I grew up as a mechanic with families, then an automotive repair.

That's what I know.

Working with my hands.

Working with tools, building stuff, fixing things, inventing stuff.

You know, working on race cars as a kid.

So, needing to make money for college, I used that skill set and went to Alaska, where I can make the most amount of money and the least amount of time.

I was 19 years old.

And I just vividly remember coming into the town of Valdez and seeing the snow capped mountains.

And there's bald eagles.

After about an hour of chasing bald eagles, I realized that they were everywhere, and it was just so impressiv how beautiful and how powerful that place is and how muc that impression leaves on you.

It makes you respect things a little bit more.

All of a sudden I'm working on fishing boat, which I had no idea.

You know, I've never, never done that before.

Working on generators and water systems.

And you know, battery systems.

We had a lead acid batteries system and wastewater system.

And then we also had to collect our own trash.

It was a microcosm of of what you need to sustain life.

As I'm becoming a fisherman and we're out on the water and I look in the distance and I see this beautiful sailboat and it's just framed in the horizon, and it's going past these snow peak mountains with glaciers on it, and we're spewing out diesel smoke, and there's it's vibrating and it's loud.

That boat so quiet, sleek.

And I just you know, that's a better way.

In my early 30s, I got fortunate enough to be hired to come to Hawaii and help conserve the nature here.

And I look around and I see that the majorit of our electricity is produced with diesel fuel.

It' just like the old fishing boat.

When you make power from fuel oil, you're only actually harnessing about 30% of the energy contained in it.

Most of it escape through the smokestack as heat.

When you combine that with shipping it from another part of the world, it doesn't make sense on any level.

There has to be a better way.

And when you kno there actually is a better way, and there's just not the will to do it, it's frustrating, but it's also motivating.

So for a number of years, I've been wanting to make a stand and just say, okay, we're only going to do this.

And we had this client and the client is a good friend now, but can be abrasive.

The whole team the way off grid.

We're in the conference room where we're meeting with the client.

And I just wasn't sur if we wanted to work with them.

I wanted to find out if our ideals aligned.

And so I just said, you know, we require all of our new buildings to be net zero at a minimum, preferably off grid.

And we're going for sequesterin carbon and stock for a second.

It's like.

Okay, fine.

I'm okay with that.

It's like, okay, great.

The meeting ends.

Client leaves.

We're all sitting in the conference room.

Somebody on the team goes.

We require that.

Like, we tell the clients they have to do that.

I was like, well, I guess we do now.

And that was it.

From that point on, we just start the conversation that way.

Just want to let you know if we'r going to build a new building.

It has to be net zero.

And no one has ever said no.

To this.

Well, this has been a year in the making.

We were supposed to have completed this on August 9th.

We were supposed to have net of 2023.

What was that?

That day.

I remember you saying you're in Lahain and the winds were really heavy.

I remember that morning my wife woke up early.

It's making coffee, and then she just starts screaming that you're able to have the access.

The fire trucks window, the black smoke flash.

And I think Caroline, anger is growing.

How do you think that this wildfire happened?

Built.

Morning.

And so I jump out of bed and I'm like, what's going on?

She's like, Lahaina is gone.

And I was like, what are you.

What are you talking about?

She's like burned up.

I was like, no, you know, that's not possible.

You know, it's not that I can't.

No, that's an exaggeration.

The day after the fire, we immediately started to think about what should our response be?

Should we have a response?

What family life center does in the community is we find people housing.

We end people's homelessness.

And so within about a week, it became obviou what the level of devastation.

And we really thought.

We have to do something.

August 9th we had an all hands meeting and we we we gathere in our conference room and just I just tried to rally our team and I said, listen, in the next years, this is going to be everything that we're doing, and it's going to take every ounce of your determination, your will.

We have a responsibility to help people because if if it was the other way around and we needed help, we would hope that people would be there for us.

We've had a relationship with Hawaii of grid for probably 7 or 8 years.

David has helped us with other projects, so I jus gave him a call and said, David, what can you do to help us?

And then it just it was a flurry or just a whirlwind between our civil engineer, structura engineer, all of our architects, and it just it was the fastest, most intense, stressful, but most satisfying project that we've ever undertaken.

When we look back on it, it's just unbelievable for what we were able to accomplish.

When people are motivated an they care and they want to help David and Hawaii off grid, their expertise is off grid living.

So he was uniquely situated and gifted and talented in design, meaning a village that could be off grid.

We would have to harness the wind, the sun.

We'd have to think about how we're using the site.

We have to be careful.

Everything is oriented for maximum solar gain, maximum shading, maximum harvesting of the wind, for cooling the buildings an keeping them pleasant to be in.

And so it was lik we had been preparing for this our whole lives.

I can't imagine what the bill should be for David's services.

We haven't paid him a dime.

We are so grateful that he has just done this pro bono and has given so much of his time.

Before the fire, everything was really, like, just going fantastic.

Our team was growing our projects.

We're we're getting better.

The people who we're working with, collaborating with were my heroes.

And then everything just stops.

We need to get people back into houses.

We need to rebuild a community.

And you couple that with climate change, both globally and locally.

And that's somethin that we've been involved with.

And you know always thought well this is something far away.

We just need to do our best right now to deal with it.

But now it's here.

It's right her and it's happening everywhere.

It's a monumental task.

And I see it's just it's the rest of my career and every architect moving forward like this i what you're going to be doing.

And if you haven't dealt with it yet.

You're you're likely to.

I think about my grandparents, both my grandmother and grandfather, that I was very close with were both in the Navy.

When duty called, when the world needed them, when their community needed them, they they went.

They did it.

They put their lives on hold, and they did what they had to do.

And I feel like this is the opportunity for our generation.

And there's going to be people that step up, and there's going to be people that try to take advantage of the situation.

And I know that we can't not step up.

We want to be part of the solution.

And.

When I think back now about standing on that diesel powered fishing boat, lookin across the water at that sleek sailboat, moving effortless with no emissions.

Quiet.

Beautiful.

That's what we've done with houses and buildings.

We designed to harness the wind and the sun.

We use recycled materials to reduce carbon emissions and landfill waste.

We use solar panels to harness the energy from the sun to not just powe the house, but power your car.

Collect all the wate that you need, not just taking care of the people in that house.

We're taking care of the entire community.

And if we do that enough over and over and over, that's how we make a difference.

I mean if there's anything that Lahaina has bee in, it's been a call to action that we have to do this now that this isn't something that's a nice to have, it's a necessity.

And it no longer feels like what we're doin is providing a luxury to a few.

It's something that we have to push forward for everyone.

It can be more self-sufficient, more resilient.

It can be economical, and it can do what we have to do to deal with what is at our doorstep.

So the question is, do you feel like we feel?

Do you feel like the time is now?

If you do, let's work together and let's make a difference.