L.L. Bean/Lee Surace Colloquium Series

Maine is perhaps the most singular state in our union—occupying the far northern corner of the country, bordering as many foreign countries as united states, larger than all other New England states combined but very sparsely populated, enjoying natural advantages including stunning beauty and plentiful resources. I grew up in California, having an impression of Maine as an exotic destination with beautiful harbors and stunning coastline and scenic lighthouses. Said differently, in my mind, as in the minds of many millions of Americans and perhaps billions of people around the world, Maine has a positive, if misunderstood brand. A brand that transcends natural beauty, to include work ethic and understated style, among other attributes. And a brand that includes innovation. In the decade plus that I have had a home in Maine, and spent substantial time in the state, I have come to understand a simple truth: Maine punches far above its weight class—in many respects. This essay will not attempt to explore all of the ways in which Maine excels, but it will focus on the last of them, recounting Maine's unique stake in our nation's innovation economy, observing the natural innovation advantages Maine enjoys, and considering what it will take going forward to turn those advantages into marketplace outcomes that suit Maine's culture and style.

Our consumption-based economy relies on the linear production cycle (cradle to grave), which has been made possible because of seemingly inexhaustible supplies of inexpensive energy and inexpensive raw materials, and our indifference to pollution and waste. The downside of a linear production cycle is the creation of a “throw-away society” that disposes vast quantities of valuable resources prematurely in landfills and incinerators. While there has been some progress in diverting resources away from disposal through pollution controls and a shift toward the circular production cycle (cradle to cradle), we continue to landfill the majority of the “underused” waste we create. Simultaneously, we mine and harvest virgin raw materials that require processing and energy. The combination is a highly unsustainable practice. The costs of raw materials and landfill disposal have increased, which has reignited interest in landfill mining to recover the resource value of underused waste lying in landfills. However, technological barriers have until recently made landfill mining prohibitively expensive. Using onsite technological innovations, Maine’s ecomaine has become the first American landfill mining operation to profitably recover post-burn metals. ecomaine’s 20-acre ash monofill received approximately 800,000 tons of ash from its waste-to-energy plant between 1988 and 2009. Between November 2011 and November 2013, 22,000 tons of metals were recovered from over 220,000 tons of ash, and sent offsite for resmelting. Over 10,500 cubic yards of material has been removed from the monofill, thereby increasing available physical space and avoiding future expansion costs. With more than 6,000 former and 1,900 current landfills in the US, the landfill mining potential is substantial and it is possible that the results of this project can be applied to other sites.

Healthcare costs have been the subject of policy and political conversations in the US since the early 1970s. With the implementation of the Medicare and Medicaid programs in 1965-66, the rapid expansion of private, employer-based health insurance plans, and the explosive growth of the “medical industrial complex”, the US has faced relentless and unprecedented growth in healthcare cost inflation and expenditures. Efforts to contain costs under reforms proposed by successive presidents - Nixon, Carter, Clinton and now Obama - have failed or, in the case of the Affordable Care Act, are being seriously questioned. This presentation will discuss the driving forces behind the problem of rising healthcare costs, recent progress in cost containment, and the prospects for achieving a sustainable growth rate. Maine has been and continues to be a leader in pursuing strategies to transform the financing and delivery of healthcare to achieve the goal of better care, better health, for less cost. While these efforts are necessary they are not likely to be sufficient to produce sustainable change. The remaining, unaddressed and seemingly intractable challenges will be a primary focus of this presentation.

External and internal motivators play important roles in affecting individual environmentally responsible behavior. Responsible behaviors can range from curtailment behaviors (e.g. reducing consumption, reduce use of fossil fueled items such as cars, recycling) and eco-adoption behaviors (everything from light bulbs to electric cars), to purchasing environmentally labeled or preferred products. These personal behaviors send important signals to industry and government about consumer preferences for natural resources and future societal investments, and policy makers need to recognize and understand them in order to improve the effectiveness of policy initiatives.

Energy has been a continuing concern for Maine for nearly fifty years, and the next several years promise the most vigorous debate on energy in Maine since the 1980s. This presentation will explore Maine's ongoing debates about energy and show how technological changes, environmental concerns, shifting government policies and a rapidly evolving global and national energy picture will not only radically transform Maine's supply and demand but make Maine an important laboratory for energy policy and markets in the U.S.

Development of a sustainable relationship with the planet’s natural resources is an increasingly urgent imperative for our survival. Presently we face the ultimate test of our adaptability as a species and, owing to the lead-time required to address climate change, it is likely that we have little more than a decade to vigorously transition towards sustainability. The science is clear that the consequences of failing to respond will be profound and irrevocable over a millennial time scale. The current generation of college students is well informed of these realities by the time they graduate, but they are not prepared to adapt and engage in the opportunities inherent in rehabilitating the Earth’s life support systems. They are ill prepared to participate in an economy that will be increasingly organized around humanity’s response to ecological crises. Sustainability Science (sensu U.S. National Academy of Science) is a framework that provides a transdisciplinary, problem based, solution focused pedagogy for training students as knowledge brokers in environmental sciences. This approach will serve to rapidly prepare a generation of students who will be required to push the limits of their ingenuity, cooperation, and innovation. Those who are prepared and can lead will have an unprecedented opportunity to create a global economy built around sustainable management of natural resources. We must not merely prepare, but also inspire this generation to rise to greatness.