Media Advisory/VNR: Sustainable roof using moss, fishing net focus of UH student project

Media are invited to video/photograph the moss houses and interview the UH Mānoa students working on the project on Wednesday, June 30 from 10–11 a.m. at the Magoon Research Station at 2717 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu. If you plan to attend, please notify Marc Arakaki at 808-228-3215.

Link to video and sound (details below): https://bit.ly/3xyOUpM

WHAT: Two University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa students worked on a project to develop an environmentally-friendly and sustainable roof design that combines natural moss with recycled fishing net. The goal was to decrease internal temperatures and the amount of electricity needed to run air conditioners, while emitting less carbon dioxide.

WHO: Shelby Cerwonka and Jasmine Reighard, who graduated in spring 2021 from the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management. 

HOW: The students began their project as juniors in March 2020 researching which type of moss to use and how to gather materials they needed. They then collected recycled fishing nets from Sustainable Coastlines Hawaiʻi—a non-profit organization based on Oʻahu—in May 2020 and began to assemble the “seawool” layer which goes between the structure and the moss. 

In late summer 2020, the team collected the native moss called Leucobryum glaucum (pincushion moss), which is prevalent in wetter spots along the Koʻolau mountains in Windward Oʻahu. 

The pair built four, 5-foot wooden structures at UH’s Magoon Research Facility in Mānoa Valley to construct the roofs on. In September 2020, Cerwonka and Reighard attached the “seawool” layer to each of the structures, followed by the moss. They spent the remainder of fall 2020 and spring 2021 growing the moss, analyzing the most efficient way to care for them and collecting data for their research.

WHY: The team created this project to fulfill two objectives related to their natural resources and environmental management program: helping to tackle climate change and solving issues at the household level. 

WHEN: Spring 2020–Spring 2021

Additional details: 

• The students plan to publish an academic paper on their findings within the next few months and hope to commercialize their innovation. The first step in commercialization is the ability to quickly and efficiently produce the “seawool” through automation and then grow the moss directly on it in large quantities.

• They persevered through the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic to complete their project, which included communicating remotely with each other and their advisor Professor Camilo Mora from the Department of Geography and Environment in the College of Social Sciences, and collecting and propagating the moss since they were not able to go outside for a period of time. 

• The UH Mānoa Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program provided $9,205.49 in project funding and $809 in conference funding.

VIDEO BROLL: (1:47)

0:00-1:12 - students maintaining the moss roofs

1:12-1:47 - students preparing the “seawool”

SOUNDBITES:

Shelby Cerwonka, UH Mānoa graduate and project lead

(0:11)

“We wanted to create a system that uses that and utilizes moss as an insulating material but also uses recycled materials in order to make it a fully environmentally-positive system.”

(0:14)

“I don’t believe that the climate change fight is just for the governments—of course, that is something they need to handle as well—but it’s also up to us as individuals, so Jasmine and I used our ability as students to create a system like this.”

Jasmine Reighard, UH Mānoa graduate and project lead

(0:13)

“The purpose of our Native Hawaiian moss roofs was to decrease internal temperatures and decrease the amount of electricity needed to run your AC and that would decrease the amount of CO2 being emitted into the atmosphere.”