Our Story

ZWHI is fiscally sponsored by Inquiring Systems Inc. and our mission is to engage diverse Hawai’i Island communities to achieve zero waste.

ZFounded in 2019 as a grassroots community group, ZWHI hosted community meetings and conducted outreach at community events, and has since grown into an organization that aims to address the island’s waste challenges, with a focus on reducing packaging waste through system-level change. Guided by cultural advisors, ZWHI draws on the Kumu Honua Mauli Ola’s Honua ʻEkolu framework to create impact at the home, community, and global levels, shifting away from a single-use culture to model waste reduction systems grounded in Hawaiian values of Kanaka, ʻĀina, and Akua Connections (humankind, land, and spirit) – recalling the ancient relationship between land and humanity as a zero waste system. 

ZWHI is partnered with the non-profit Perpetual, Hawaiʻi County Department of Environmental Management and the University of Hawaiʻi Sea Grant College Program to design and implement a community-based reusable foodware system in Hilo. The project was awarded two grants summing to 2.1 million from the Environmental Protection Agency to support infrastructure and implementation of the system.