Honua Kai is a Leader in Green Technology!
Malama Aina (Caring for the land)
Eco-Nomics

Who Knew?  As it turns out Honua Kai is a leader, on Maui, of green technology as applied to resorts!  This is cool!  Details of the Honua Kai Resort & Spa’s commitment to the traditional Hawaiian concept of “malama aina,” (caring for the land) have just been released to the public.  This topic is large enough to be broken into several posts – here is Part 1.

Lance Gilliland, the Director of Sustainability for the Honua Kai, has a name for all of this “We call it ‘Eco-nomics,’ – practices that are ecologically sound and economically feasible,” says Gilliland. Gilliland also says “It just makes sense to conserve energy, re-use, recycle and protect the beautiful natural environment for our homeowners and the resort guests that visit the property.”

I like the play on the word Economics into Eco-Nomics.  If the Honua Kai simply does what makes good economics the by-product of a green stewardship of the land is the natural result.  So just how does Eco-nomics work?  Here it is:

Water Conservation

Water consumption is a huge, huge topic on Maui – 1/4 of the island is a tropical rain forest and 3/4 of the island is starving for water.  The trick is to get the water from the rainy side of Maui to the desert side of Maui.  Every gallon of water saved is one more gallon not needed to be transported and purified for human consumption.

Fertigation – applying fertilizers through the water supply

Honua Kai sits on 40 Maui acres that has thousands of plants, trees, and acres of Maui grasses.  All of the plants are irrigated by “R1″ water.  This is recycled water from the country waste water system – as a bonus the water carries nutrients and minerals that the plants need to grow healthy.  This R1 water is not potable water and humans can’t drink it but the plants thrive on the stuff.  The R1 water doesn’t need to be processed further and thus saves money and existing filtration systems can produce more water for human consumption.

Computers monitor the Honua Kai irrigation system and provide just the right amount of water at just the right time of the day for optimum plant growth.  Since fertilizers don’t need to be added this saves a lot of money each year – the R1 water contains all the ingredients the plants need.

The R1 water supply is ONLY used to irrigate the landscape around the Honua Kai.  It’s not used for any other purpose, not for the swimming pools, not for showers, etc, only for the plants.