The University of Hawaʻi Maui College will host a free community presentation Leveraging Off-site Construction to Expand Sustainable Housing Opportunities on Wednesday, April 22, 6-7:30 p.m. in the Pilina Event Center on campus featuring B.PUBLIC Prefab, a women-owned public benefit corporation founded to increase accessibility to socially responsible and environmentally sustainable housing options.

“The presentation will introduce the community to off-site construction processes for sustainable local housing generation and economic development,” Jonah Stanford, Chief Technical Officer and Head of New Product Development at B.PUBLIC Prefab said.

“Panelized off-site construction has been shown to increase the quality and speed of construction while expanding the labor pool to populations traditionally excluded from the construction sector. This presentation explores the economic, social, and environmental benefits of implementing modern methods of construction within regional housing markets and discusses the work the B.PUBLIC Prefab is doing to cultivate regional manufacturing to address sustainable housing shortages”, Stanford said. 

Regen Maui is supporting this effort by working alongside B.PUBLIC Prefab and the Lahaina Community Land Trust to integrate panelized, off-site construction into the Lokia flagship Living Building Challenge (LBC) home. This collaboration is helping deliver a regenerative home for a fire-impacted Lahaina family while also serving as a hands-on training platform in partnership with UH Maui College to build local workforce capacity.

By demonstrating how sustainable design, efficient fabrication, and thoughtful material choices can work together, the project provides a clear pathway for making high-performance, environmentally responsible homes more cost-competitive and scalable for Maui’s future.

“We are excited to host B.PUBLIC Prefab on Maui to share their knowledge and experience about green building methods, with a focus on pre-fab construction technologies and sustainable materials like hemp, ” said Nicolette van der Lee, UHCC Workforce Program Manager.

“The B.PUBLIC Prefab model brings efficient, sustainable, and durable construction methods to the Living Building Challenge home, while creating an opportunity to train local builders and expand access to these approaches,” said Mark Deakos, President of Regen Maui. “Through this collaboration, we hope more projects across Maui will adopt pre-built panel systems and sustainable materials, helping meet urgent housing needs while building in balance with nature.”

The event is sponsored by UH Maui College, Regen Maui, B.PUBLIC Prefab, 475 High Performance Building Supply, and Hempiculture.