SEMINARS 2004-2005 ACADEMIC YEAR
   

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. Beck’s solid waste management group. He is the author of two books, entitled Faith In Motion and How to Be a Frequent Flyer.