Ulupono Initiative is a Hawai‘i-based and -focused organization that uses impact investing, non-profit grant-making, and advocacy with the stated goals of "increasing the amount of locally produced food, renewable energy and clean transportation, and improving water and waste management."
eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pamela Kerr established Ulupono in 2009, after each spent parts of their childhood in Hawai‘i.
Activities
Ulupono has conducted for-profit investments in areas including solar energy, biofuels, electric vehicle charging networks, expanded local agriculture such as re-establishing homegrown dairy and grass-fed beef industries, and waste reduction projects.
Ulupono has also provided grant funding to Bikeshare Hawaii to start and expand operations.
When Ulupono was founded in 2009, Kyle Datta and Robin Campaniano occupied leadership roles in the company.
Ulupono advocated a Hawai‘i state constitutional amendment to allow farmers, ranchers and owners of other agricultural endeavors to request special purpose revenue bonds (SPRB). The measure passed with 50.2% of the vote in Hawaii's 2014 general election. Ulupono, the main funder of the "Local Food Coalition", contributed $500,000 of the $507,400 (98.5%) raised for the amendment's passage.
Investment portfolio
Ulupono has invested in companies including Hawaii Dairy Farms on Kauai, Honolulu Seawater Air Conditioning, Sopogy, SolarCity, Blue Ocean Mariculture, Hawaii BioEnergy, Phycal, Kapalua Farms on Maui, Oceanic Institute Research Feed Mill, Ibis Networks, and Bioenergy Hawaii.
Controversies
Honolulu-based Ulupono received $875,000 in state tax credits under a 2008 law that created incentives for landowners to preserve prime farmland for agricultural use in perpetuity. Ulupono said in a written statement that it is disappointed that Hawaii Dairy Farms didn’t succeed but that the tax credit program provided an incentive to take on risk with the project it estimated would cost $17.5 million.
Ulupono is the majority owner of the Honolulu Seawater Air Conditioning project after having made an initial investment on August 5, 2013 and forcibly buying out most of the remaining shareholders. The proposed $250 million project was appropriated State of Hawaii government backed Special Purpose Revenue Bonds in 2005 of up to $48 million with extensions in 2010 and 2015; in 2007 of up to $20 million with an extension in 2012; and in 2009 of up to $77 million with extensions in 2014 and 2019 (expiration in June 30, 2024) after consistently not completing the project in time. The Hawaii State Legislature did not renew the Special Purpose Revenue Bond allocation from 2005 in the 2020 legislative session. On December 19, 2020, Honolulu Seawater Air Conditioning announced it was abandoning its development efforts and would wind down its operations by the end of January 2021, citing "financial sustainability could not be assured". "Two years ago officials told Pacific Business News they had finalized a deal with the state to cool seven state office buildings and the state Capitol and said they expected to break ground in late 2019, but that never happened". Murray Clay, Ulupono’s president and a Honolulu Seawater board member, said the decision to call off the project was not easy. "Letting go of our dream is not easy," he said in a statement. "Despite all of the environmental benefits and the project’s ability to help move our state toward greater energy self-sufficiency, it became clear it would not have been prudent to pursue this further." "Ulupono invested more than $6 million into the project".
In 2014, Hawaii Constitutional Amendment 2, which "allows the State to issue special purpose revenue bonds to assist agricultural enterprises on any type of land, rather than only important agricultural lands" passed with 50.2%, 0.2% more than required and making it the closest ballot initiative in Hawaii's history. Ulupono contributed $500,000 of the $507,400 (98.5%) raised for the amendment's passage. The League of Women Voters noted the concern about Amendment 2's passage was, "Large, for-profit agribusiness will also be eligible for low cost, privately-funded loans. This will give them a competitive advantage over small farms".