Charting Maine’s Future

Next Wednesday, Portland’s League of Young voters will host an event to recognize some of the city’s up-and-coming activists and businesspeople. Even if you can’t make it to the event, check out the nominees and cast your vote (some gratuitous self-promotion: yours truly is contending for the “Urban Ecologist” title).

The Step Up to the Plate Awards are a first-of-their-kind in Portland, recognizing young social entrepreneurs in nine categories, including: Green Professional, Start-Up Business, Urban Ecologist and Technology Maven. Award nominees are currently listed on The League’s brand new web site where anyone and everyone is encouraged to log-on and vote for the winners.
In addition to the presentation of awards by local personalities, the evening of festivities will include food, music, and a silent auction with as many as 65 local goods and services.

Seth Wescott, a young business owner in Carrabasset Valley who is known as the best snowboarder in the world, will be on hand to raffle a hand-signed snowboard, to premier a new video aimed at engaging youth in entrepreneurial ventures and to speak to attendees.

We encourage you to attend this special event on October 3 at 6:30 PM, at the Holiday Inn By the Bay in Portland. You can buy your tix at the door, or on line by clicking here. Pay your age, or on a sliding scale of $18-$50.

FMI, contact Rachael Weinstein, Event Coordinator, at 207.772.3207

I’ve just returned from a forum on wind energy development in Maine, and I’d like to take a moment to plug the organization that organized the event: E2Tech, the Environmental and Energy Council of Maine.

E2Tech is essentially an economic development organization whose aim is to promote and advance environmentally sustainable industries in our state. This is a growing sector in Maine, with over 300 firms that employ over 4,000 workers. Besides sponsoring forums like the one on wind power this morning, the E2Tech Council can also hook up new and growing firms with economic development funding, business incubation and technical assistance programs, and a network of experienced businesspeople interested in promoting these industries.

We’ll also have a number of E2Tech people participating in our upcoming Summit, where you can hear them talking about new bioplastics and the development of a green energy cluster in Maine. Check out the E2Tech web site for other future events.

As an update on our work with the Land Use Regulation Commission with regard to Plum Creek’s development proposal for the Moosehead region, we’ve published a press release that details our concerns and recommendations for the concept plan. Here’s a quick blurb:

“The bottom line is that this proposal provides a test case of whether we can have large scale planned development in Northern Maine while at the same time protecting the character of the region and the state as a whole. I believe that the answer is yes, but only if it’s done right, and if Maine is not afraid to insist that it be done that way, or not at all,” stated Alan Caron, GrowSmart President.

We’re also looking at this as an opportunity to introduce greenhouse gas and energy impacts as one of the considerations in large-scale development projects like this one. Smart growth planning principles can have a big role in reducing “vehicle miles traveled” and home energy use, and we’d like to see them applied in northern Maine.

The full press release can be found here.

The Carbon Cube is a striking reminder of how much greenhouse gas pollution gets injected into our atmosphere with every mile we drive.

The Cube consists of one pound of graphite, which has a similar weight and chemistry as the greenhouse gas emissions we produce for every mile we drive. Whereas carbon dioxide is invisible and impossible to hold, the Carbon Cube is hefty (disturbingly so) and tangible.

As Alan Weisman notes in the recent book The World Without Us, we are “tapping the Carboniferous Formation and spewing it up into the sky.” Picture yourself casting one of these into the troposphere with every click of the odometer, and you’ll get the right idea.

The Carbon Cube is also a product of Maine: visit carboncube.net to learn more.

Yesterday’s Maine Sunday Telegram featured an op-ed by GrowSmart Maine President Alan Caron, who outlined one of our top priorities for the upcoming legislative session: the formation of an independent, high-level Streamlining Commission:

The commission would look at not only the cost of government programs but also at its structure, to see where consolidation and streamlining might make sense. Its recommendations would then be subject to a simple up-or-down vote by the Legislature.

Read the full column here.

The Portland Press Herald ran a story today about GrowSmart Maine’s work with the town of Standish in the Model Town Project. Read the story here.

For more information about the Model Town project, click here.

This year’s Summit will include several workshop sessions that detail emerging sectors of Maine’s high-value innovation economy. These workshops promise to illustrate some promising ways we can revitalize Maine’s traditional natural-resource-based industries, provide more high-value jobs for Mainers, and help mitigate our tax burden with economic growth. Here are a few of the sessions we’ve planned:

REGIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: THE NORTHSTAR ALLIANCE

The North Star Alliance is an industry-led initiative to attract and grow marine-related and composite materials businesses in coastal Maine. This workshop will discuss the Alliance’s collaborative approach to marketing, research, job training, and infrastructural development.

• Deb Cook, Cook Consulting, moderator
• Christina Sklarz-Libby, North Star Alliance Initiative
• Steve Von Vogt, Maine Marine Manufacturing

INNOVATION AND AGRICULTURE: MAINE POTATOES AND BIO-BASED PLASTICS

Maine’s traditional natural-resource-based industries are innovating to add value to their products and compete in the global market. Learn how farmers are utilizing emerging technologies to turn Maine spuds into “green” plastics and fabrics, and how this innovation could benefit the agriculture industry as well as Maine manufacturers.

• Betsy Biemann, Maine Technology Institute, moderator
• Stacie Beyer, Interface Fabrics
• Don Flannery, Maine Potato Board
• Mike Belliveau, Environmental Health Strategy Center 

INNOVATION AND FORESTRY: WOOD COMPOSITES AND BIOFUELS

In the face of increasing global competition, Maine’s forest products industries are relying on innovation to increase productivity and expand their markets. This workshop will showcase some of the new products and ideas that utilize both our forest resources and our Yankee ingenuity.

