VNR: UH invites leaders, community to create sustainable, innovative future
University of Hawaiʻi
Link to video and sound (details below): https://go.hawaii.edu/nf4
WHAT: The University of Hawaiʻi invites community leaders, stakeholders and members of the public interested in furthering efforts to help create sustainable and just solutions for healthy communities in Hawaiʻi and around the world to attend Advancing a Circular Economy in Hawaiʻi. The focus of the conference is to increase contemporary applications of ancestral innovation and resource management sciences.
WHY: The pursuit of profit and convenience today has led to rampant consumerism, throwaway culture, and monumental waste resulting in our current linear “take, make, use, waste” economy built on extracting finite resources to create products destined for landfills. In recent years, there has been a growing demand for urgent action on issues regarding limited natural resources, biodiversity loss, climate change, energy efficiency, mass waste and pollution.
Governments across the globe are searching for solutions that decouple economic growth from environmental degradation while ensuring long-term prosperity. In ancestral Hawaiʻi, a similar “give, take, regenerate” circular system led to the development of balanced structures of resource management. One steadily advancing movement is aimed at designing a “Circular Economy,” where waste is minimal, materials and resources are preserved for as long as possible, and modes of production mimic nature’s regenerative processes.
WHEN: December 13, 8:15 a.m.–5:15 p.m.
WHERE: Hawaiʻi Convention Center
REGISTRATION INFO: The cost to attend the all-day conference is $150 per person and includes breakfast, lunch and a networking reception. Online registration is available through December 6 at this website.
SESSION TOPICS:
- Ancestral Circular Economy in Action
- Contemporary Restoration of an Ahupuaʻa
- Doughnut Economics
- Experiences, Challenges and Best Practices of Circular Economy Interventions
- UH’s Role in Creating Opportunities for Hawaiʻi’s Future
ADDITIONAL INFO:
- Advancing a Circular Economy in Hawaiʻi is sponsored by the UH Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation, The GSI Family of Companies, Elemental Excelerator and Kamehameha Schools in partnership with Piʻo Summit 2023 and Ulupono Initiative.
Link to video and sound (details below): https://go.hawaii.edu/nf4
VIDEO:
BROLL: trt 1:54
0:00-0:23: Generic video of fishponds
0:24-0:42: Generic video of loʻi
0:43-1:09: Generic video of water resources
1:10-1:28: Generic video of agriculture
1:29-1:54: Video from last year’s conference
SOUNDBITES:
Vassilis L. Syrmos, UH vice president for research and innovation
(:21)
“This year, we are hosting a pretty exciting conference on circular economy. We're an island community, we're a closed community. We have limited resources, so how we use those resources and how we utilize the resources again and again and again, it is paramount for our success in the future.”
Kamanamaikalani Beamer, UH Mānoa director and professor at Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies
(:19)
“The goals of the Piʻo Summit are really to uplift ancestral innovation to solve the complex problems that Hawaiʻi faces for today, and this year we're working on achieving a circular economy for our islands. We're bringing in international experts from all across the world. We're uplifting incredible community innovators.”