Mālama Aina: Taking Care of the Land

Women of STEM •  March. 17, 2021

For Women’s History Month, Women of STEM interviewed Solstice Co-founder and CEO Steph Speirs about her passion for the environment and equity. In the interview, Steph discusses how Solstice came to be: from her Hawai’ian roots and her connection to nature to working on solar microgrids in rural India with Co-founder and COO Sandhya Murali.

“In Hawai’i, there’s a concept called mālama aina, which means to take care of the land — to take care of that which nourishes you,” Steph shared. “In Hawai’i, there isn’t a concept of static land conservation the way there is in the West — Hawai’i is a place where the indigenous population lives off the land sustainably, so conserving land means living in harmony with it. It feeds you, gives you what you need, and in turn you take care of it.”