Maui’s environmental activists share how they incorporate sustainability

With human activity on pause around the world thanks to COVID-19 measures, the planet is catching a breather: The skies over many urban areas are cleaner, energy use has plummeted and wildlife is enjoying newfound freedom. But the lull won’t last forever.

Earth Day, which observes its 50th anniversary Wednesday, aims to inspire people to take action in their communities and at home to support the environment year-round. Here’s how several people who are active in environmental advocacy on Maui “walk the talk” on “green” living.

Rob Weltman

Chair, Sierra Club Maui Group

Rob Weltman was 11 years old when he fell in love with nature. That summer, the Detroit native took a trip to Michigan’s Huron- Manistee National Forests, where he spent a week horseback riding, foraging for mushrooms and learning to identify plants.

It was a transformative experience for Weltman, who was inspired to seize every opportunity to connect with nature.

He joined the Sierra Club in 1995. With his membership card came a steadfast commitment to environmental stewardship. “Humans are not separate from the environment,” he explained. “We are part of it.”

That’s why Weltman eagerly accepted an invitation to be a hike leader for the Sierra Club Maui Group not long after moving to the Valley Isle in 2013. In that role he encouraged residents and visitors to learn about, respect and experience Maui’s natural resources and cultural sites — something he continues to do today.

Now chairman of the Sierra Club Maui Group, he has worked tirelessly to bring attention to issues ranging from transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions to climate action.

When it comes to living sustainably, Weltman, among other things, owns an electric car, powers his home with solar energy, purchases locally grown organic food and has a backyard garden filled with native plants.

Sierra Club Maui Group hosts conservation, educational and community service hikes throughout the year. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Maui Group outings are on hold, but Weltman shares solo hiking suggestions and information at mauisierraclub.org.

Lipoa Kahaleuahi

Executive director, Ma ka Hana ka ‘Ike

At Hana High & Elementary School, a 15-foot-tall mural depicting waterfalls and a mountainscape stretches across one wall of the campus wood shop. Lipoa Kahaleuahi can’t help but smile every time she sees it, because she helped paint it more than a decade ago.

Kahaleuahi is executive director of Ma ka Hana ka ‘Ike (“in working, one learns”), a hands-on educational training program for Hana youth. The nonprofit’s flagship effort is its building program, through which students learn to design, construct, retrofit and remodel buildings both on and off campus.

Ma ka Hana ka ‘Ike also teaches students how to plant and harvest their own food, including kalo, at Mahele Farm, a 10-acre, off-grid community farm in Hana.

Kahaleuahi is a Hana High alumna and former Ma ka Hana ka ‘Ike participant, She and her fellow program educators teach students the nuances of organic farming, water and energy efficiency, waste minimization, how to design and install photovoltaic and solar hot water systems, and how to be good stewards of the environment.

And Kahaleuahi practices what she preaches, growing her own food, reducing her plastic footprint and using eco-friendly, compostable products.

Hundreds of students have graduated from Ma ka Hana ke ‘Ike since its inception in 2000. Many have gone on to pursue careers in construction, while others have developed an enduring passion for sustainable agriculture.

No matter the path they’ve chosen, all have one thing in common, according to Kahaleuahi: “They have learned how to live and thrive in the natural environment.”

To learn more, visit hanabuild.org.

Kelly King

Maui County Council member

It’s been two decades since Kelly King last touched a regular gas pump. Twenty years ago she bought a biodiesel-fueled car and kicked fossil fuels to the curb for good.

King, who holds the Council’s South Maui residency seat, knows a thing or two about biodiesel. In 1995 she and her husband, Bob, co-founded Pacific Biodiesel, which annually produces 5.5 million gallons of biodiesel at its refinery on Hawaii island and is the only commercial producer of liquid biofuels in the state. The company recycles used cooking oil from restaurants statewide to produce clean, 100% renewable fuel.

In 2017 the Kings started sustainably farming sunflowers and other biofuel crops in Maui’s central valley, and last year debuted the island’s first state-licensed industrial hemp commercial farming operation (it’s also the first industrial hemp farm in the U.S. to be fully powered by biodiesel).

Elected to the Maui County Council in 2016, King also has been at the forefront of pushing for action on climate change, sea level rise and other issues as chairwoman of the Council’s recently established Climate Action and Resilience Committee.

But her passion for protecting the planet transcends her role as a Council member and business owner.

“I’m constantly looking for ways to reuse and repurpose things,” she said. “We have several small gardens at our house, and we eat local as much as possible. Solar/PV panels provide our electricity and warm water, we drive on 100% biodiesel and we live consciously trying to conserve resources — water, fuel and food — to strive for zero waste.”

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>> How other Maui environmental advocates are ‘walking the talk’