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Thinking About Sustainable Business and Tourism on Hawaii
“Hawaii is a unique example of what life could be like when you have all the resources you need and you don’t ruin them all,” says Steve Jefferson, founder and CEO of Kuleana Rum Works. “Coal, oil, and minerals used to be the required resources for a modern economy to thrive, but now we are realizing that sunshine, wind, fresh water, and fresh air are the most important resources—not only on a human level, but on an industrial level as well. Hawaii has all of those in abundance, and we have a multimillennial culture in place that protects those resources, fiercely.”
Hawaii Island MidWeek: The Kuleana Difference
With its distribution reach growing each day, Kuleana Rum Works is proving that world-class rum can come from a Big Island distillery.
For centuries, the colorful history of rum has been intrinsically linked to sea voyaging, sailors, tropical locales and the spirit of adventure. Such is the case with Kuleana Rum Works, conceived by Big Island native Steve Jefferson during a sailing trip across the Caribbean in 2007.
Having spent the better part of that year cruising with his wife, Jackie, and their two small children on their sailboat, Jefferson dropped anchor off the island of Martinique, where he immediately noticed the many geographic, volcanic and climatic similarities to the Big Island.