to support IMUA Family Services, a local nonprofit focusing on providing resources and educational opportunities to Maui’s most vulnerable children. “In addition to featuring a local business in our stories, we decided to support a local nonprofit,” said Coon and Barsamian. “With our first book, Huli the Hawaiian Chicken Dances on the Moon, a portion of sales goes to Maui Cultural Lands, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to stabilize, protect, and restore Hawaiian cultural resources.”
Once the authors decided on Huli’s next adventure, they approached the Yamashiros and asked if they would be interested in having Ululani’s Hawaiian Shave Ice featured in their second book, where Huli searches for snow. David Yamashiro said, “We were honored to be part of Huli’s second adventure. It is a lasting legacy that will be read to our keiki now and in the future. From the beginning, it has been a project of pure aloha.”
Our original story, Huli Dances on the Moon, was embraced by many and the question quickly arose, what is Huli going to do next?.
Jenny Coon and Nicki Barsamian, Authors of Huli the Hawaiian Chicken
Maui Economic Development Board (MEDB) is proud to announce a partnership with Hawaii Technology Development Corporation (HTDC) in its efforts to spread the word throughout the State of Hawaii about two of the US Small Business Administration’s (SBA) ‘America’s Seed Fund’ research grant programs, the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR). The SBA will be conducting a National SBIR/STTR Week July 19-23 to introduce entrepreneurs to the needs and requirements of each of the U.S. government’s agencies that have grant money for research.
“The 2021 National SBIR Week is a virtual event connecting entrepreneurs and researchers working on advanced technologies to the SBIR/STTR programs and to the country’s largest source of early-stage funding,” said Frank De Rego, Jr., Program Director, MEDB Business Projects. “It will provide attendees with an opportunity to hear directly from the participating federal agency program managers that administer over 7,000 new awards annually and to meet virtually one-on-one with program decision makers. Together the programs provide over $4 billion in funding to small businesses each year in a wide variety of technology areas.”
This is a significant opportunity for innovators, entrepreneurs, researchers, or small technology firms who are thinking of starting a business with an exciting technology idea or to commercialize an idea. Receiving an SBIR/STTR grant means a company has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Energy subject-matter experts and the panels of expert reviewers they employ.
De Rego noted, “In addition, HTDC in partnership with MEDB will be hosting a series of preparation seminars. The key to getting started for an SBIR/STTR grant is meeting with the individual program managers and learning the specific target technologies and the unique requirements for future research.”
There is a sign up for the 2021 National SBIR Week to reserve times for one-on-one meetings with program managers at the SBIR/STTR agencies such as NASA, USDA, Air Force, Navy, NFS, and more. The free webinars are jointly sponsored by MEDB, UH Office of Innovation and Commercialization (OIC), the HTDC Innovate Hawaii program, and Denise McKenzie of OIC. Register for workshops at https://bit.ly/3j3GLWs.
“For more details on the workshops and seminars in the OIC, HTDC Innovate Hawaii SBIR and MEDB Prep series visit https://www.medb.org.”
For more details on the workshops and seminars in the OIC, HTDC Innovate Hawaii SBIR and MEDB Prep series visit https://www.medb.org.
Frank De Rego, Jr., Director of Business Development Projects, MEDB
Maui Economic Development Board (MEDB), the Small Business Association (SBA) and the Women’s Business Enterprise Council (WBEC) are collaborating to introduce local businesses to networking platforms that hold the potential for new opportunities. One platform is SBA’s Minority Owned Small Business (MOSB) which includes Women Owned Small Business (WOSB) and Veteran’s Owned Small Businesses. On Wednesday July 8, at 10:00 am, MEDB, SBA, and WBEC-West will host a virtual seminar with Dr. Pamela Williamson, President and CEO of WBEC-West, (pictured) and Wayne Wong, Director, Hawaii Small Business Development Center, Maui. The mission of the WEBC is to increase economic vitality in the communities that are served.
