• The Hawaiʻi Seaglider Initiative (HSI) announces a new partnership with HarvardUniversity consulting group to complete its landmark seaglider feasibility study.
• HSI plans to host community events this year to engage residents and local community groups about seaglider effects.
• The initiative has grown to 32 members across community, government, and business.

The Hawaiʻi Seaglider Initiative (HSI), a coalition of local stakeholders working to increase awareness and adoption of seagliders in the state, is partnering with the Harvard Griffin Volunteer Consulting Group (HGVCG) to complete its landmark seaglider feasibility study this year, the initiative announced today. The HSI-HGVCG research collaboration is part of a multi-stakeholder effort to examine the potential effects of seagliders on community and culture; the environment; infrastructure; resiliency; workforce development and education.

“The next stage of our seaglider feasibility study marks an exciting new chapter in our work to understand how seagliders can best serve the people of Hawaiʻi,” said Veronica Rocha, Co-administrator of HSI. “This research will help ensure that community voices, environmental priorities, and cultural values are at the center of how this technology is introduced and scaled across the islands.”

HSI’s collaboration with HGVCG, alongside seaglider developer and manufacturer REGENT, will fulfills multiple aspects of the second phase of its seaglider feasibility research. It will examine potential community impacts that may result from the implementation of a seaglider network as well as finalize the technical study of ten selected harbors.

This work follows the first phase of the research executed last year, which found that 78% of Hawai’i residents support the introduction of an inter-island seaglider service and that seaglider operations would be technically feasibly at most Hawaiʻi harbors.

“It's difficult to find a team more enthusiastic and passionate about solving the challenges of coastal mobility than REGENT and HSI” said George Forest Hoerferlin, Principal Consultant,HGVCG. “Throughout this engagement, our focus has not only been on the implementation of seagliders, but how they can be used to help diverse communities across the Hawaiian islands. We are grateful for this opportunity and extremely excited to see REGENT and HSI's success in the future.”

HSI also announced it will work with local stakeholders to host several community events this year. The goal of these events is to engage residents and community groups to better understand the need for inter-island transportation and answer questions about seaglider operations. The first of these events will be hosted by International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1186 onMay 30th.HSI will also host four Action Group meetings to enable its members to develop localized market activation plans for seagliders in Hawaiʻi. These meetings will provide a forum for member-led ideation and increased understanding of the process by which new technologies like seagliders might be introduced with Hawaiʻi’s unique community, culture, and environment in mind. In these Action Group meetings, members will draw from their experience and expertise to define operational pathways, inform relevant stakeholders, and study the key processes withinHSI’s implementation verticals.

The Hawaiʻi Seaglider Initiative (HSI) is a consortium of stakeholders from local government,Hawaiʻi communities, and the private sector, working to increase understanding and adoption ofseagliders in Hawaiʻi with a focus on community, culture and the environment. HSI’s mission isto operationalize seagliders in Hawaiʻi as an affordable and accessible transportation option forHawaiʻi communities that will help modernize the state’s transportation network while meetingits net-zero greenhouse gas emissions targets.

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