Solutionists of the Week

Welcome to the newest edition of Planet Home’s ‘Solutionists of the Week’.

From established subject-matter experts to rising Solutionists, we want to share their successes and celebrate the achievements of those leading the charge in bringing net-positive solutions to the world. Here’s this week’s roundup of Solutionists making waves in their respective industries.

Tom Chi is an Inventor, Leader, Coach, and Speaker. Tom is the founding partner of At One Ventures, based in San Francisco, which focuses on supporting early-stage startups that use deep technology to reduce their planetary footprint. A speaker at Blue Planet Alliance in partnership with Planet Home’s EcoSprint in Hawaii, Chi offered his insights on what it will take to bring real-life solutions to the forefront of our society. Chi’s expertise lies in transformative tech that will become a catalyst for creating a new restorative and generative relationship to nature.

When asked about what kind of projects he is working on, Chi responded, “About 3 years ago I kicked off creating a venture firm, At One Ventures, with the goal of helping humanity become net-positive to nature. I believe in the future there will be a point where humans in their totality can have an overall positive force for nature, where every year nature becomes healthier and healthier because we’re around, as opposed to where we are right now, which is damaging.” Chi continued, “We need to change the relationship between humans and nature, and that is mostly created through the industrial economy right now. The industries behind the scenes are the biggest aspect that needs to change, I’m not opposed to changing consumer choices, but our firm attacks at the industry level. We’re finding disruptive deep tech that has radically better unit economics, and radically better environmental economics.

Scott Seu is the President and CEO of Hawaiian Electric Industries. Another speaker at March’s EcoSprint Seu shined a light on the importance of working towards a net-positive future. When asked about what the Blue Planet Alliance’s goal of 100% renewable energy on Hawaii by 2045 means to him, Seu remarked, “This is an imperative for our kids and our grandkids to have a livable planet and island community. I was born and raised in Hawaii, and appreciated everything that was given to me by my predecessors. I feel so strongly that if there is anything I can do to inspire my own daughters to do their part, that’s why I am working for this.”

When asked by Henk Rogers, the founder of the Blue Planet Alliance, when his company would achieve 100% renewable energy, Seu answered, “On The Big Island, between 2030 and 2035, it will be the first Hawaiian island to achieve this, thanks to the wonderful geothermal energy we have on this island…We’re not going to need until 2045, for sure, we’re going to beat that, but at the same time I need to leave something for my kids to figure out as well.”