Our Story
In Hawaiian, “kuleana” means a personal sense of responsibility. This value inspires our company to practice sustainability, support local farming and help create a cleaner, kinder, healthier world for us all. And now it defines our new line of beauty oils and other skincare products that we make here in Hawaii. Kuleana is part of Maiden Hawaii Naturals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hawaii’s pioneering renewable energy company, Pacific Biodiesel.
Founded on Maui in 1995, Pacific Biodiesel is the world’s first biodiesel producer certified by the Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance and Hawaii’s only commercial producer of liquid biofuels. The company was created to alleviate the disposal of waste cooking oil at Maui’s landfill and became the nation’s oldest commercial biodiesel company, long before the state created the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative and before Climate Change was a global issue.
In 2015, Pacific Biodiesel began collecting macadamia nut culls at the request of local processors. After learning that macadamia culls were being taken to the landfills on Hawaii Island, we offered to buy these unused culls and process them into biodiesel. As our team learned more about macadamia nut oil, we realized its many healthful benefits for hair and skin and began pressing the nuts into a luxurious beauty oil. That’s when Maiden Hawaii Naturals was born. Since that time, we have expanded our production of pure plant-based oils for cosmetic use to include not only Hawaiian-grown Macadamia but Kukui, Coconut, Avocado, Green Coffee and, most recently, Sunflower oil made from acres of blooming sunflowers farmed by our company on Maui’s central valley. Our Kuleana skincare products incorporate these ingredient oils we handcraft here in Hawaii. Kuleana blooms from the “sustainability system” of Pacific Biodiesel. These products are made as part of this company’s zero-waste, community-based farming and production system of food, renewable fuel, and skincare that sets the standard for others to follow not only in Hawaii but around the world.The Mission of Kuleana:
To be the leading, truly natural, premium brand of beauty oil products made in Hawaii – inspiring consumers by setting the example that a sustainable, collaborative community model that interconnects agriculture and renewable energy can create a cleaner, kinder, healthier world for us all.
Our parent company, Pacific Biodiesel, is collaborating with Kimokeo Kapahulehua to integrate farming practices based on the Hawaiian Moon Calendar at its Sunflower farm in Maui’s central valley. Kimokeo also performed the Hawaiian blessings for our first crops of the 2017 and 2018 plantings. Here, Kimokeo explains the meaning of the Hawaiian word "kuleana" that reflects our company's sustainability mission and defines our line of natural beauty products made in Hawaii.