'Āina Design Corp. is established to help lead and transform our agricultural industry in Hawaii towards a regenerative model through urban and non-urban land activity relations. As a 501(C)(3) Non-Profit Organization, we aim to provide practical, real-world solutions for developing regional food systems requiring a high-skilled agricultural workforce. We understand this is a complex task, and we are deeply committed to fostering and motivating a new generation of thought leaders. This unwavering commitment signals hope and optimism for the future of sustainable agriculture. By assisting farm communities with place-specific projects, we will begin to resolve past land practices toward better and safer land use, with a strong focus on introducing AND maintaining regenerative practices at the farm level.
Qualifications
Our Role
As observers with experiences grounded in the engineering and environmental fields, we constantly journey with others to support the next generation of agricultural leaders, guiding them to rethink and rebuild the future of agriculture in Hawaii. By focusing on youth leadership, we broaden opportunities for hybrid workforce development, community engagement, and knowledge retention through peer-to-peer means. This leads us to the critical role as facilitators of action-oriented research projects, grounded in practical settings, which provides us with a deep understanding of common problems and goals, reassuring project participants of long-term support and interest.
Standard Guidance: UN SDG15 Life On Land
Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
Our Approach
We are particularly interested in investigating and resolving environmental and ecological sustainability issues related to agricultural land. We begin our journey by understanding and improving the health of our soils and the means to nurture plant growth through regeneration methods. Regenerative agriculture represents an ideal learning environment for designing systems that effectively manage all farm resources, including agricultural residues and food system waste. Your donations support our programs and outreach efforts, providing active mentorship for aspiring leaders in agribusiness.
Featured Project: MokuNet Community Planning Platform
We are proud to lead the development of the MokuNet community planning platform at hawaii.mokunet.us. This innovative platform features a Whole Systems Community Planning Framework that integrates key ISO standards (ISO 14040, ISO 15686, ISO 37122, ISO 14001) for sustainable land development. Our Moku agent development provides place-based design support, offering localized project knowledge aligned with life cycle assessment and sustainable development goals.
As part of this initiative, we are committed to introducing and open sourcing green building components based on ASTM and buildingSmart standards. This effort supports the development of sustainable construction practices while making standardized building information modeling (BIM) resources freely available to the community. Our work bridges traditional building standards with modern digital design workflows, promoting transparency and accessibility in green building design.
Standard Guidance: UN SDG9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation
Our Mokunet platform and open source building standards work directly advance SDG 9 by creating digital infrastructure that democratizes access to planning tools and sustainable building resources. Through ASTM and buildingSmart standards integration, we foster innovation in green building practices while ensuring that cutting-edge design technologies remain accessible to communities worldwide.
Joe Hagedorn
Founder, President
Planning and Design
joe.hagedorn@ainadesign.org
Kiefer Hermann
Co-Founder, Vice President
Project Management
kiefer.hermann@ainadesign.org
Brian Walker
Business Development Director
Business Development
brian.walker@ainadesign.org
Larry Gomez
Farm Manager
Farm Outreach
larry.gomez@ainadesign.org
Contact
Contact Us
Email:
admin@ainadesign.org
Location:
Kailua, Oahu
LinkedInGitHub
© 2026 'Āina Design Corp. All rights reserved.