Dr. Williamson has been a dedicated senior leader for over twenty years. Her extensive experience in developing and implementing innovative alliances with key stakeholders has enabled the organizations to reach new levels of growth and stability. Williamson’s ability to lead and empower staff members creates a strong team environment that filters throughout the entire organization. She envisions a promising future for WBEC-certified women-owned businesses, and takes an active role in facilitating connections between corporations and women business enterprises.
“Women-owned businesses make up the fastest-growing segment of the national and international business world,” said Williamson. “That is just one reason why WBEC-West is dedicated to helping navigate the certification process. We go through a rigorous and stringent certification process to confirm that the business is owned, managed, and controlled by a woman or women. Additionally, we gained access to over 9,000 other WBEC-certified businesses to network and partner with on joint venture opportunities.”
Leslie Wilkins, President and CEO of MEDB, observed, “The benefits of being a certified women-owned business are considerable, opening new opportunities in sales and revenue streams.” Businesses can get certified by being 51% owned and operated by women, minorities or veterans in order to qualify for special consideration in government and private contracts, and to participate in a sponsor company’s Vendor Diversity Program. Disney, Intel, AT&T, Major League Baseball, MGM and other companies have requirements for a certain percentage of purchases from vendors of diversity.
Forty percent of all businesses in Hawaii are women-owned, meaning there is a lot of untapped potential for women to take advantage of certification. What have you got to lose? Join us for this event, and visit www.medb.org for details.
Maui Economic Development Board (MEDB) is proud to announce that one of their STEMworks™ students, Peyton Gillespie, Maui Preparatory Academy Class of 2021, is Ivy League-bound with honors. Gillespie, a shining example of a STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) student, will be attending Brandeis University on a full scholarship and Humanities Fellowship in the fall. He will major in political science as a pre-law student with the goal to attend law school, work as a lawyer, and eventually run for political office.
“Working with our STEMworks team, Gillespie successfully grasped every opportunity that came his way,” said Leslie Wilkins, President and CEO, MEDB. “He participated in our work-based learning opportunities that helps build critical and creative thinking. His STEMworks Internship provided him a chance to collaborate and create project-based sustainable solutions for a variety of local and global issues. We are so proud of Peyton and wish him success in all his future endeavors!”
Gillespie reflected, “Participating in MEDB’s STEMworks Program for the last three years has been an incredibly impactful experience for me. Summer interning as a Kiai Loko (steward of fishpond) at Keawanui Fishpond on Molokai for my first two years fostered in me the values of leadership, teamwork, and family. It additionally immersed me in the history and cultural significance of one of the last remaining sacred fishponds on Molokai. Though last year’s internship program was virtual, I was honored to work as the Intern Liaison, and coordinated the design of the STEMworks Booklet, a sort of yearbook of the intern’s accomplishments. This role not only allowed me to hone my leadership, communicative, and collaborative abilities, but it also introduced me to a new skill, graphic design. Finally, one of the most important aspects of my work with STEMworks over the last few years has been the development of my relationship with Leslie Wilkins, the STEMworks team and my mentors. Hosting several Internship Cohorts and the 2019 Annual Ke Alahele Fundraiser has allowed me to get to know this amazing group. Thank you MEDB, sincerely, for all that you do for students across the state of Hawaii!”
Throughout my three years I have had the privilege of watching MEDB’s programs have significant impacts on individuals, allowing them to learn, grow, and succeed.
Peyton Gillespie, Maui Prep Class of 2021 and STEMworks™ student
In 2008, Mark and Leah Damon, owners of Maui Bees Incorporated in Kula, combined their shared passion for bees and wholesome organically grown food to create a joint farming venture, including a farm stand to offer their grown-on-Maui products. The Damons’ commitment to their honey is second to none. They have always insisted on keeping it pure and unfiltered by using a 100 percent cold process to ensure the honey stays below room temperature. Their seasonal honey is produced by worker bees that head out daily onto the slopes of Haleakala to forage for nectar and pollen.
