Amidst today’s global climate crisis, 麻豆传媒’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, 麻豆传媒 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 麻豆传媒 is developing a first-of-its-kind 笔ōʻ补颈 ke Aloha ʻĀina Center for the Ancestral Circular Economy & Justice under the leadership of Professor Kamanamaikalani Beamer, director of the UH 惭ā苍辞补 , and the Dana Naone Hall Endowed Chair in Hawaiian Studies, Literature and the Environment.
His lab, 笔ōʻ补颈 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.
“麻豆传媒 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 笔ōʻ补颈 ke Aloha ʻĀina Center for the Ancestral Circular Economy & Justice, . Noelo is UH’s research magazine from the .