HIFS Speakers

Lionel Bony and Laura Schewel are consultants with RMI’s Breakthrough Design Team and currently co-direct the Hawai‘i Wholesystems Project. 

Lionel Bony holds his MBA from Harvard Business School with a focus on sustainable businesses. Laura Schewel graduated from Yale University where she received her BS in environmental engineering.

RMI is a not-for-profit “think and do tank” that works with individuals and organizations of every imaginable kind to help them use energy and resources efficiently while being ever-better stewards of the environment. From 2001 to 2006, RMI consulted on several local projects, including the 2020 Hawai‘i Energy Strategy.

In November 2006, Rocky Mountain Institute was commissioned to undertake the Island of Hawai‘i Wholesystems Project; a study of the Island of Hawai‘i’s food economy.  The Hawai‘i Wholesystems Project was intended to identify opportunities and implement projects to increase the market share of local products. Through strengthening the presence of local food the project aims to improve quality of life on the Island, while reducing the environmental impact of feeding Hawai‘i’s residents, and increasing the resilience of the island’s food system. The Project centers on creating and supporting businesses or non-profit organizations that will invigorate the local food economy.

The Hawai‘i Island Food Summit serves as an integral piece of the Island of Hawai‘i Wholesystems Project and aims to foster entrepreneurial solutions to Hawai‘i’s food dependency, and to provide a forum for integrating these entrepreneurial efforts with policy.

To learn more about Rocky Mountain Institute visit www.rmi.org.

You may read RMI’s Wholesystems Project report on The Kohala Center’s web site.