PUHI — Sustainability can translate into a better future for the island in terms of jobs and a better way to protect Kaua‘is resources, said supporters at the opening of Ho‘ouluwehi, or The Sustainable Living Institute of Kaua‘i. Kaua‘i Community
PUHI — Sustainability can translate into a better future for the island in terms of jobs and a better way to protect Kaua‘is resources, said supporters at the opening of Ho‘ouluwehi, or The Sustainable Living Institute of Kaua‘i.
Kaua‘i Community College Chancellor Helen Cox last week invited more than 100 guests to welcome the new facility.
The institute, in partnership with the community, will establish conditions and attitudes to create a culturally, economically, environmentally and socially sustainable Kaua‘i, and provide on-going support for the island, states a KCC release.
“The focus of the Institute will remain local,” Cox said. “It will invite mutually beneficial state, national and international collaborations.”
David Iha, a former Kaua‘i Community College chancellor, remembered when the KCC Solar Car team was formed in 1989 as he scanned the photovoltaic panels powering lights leading to the college dining facility.
“The solar car was one of our first workings with photovoltaic,” Iha said. “We’ve come a long way.”
Guests toured facilities set up for apiary, aquaponics, the Lo‘i, or Hawaiian fields, community garden, affordable and sustainable living housing workshops and renewable energy laboratories, all programs born out of sustainability principles and supported through class offerings.
“This is an exciting moment for the college,” Cox said. “It is both the culmination of intense work since 2009 and the start of a remarkable journey in which we will provide our students opportunities to engage in exciting work in many aspects of sustainability, while at the same time, provide very real solutions for the Kaua‘i community.”
Eric Knutzen, director for Ho‘ouluwehi, noted one of the areas include living practices in producing food, renewable energy, affordable housing and waste elimination.
He said KCC recently allocated land to build two affordable home prototypes which will offer different affordable home design. When completed, they will be open to the public for viewing and will serve as prototypes for developers, he said.
“Free online access to the design plans and materials purchase lists, as well as budgets, will be made available,” Knutzen said. “All of this is to help address one of Kaua‘i’s greatest sustainable living needs — affordable housing.”
Cox said the college created a task force to guide the project and secured a grant to hire a director, Knutzen, to coordinate activities on campus and develop partnerships with members of the business community,
Kaua‘i Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. was called on to deliver, not a keynote address, but to lead the opening pule last week.
Carvalho and Cox, who chairs the Visionary and Cultural Leadership Group, was joined by Mason Chock, Puna Dawson, Sue Kanoho, Roy Oyama, David Pratt and Chipper Wichman.
Cox said the institute will assist KCC to reduce its own footprints, while demonstrating available sustainable practices and conducting applied research on promising technologies and practices. The institute also will be a training center for green workers, entrepreneurs and interested residents.
Among the first guests was University of Hawai‘i President M.R.C. Greenwood, along with the some of the university’s board members who were in Kaua‘i last week for a regularly scheduled meeting.
Cox said the institute is place-based. She called on Pua Rossi, a KCC staff member, who said caring for the land was Kaua‘i’s kuleana, or responsibility, in establishing a sense of place where Ho‘ouluwehi sits.
KCC sits in an area known as Puali, or grooves, symbolized by big gullies, one being the Kilohana Crater which, when translated, means best. The campus sits in the shadow of the Haupu mountains, Haupu translating to mean fond recollections.
“For each of us in the community, the institute can be seen as building upon our history of diverse cultures, and in a very practical way, positively affecting everyone on Kaua‘i in the long term,” Knutzen said in explaining the mission and vision statement of Ho‘ouluwehi.
Cox said she is proud to be part of the sustainability efforts under way by KCC.
“We look forward to working together to address issues of sustainability on Kaua‘i and to enable Kaua‘i to not simply carry on, but to thrive — culturally, economically and socially,” she said.
• Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@ thegardenisland.com.
