A Wahiawa coffee shop is turning one of Hawaii's worst invasive trees into surfboards, furniture, and building materials — a small but positive step for local manufacturing in a state that imports almost everything.

• Bizia Surf & Coffee Bar in the Wahiawa Industrial Center is built and furnished with albizia wood, an invasive species that Hawaii spends millions of tax dollars cutting down.
• Co-founder Christine Valenti and her husband Joey, an architect, started the albizia project in 2016 after seeing removed trees simply dumped or mulched.
• The couple now collects logs from HOAs, Schofield Barracks, the state, the city and county, and OHA removal efforts, then mills them across the parking lot from the shop.
• The goal is a local supply chain and workforce around a free, abundant resource instead of relying on imported lumber.
• Albizia wood has already gone into a home in Manoa as well as the shop's siding, doors, windows, staircase, and surfboards.

Outlook: The albizia supply chain is still small after ten years, but growing demand for local goods could turn a costly environmental nuisance into a modest new industry for Hawaii.