• Tom Doak, Small Woodland Owners Association of Maine, moderator
• Habib Dagher, Advanced Wood Composite Center
• Mike Bilodeau, Pulp & Paper Research Institute

ALTERNATIVE ENERGY DEVELOPMENT IN MAINE: THE NEW "GREEN" CLUSTER?

Maine is already a national leader in carbon-free electrical generation, and proposed wind- and biomass-power projects will only strengthen our position in the era of global warming. Alternative energy could also bolster our innovation economy, improve the electrical grid, and reduce utility costs. Learn more about alternative energy in Maine and the ramifications of its development.

• Joe Migliaccio, moderator, Maine Technology Institute
• John Ferland, Environmental & Energy Technology Council of Maine
• Dave Wilby, Renewable Energy Developers Association
• Chris Sauer, Ocean Renewable Power Company

To register for the Summit and these workshops, visit our Summit 2007 web pages.

GrowSmart Maine’s Summit 2007 is now only six weeks away, and a steady stream of registrations are pouring in from all over Maine (plus a handful from the rest of the country).

A big focus of this year’s Summit is going to be on creating the grassroots leadership that will move Maine forward. This will be the theme of Professor Ronald Heifetz’s keynote address, and it’s also the goal of our youth scholarship program, which will pay the full registration fees for over 100 students and young adults from all over Maine. Young people have the potential to provide decades’ worth of activism and energy to Maine’s economy and civic life, which makes these scholarships an excellent investment for our organization and our sponsors.

We’d like to recognize the following sponsors, which have guaranteed that at least 10% of Summit registrants will represent Maine’s future leadership:

Virginia Hodgkins Somers Foundation
Bangor Savings Bank
Leonard C. and Mildred F. Ferguson Foundation
Kennebec Valley Council of Governments

If you’re a student or young adult who would like to attend this year’s Summit for free, please contact Jesse Baines, our Summit coordinator. Or, if you’d like to save the scholarships for others, we also offer student discounts on registrations. Click here to view the program or register.

And if you’re in charge of a company or organization that would like to fund additional youth scholarships (demand is running high), please contact Irma Bauer-Levesque, our Director of Development.

This came in earlier today from the state’s Healthy Maine Parternships…

The third State-Wide Maine Trails Conference will be held at the Hilton Garden Inn in Auburn, Maine on Friday, September 21 and Saturday, September 22, 2007.

This two day conference will focus on methods to enhance trail development and management, and economic and community development as it pertains to trails in Maine. Sessions planned and under development include: ADA Trail Guidelines, Creating Urban Trails, Creating Partnerships, Working with Developers, Designing for Aesthetics, Trail Funding, Accessing Private Lands, Grant Writing, Universal Trail Assessment Process (condensed version), Leave No Trace, Trail Appraisal (Value) Concepts, Equipment Demos, Forgotten Assets, and a guided trail walk on the L/A Trail system.

Information on conference registration (one day and/or two days) is available by contacting Bud Newell, Maine Bureau of Parks & Lands at 287-4962 or bud.newell@state.me.us, or by visiting the Bureau’s website at http://www.maine.gov/doc/parks/programs/community/index.html

A number of redevelopment projects in Maine’s historic riverfront mill buildings are finally getting underway after many years of dormancy. These projects have tremendous potential to revitalize downtown areas and incubate new businesses. Plus, these historic buildings happen to be spectacular places to work (I speak with some authority as someone who works in the historic Sparhawk Mill, which looms over the Royal River in Yarmouth).

A number of these projects are now seeking leases in order to go through with renovation. If you’re a manager who’s looking to provide a dynamic workplace for your business while also supporting Maine’s historic downtowns, consider these mills for your next office space…

• In Waterville, developers are looking for a few more businesses to fill the Hathaway Creative Center, the renovated reincarnation of the Hathaway shirt factory. This place has spectacular views of the Kennebec, which has experienced an ecological revival since the removal of the old Edwards Dam downstream. Contact pob@hathawaycreativecenter.com for more information.
• Residents of Biddeford and Saco are looking forward to big changes in the mill complexes that line the Saco River between the twin cities’ downtowns. Harper’s Development, which has been planning a renovation and redevelopment of the Saco Island complex, is well on their way towards renovating the long-empty brick buildings. A microbrewery and restaurant is planning on moving into Building Three (now known as the Saco Mill House) by January, and a new sales office is open to visitors in the former Building Two (reincarnated as the “River Gate” building). The City of Saco is also moving forward with plans for a new Amtrak station, which will be located on the island adjacent to the mill complex.
• Just across the river, Biddeford’s North Dam Mill is moving forward with plans to transform into a mixed-use neighborhood on the river. This is one Maine mill that hasn’t been abandoned: textile manufacturers continue to work in these buildings to this day, and the developer has included industrial uses in his phased renovation plans. Visit the North Dam Mill website to learn more.
• Finally, residents of Brewer recently learned that the Cianbro Corporation would occupy the former site of the Eastern Fine Paper mill with a new modular construction facility, which would take advantage of riverfront access to ship prefabricated building elements out into the global marketplace. While much of the complex will be cleared to make way for a new industrial site, Cianbro does plan to preserve a historic administration building and an impressive brick structure that was once the mill’s boiler building. Read more about Brewer’s economic development coup here.