Amidst today’s global climate crisis, Hawaiʻi’s sustainable development challenges are being exacerbated by rising sea levels, environmental degradation and depletion of natural resources, which are amplifying strains on energy sources, increasing costs, and the state’s dependence on imported goods and industries such as tourism and construction.
However, long before the advent of today’s model of an extractive linear economy, Hawaiʻi operated on a unique ancestral circular economy that embraced a “give, take, regenerate” model that sustained an isolated island civilization for centuries.
Recognizing the significance and values of this ancestral circular economy, the University of Hawaiʻi is developing a first-of-its-kind Pōʻai ke Aloha ʻĀina Center for the Ancestral Circular Economy & Justice under the leadership of Professor Kamanamaikalani Beamer, director of the UH Mānoa Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies, and the Dana Naone Hall Endowed Chair in Hawaiian Studies, Literature and the Environment.
His lab, Pōʻai ke Aloha ʻĀina—which loosely translates to “center for ancestral circular economy and justice,” like the upcoming center that it will serve—is paving the way toward this new paradigm for UH. Through annual summits and publications, his team of graduate students and mentees are helping to catalyze local research, advocacy and partnerships, while fostering international collaborations.
“Hawaiʻi is an ideal setting for implementing and studying sustainable development, and circular economy principles and practices,” said Beamer. “Our isolation and finite resources offer a controlled environment to rapidly assess the impact of environmental changes. But more importantly, our rich ancestral knowledge and values-based circular economy practices can serve as blueprints for universal application for other community-based circular economies around the world.”
This topic was featured in the 2023 UH Innovation Conference x Piʻo Summit.
For more on the UH Pōʻai ke Aloha ʻĀina Center for the Ancestral Circular Economy & Justice, see Noelo’s 2024 cover story. Noelo is UH’s research magazine from the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation.
