ABOUT
Our Story
CLEAN ENERGY, CLIMATE RESILIENCE, AND SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
Ben Sullivan's early experiences were in building: ironwork, stick building, boat building, furniture building. He then ran a residential design shop on Kauaʻi, got drawn into energy work through local grassroots advocacy, and served a term on the board of Kauaʻi Island Utility Cooperative. That led to over a decade in county government on Kauaʻi and in Honolulu — most recently as Honolulu's Chief Resilience Officer through October 2025.
Leahi Design is what comes next. It's a small consulting practice — focused on the energy, building, and systems questions Hawaiʻi is working through. I tend to be most useful where policy, design, and community all overlap.
PAST WORK
Design
...is about working collaboratively and making choices to fit something into its context. Good design requires listening and careful observation combined with the experience to implement. While we are no longer designing buildings, we bring our design experience to all of our collaborations, working together to determine how to fit solutions into complex environments.