“Twice a year we harvest our honey to produce two distinctive honey varieties,” Mark noted. “In the summer months, May-October, we gather nectar and pollen from abundant forests of Wilelaiki that grow on the leeward side of Haleakala. This timeline produces a mild amber honey. In the wintertime, December-April, the bees frequent tall stands of Eucalyptus that yield a deeper darker honey with mellow caramel undertones.”
Hidden deep inside every beehive, the sole queen bee lays about 2,000 eggs per day. Sometimes there are as many as 60,000 worker bees in a single hive. The queen can live from two to five years and in that time produce over a million workers. Nevertheless, prolific as they are, bees face a range of complex and interacting hazards.
Mark explained, “Today, beekeeping is confronted with the disappearance of bees due to a variety of threats including habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation; and the widespread use of pesticides in subsidized intensive farming. Beekeepers have become bee farmers. Without their work, the bee, despite its prodigious life force, may disappear from our communities through its sensitivity to toxins. The bee is a true natural indicator of the environment’s health.”
Recently, the Damons’ added a Bee Museum, an educational component of their farm. Visitors can watch bees safely behind the glass walls of two observation hives and learn all about the inner workings of a living bee-hive. The farm offers structured educational programs and regenerative agriculture tours for guests who want a more in-depth educational experience.
Our observation hives teach about pollination, bee jobs, and what is in the hive. Our compost and garden studies explain regenerative farming practices and how soil fertility produces our beautiful food.
Nisei Veterans Memorial Center recently welcomed former Governor George Ariyoshi, Hawaii’s longest-serving governor, to its ‘Afternoon with the Author’ Zoom series. In Ariyoshi’s newest book, Hawaii’s Future, he talks about leadership on Maui, the importance of values, and how things we do now will have a great impact on the future. An American lawyer and politician, Ariyoshi served as the third governor of Hawaii from 1974 to 1986. He is the first American of Asian descent to serve as governor in any U.S. state.
Concerned about Hawaii’s future, Ariyoshi has spent many years pondering his latest book. It is an insightful guide for today’s leaders and residents to examine Hawaii’s past while asking readers to discover ways to create a better Hawaii. “There are many issues of concern,” he said. “For example, the oceans and our land need to be taken care of. Stewardship is key. The philosophy of agriculture and education are vital now. Plus, it is crucial to engage the community. Setting policies alone does not make a community good, it is reaching out and working with the people.”
As a three-term governor of the State of Hawaii, Ariyoshi set in motion a series of wide-ranging policies that became his legacy. He noted, “During my 13 years as Hawaii’s chief executive, I adopted responsible fiscal strategies, maintained progressive trade relations and steady tourism growth, optimized the development of ocean resources, worked on land preservation and conservation, and strengthened Hawaii’s presence in the Pacific”.
A firm believer in planning, Ariyoshi said his concerns for Hawaii have grown more urgent than ever. “When I was in office, state planning was an important part of the government agenda,” he emphasized. “It is important to pay attention now and ask the question, What about Hawaii’s future? I think we need to look ahead at what needs to be done. We must also consider climate change and homelessness issues in order for us to have a good Hawaii. Every person in the community should work together, participate and be useful to make our state great for our future generations.”
We are never too young or too old to care, participate, and contribute to our community.
In October 2020, STEMworks™ partnered with the Maui Nui Botanical Garden to bring our students a STEMworks Solutions engineering design challenge called “Pots that Rot”. This design challenge asked students to engineer an affordable, biodegradable pot with locally available materials that could replace the plastic pots that Maui Nui Botanical Garden (MNBG) currently uses in their nursery.
The team, “Sus-Attainable” won first place in the STEMworks Solutions Challenge with their ingenious design for a compostable pot that would be made from recycled paper and rice paste. As a prize for winning that competition, STEMworks, in partnership with Kupu and the Kōkua Hawaii Foundation, advanced team Sus-Attainable to the Hawaii Youth Sustainability Challenge where they could bring their compostable pots to life.
