Mainebiz

V I E W P O I N T S W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 3 JA N UA R Y 2 5 , 2 0 1 6 For a daily digest of Maine's top busi- ness news, sign up for the Mainebiz Daily Report at mainebiz.biz/enews Get Maine's business news daily at mainebiz.biz and on Twitter (@Mainebiz). Below is some of the best from our online-only offerings: Featured @ Mainebiz.biz Private-sector group forms to grow three sectors FocusMaine, a nonpartisan effort by private-sector leaders, seeks to create thousands of jobs in the agriculture, aquaculture and biopharma industries over the next decade. Read more at mainebiz.biz/FocusMaine Blue Ox Malthouse opens in Lisbon Falls A craft brewer took an unusual path to opening, generating $750,000 in start- up capital from MTI, grants, loans and private investment. Read more at mainebiz.biz/Malthouse From the Editor I had the opportunity recently to sit down with the orga- nizers of FocusMaine, an eff ort to attract at least 10,000 jobs to Maine. e eff ort is not after just any jobs, but those cat- egorized as "traded jobs," positions that export products or services from Maine. Traded jobs pay more, require greater education and are more likely to be full-time. Each traded job creates an additional 1.6 jobs among service providers. Employers off ering traded jobs include WEX, Idexx, Unum and L.L.Bean, all of which have a signifi cant portion of their customers outside of Maine. FocusMaine, a nonpartisan, private-sector eff ort, will focus on three sectors that have shown growth and have what WEX Chairman Michael Dubyak, a FocusMaine co-chair, calls "a long runway" of 30 to 50 years of sustain- able growth. McKinsey & Co. provided consulting to the group and naturally zeroed in on the need to attract qualifi ed workers to Maine. It pointed out, for instance, that there are an estimated 175,000 Mainers living in other New England states. It's great to focus on bringing back ex-Main- ers. But why stop there? Many of the newcomers from Maine were born elsewhere (I'm just one). is issue's cover story focuses on immigrants, a ready source of potential workers. As Senior Writer Lori Valigra points out her story, some may come with cultural diff erences or a language barrier, but many also arrive with advanced degrees, ready to apply for traded jobs. Peter Van Allen pvanallen@mainebiz.biz Recently, Mainebiz published "Five on the Future," asking fi ve prominent Maine economists about challenges and opportunities facing Maine in the upcoming year. For the most part I agree with them, but one issue stood out for me: the rhetoric surrounding "greenwashing" (aka sustain- ability) and economic freedom. Both issues were clearly on the mind of Jonathan Reisman, one of your contributors. ey are on my mind too, but for diff erent reasons. Reisman states that sustainability advocates rarely defi ne the term. Sustainable economic development, in the term's current usage, was defi ned in 1987 by Gro Harlem Brundtland, former prime minister of Norway, and the World Commission on Environment and Development as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Economists diff er on how best to achieve that goal. Nonetheless, it is an important guide for economic policy. Sustainable economic development can best be con- sidered as balancing a portfolio. We have certain assets that can be used to heighten our economic productiv- ity, including manufactured capital and fi nancial capital, but also including natural capital (our forests, fi sheries, and clean air and water) and human capital (our work- ers and their skills). So sustainable economic develop- ment involves increasing the productivity of our overall economy without compromising the value of our assets. When economic growth, narrowly defi ned as increases in GDP, is pursued without thought to sustainability, the consequences can be devastating, even deadly. Speaking as a dispassionate economist, many of our "assets" may have been irrevocably damaged. We may need to worry about the loss of economic freedom and "crony capitalism," as Reisman points out. But we also need to take care of our assets, including natural and human capital. It's not greenwashing. Just good economic sense. Rachel Bouvier rbouvier consulting, Portland To the Editor 'Traded jobs' key to growing Maine's economy bernsteinshur.com CELEBRATING 1OO YEARS Be smart. BE SHUR. When you need a JD with an MBA's approach. An inside look Get a digest of the state's largest commercial real estate transactions, industry movers and more in our weekly Real Estate Insider newsletter. Sign up at mainebiz.biz/enews.

• Cover