Technology, Innovation, Stewardship, and the Future of Hawaiʻi Island

This series looks at people who built companies and then were drawn to the Big Island of Hawai‘i. Hawaiʻi Island has always attracted people who see possibilities here that don’t exist anywhere else.

Sometimes it is the land itself—the climate, the ocean, or the volcanic geology. Sometimes it is the extraordinary conditions on Mauna Kea, one of the world’s premier astronomical observing sites, or the atmospheric research on Mauna Loa. The island’s volcanic landscapes have provided places to study what life might be like on the Moon or Mars, while North Kohala has become a testing ground for restoring native forests and ecological systems.

In my case, the moment I stepped off the plane on my first visit, I simply recognized home.

Why Are Tech Innovators and Scientists Drawn to Hawai‘i Island?

Over the years, this island has become home to people who have built companies, developed technologies, conducted scientific research, and managed large organizations. I have met individuals from technology, engineering, medicine, and entrepreneurship who made Hawaiʻi Island part of their lives. Some are still building things. Some are supporting research or conservation. Some are deeply involved in their communities, while others simply sold a company, retired early, and came here for a different way of life.

But there is also a quieter, deeper connection between innovators and this island.

A technology professional tends to notice systems. They ask where the energy comes from, how the water moves, what happens when the power goes out, what infrastructure is missing, and what can be changed when a system is stressed.

Hawaiʻi Island makes all of those questions unusually visible. Because we are an island, the systems that keep us supplied with energy, water, goods, and transportation are impossible to take for granted. Water can be scarce or difficult to deliver. Wastewater systems matter tremendously. Internet connectivity, insurance, volcanic geology, and our distance from major population centers all affect how we live.

For problem solvers, this presents a unique appeal. Hawaiʻi Island is a remarkable place to experiment with ways of living, working, and caring for a place differently. The island serves as both laboratory and home.

The Connection Between People, Place, and Possibility

In this blog series, I will look at some of the people whose work and lives have intersected with Hawaiʻi Island—from Earl Bakken and Gordon Moore to Henk Rogers, Yishan Wong, and others. I will also explore some of the scientists and institutions drawn here by the peaks of Mauna Kea.

What interests me is the connection between people, place, and possibility. What does a person bring to an island? What does the island make possible for that person? And, perhaps more importantly, what happens when people who have spent their careers building technology, businesses, and new systems make Hawaiʻi Island part of their story?

For me, those questions always lead back to real estate.

As you will see throughout this series, a property is never just the house or the piece of land. It exists within a much larger system: water, energy, transportation, communications, infrastructure, geology, weather, land use, history, and community.

The more I learn about the people who have chosen to do interesting things here, the more I understand those systems—and the more I understand the place itself.

That is what I want to explore in this series. Because the better I understand Hawaiʻi Island as a place, the better I can understand the real estate that exists here.

With aloha,
Carol Porter
REALTOR® · RS-87584 · HI · Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Island Lifestyle