Sus-Attainable team members, Samuel Kim, Zitao Li, and Andy Au, received funding, mentorship, and training to support their innovative and grassroots environmental solution to plastic pots. Over a period of six months, this team employed the engineering design process to create several iterations of their pots. “For our first prototype, we plastered wet shreds of recycled paper over plastic pots,” Li explained. “Then, we evolved to filling pot molds, made with a 3D printer, using a blended paste of paper, cooked rice, and water. We are proud of the resulting increase in strength and hope to increase the water resistance in our pots.”
Kim added, “My favorite part of the challenge was working as a team towards a common goal, learning how sustainability affects every part of our lives. This new appreciation motivated us to use recycled paper as the primary ingredient in our pots to help divert waste from the waste stream. We hope that one day our pots will be sold as a sustainable alternative to the plastic pots in nurseries around Hawaii.”
“I am incredibly proud of our Pots that Rot STEMworks Solutions winners,” said Katie Taladay, STEMworks Program Manager. “Since October, they have invested a great deal of work and perseverance to bring their winning design to life using the Engineering Design Process that we teach through our STEMworks programs. I was most excited to see that they were able to use their engineering design skills for good, to produce a necessary and sustainable product for the MNBG.”
I am saving one of our sustainable pots for my grandma, who loves to garden!
There are many ways to invest in the future of energy in Hawaii. It will take creativity and hard work from project developers; the community, including indigenous groups; regulators; and energy service providers to come up with projects that are acceptable for all concerned. Building trust and respect between stakeholders within the context of equitable community development will be a key metric of success. Any viable project will require substantial amounts of financial capital and an adequate return on investment. The skill development and job creation that results must take us towards a new energy economy. Every community faces similar challenges – how can we invest in people while designing energy projects that are financially viable, resilient, and enhance job skills?
Join us for the 8th Annual Hawaii Energy Conference as we explore how to invest with knowledge and respect in Hawaii.
Every year the Rotary Clubs in Hawaii have held ‘Rotarians-at-Work Day’ to coincide with the week of Earth Day. This year, Maui Rotarians, alongside community partners and volunteers, joined to pick up plastics and trash throughout the island. “Our goal was to pick up trash on the beaches, the shorelines, in parks and on trails,” said Dennis Bagshaw, President of Rotary Club Kihei Wailea. “We hope to continue to protect Maui’s natural beauty, marine life, and the health of residents and visitors from the damages of plastic pollution. Plastics threaten Hawaii’s water quality, vulnerable marine ecosystems and public spaces around the island.”
Eight Maui Rotary clubs engaged in the clean-up as part of the statewide Ridge-to Reef Clean-Up Day event. The plan was for Rotarians to partner and clean microplastics (pieces smaller than 5mm in size) from different areas around the island. For example, the Wailuku Rotary Club did a clean-up of the area adjacent to the Nisei Veterans Center, and the other clubs did their clean-ups.
Mariko Higashi, Assistant Governor Maui Coastal Rotary Clubs, explained, “Much of the litter we find on the beaches, trails and public spaces are plastic. Plastic of any size, particularly microplastic, is a health concern to both humans and animals alike. By not only collecting but also classifying the collected litter, we can better understand the source of the pollution, where the pollution is concentrated on our islands, and how we can best tackle this problem. The data will help advocate for policy and regulatory changes as has been done in the past such as with the banning of single use plastic bags at stores on Maui in 2011, and of smoking at beaches in Hawaii in 2015.”
Higashi added, “While clean-ups can help, it is also clear that we cannot recycle or clean-up our way out of the plastic pollution crisis. It will take sustained changes in our behavior, the products we purchase and the food we eat, to begin to correct this problem. The good news is we still have a chance to fix these problems, as we continue to explore ways to reduce or replace the plastic from our everyday lives.”
The Rotary motto, ‘Service Above Self’ keeps Maui club members involved in numerous projects throughout the year. Protecting the environment and growing the local economy are one of many areas of Rotary’s focus.
Dennis Bagshaw, President of Rotary Club Kihei Wailea
