Description
We live in a time of great uncertainty, complexity, and systemic challenges never faced before. Addressing complex sustainability challenges requires unprecedented collaboration and new ways of working across sectors and industries1. This thesis will explore near-, medium-, and long-term plans for developing a local Regenerative Materials Innovation (RMI) Hub on the island of Maui in order to proactively educate as well as generate current unmet consumption alternatives for community and local business uses. The importance of Maui âand the Hawaiian Islands as a wholeâas a model to solve global environmental problems today lays in these islandsâ ecosystems âclaim to the richest set of ecological conditions on the planetâ and the depth of knowledge indigenous inhabitants have had on managing large civilizations within this diversity. Aligning with current county, state and international goals, time is critical for more innovative systems such as this proposed materials hub to materialize on Mauiâ carrying indigenous island values of collaborative coexistence and codependency with the natural environment. To tackle the social and environmental challenges of our time, intersecting diverse local stakeholders such as farmers, cultural art practitioners and artisans, ethnobotanists, marine biologists, research scientists, business owners and designers will hold the key to a new Hawaiâi.