Reinventing
the Future: How Looking Back Helps Us Look Forward
Friday,
November 12, 2004
Room
825 SWM, 1:00 PM
Larry Beaumont
Vice President
Technologies for EAC Operations, Inc., and General Manager
of eco/Technologies, LLC
Since the U. S. Environmental Protection
Agency was created in 1970, movement toward alternative energy sources
and energy independence has been limited by artificial regulatory
barriers. Creative new technologies have not benefited from true
life-cycle cost analysis until very recently. Thanks to many efforts
including the Waste-to-Energy Research and Technology Council here
at Columbia, the door is now open for true, comprehensive, integrated,
environmentally sustainable technologies to benefit from consistent,
fair analysis. Students will have unprecedented opportunities for
research and development in areas that will change the way environmentally
sound economic development is viewed in the 21st Century.
This presentation shows how the solution
to a real-world problem in the energy industry led to an entirely
new way of thinking about the future, through a series of expanding
circles of opportunity in comparison to traditional regulatory limitations.
Whether or not the barriers of the past are crossed to allow future
innovation will depend on students from all nations collaborating
to show what is possible, rather than stopping short because of
regulatory limitations.
New technology is critically important
to reinventing the future. But so is revisiting existing technology
that has been refined for simplicity and environmental excellence.
Larry Beaumont is Vice President
Technologies for EAC Operations, Inc., and General Manager of eco/Technologies,
LLC. He is the principal inventor of the patented eco/Tech Sludge
Recycling System, and has four other inventions patent-pending.
A member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers for 28
years, Mr. Beaumont is a graduate of Michigan State University and
resides in Littleton, Colorado. Prior to joining EnergyAnswers Corporation,
he was CEO of Beacon Tech Net, a consulting firm, for six years.
Between 1978 and 1994 he was a partner, co-founder, and national
director of R. W. Becks solid waste management group. He is
the author of two books, entitled Faith In Motion and How to Be
a Frequent Flyer.
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