{"id":23846,"date":"2021-07-12T09:20:25","date_gmt":"2021-07-12T13:20:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/?p=23846"},"modified":"2021-09-15T15:05:57","modified_gmt":"2021-09-15T19:05:57","slug":"new-mitchell-center-member-susanne-lee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/2021\/07\/12\/new-mitchell-center-member-susanne-lee\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet new Mitchell Center member Susanne Lee"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mitchell Center members share a passion for tackling complex sustainability problems that matter to people and communities through collaboration with diverse stakeholders and across many different areas of expertise. They come from a wide range of disciplines–from engineering and economics to fisheries and agriculture to business and communication–and take an interdisciplinary approach because that\u2019s what\u2019s needed to meet today\u2019s challenges. They seek to connect knowledge with action to create a brighter social, environmental, and economic future in Maine and beyond.<\/span><\/p>\n

Learn more about who they are and what they do in this ongoing series of profiles.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\"SusanneSusanne Lee is an entrepreneurial senior executive who has created, launched and operated successful consumer products brands and businesses. She specializes in strategic solutions, brand marketing, consumer insights, business development, product design and manufacturing, and effective team-building.<\/span><\/p>\n

As the Executive-in-Residence at the Maine Business School, Susanne utilized her business management and marketing background to bring a \u201creal-world\u201d component to student courses and experiential learning opportunities. She helped build bridges between 91±¬ΑΟ students and leading Maine-based businesses.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She leads the Mitchell Center project, <\/span>Food Waste Management: Empowering Maine Businesses Toward Sustainability<\/span><\/a>, identifying sustainable food waste solutions for Maine businesses.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

What problem\/s are you working to solve?<\/b><\/p>\n

Our team is working to end wasted food in Maine using sustainable \u201ctriple-bottom-line\u201d solutions that are consistent with the <\/span>Maine food recovery hierarchy<\/a>, which prioritizes reducing waste and feeding people.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What progress are you making toward solutions?<\/b><\/p>\n

We are making progress through our first step, working with key Maine stakeholders\u2014our Maine Food Production Leadership Council\u2014to identify six primary solution areas. Our next step is to develop pilots to implement the solutions to prove their effectiveness and scalability\u2014while also working to build awareness, education and action about the need to end food waste in the state.<\/span><\/p>\n

“One day I realized that sustainability solutions, with their triple-bottom-line benefits, are the true long-term strategy for both businesses and people.”<\/span><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Specifically, with the expertise and support of the 91±¬ΑΟ Division of Marketing and Communications, we have launched the <\/span>Food Rescue MAINE<\/a> program with its compelling call to action, \u201cMaine Food \u2013 Too Good to Waste.\u201d Through this program we are developing six pilot initiatives: a food waste Track & Measure tool that we are testing with Northern Light Health; a food donation management system to connect food donors, feeding agencies and food rescue volunteers as a test in the Waterville area; a consumer education and action campaign developed with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection that is being tested with select communities and elementary schools; a research project to identify farms\u2019 food-processing infrastructure needs to prevent waste and feed Maine people; a Food Donor Toolkit being promoted with the Maine Grocers and Food Producers Association and state food banks; and community food recycling pilots to divert food waste from landfills and into valuable by-products.<\/span><\/p>\n

How could your work contribute to a more sustainable future in Maine and beyond?<\/b><\/p>\n

If Maine can stop food waste\u2014and the related waste of resources used to produce food\u2014and instead channel all food to feed people or feed the soil (which in turn feeds people), we will have solved a global challenge and our work can serve as a model around the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why did you decide to join the Mitchell Center?<\/b><\/p>\n

With my business background, I have always been a proponent for long-term, strategic thinking. One day I realized that sustainability solutions, with their triple-bottom-line benefits, are the true long-term strategy for both businesses and people. The Mitchell Center\u2019s approach to developing sustainability solutions\u2014interdisciplinary student\/faculty teams, stakeholder-driven focus, best-practice benchmarking\u2014was also very appealing.<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s the best part about collaborating with other researchers, and with stakeholders?<\/b><\/p>\n

The feeling of teamwork with others who enjoy collaboration and share a passion for continually learning and solving problems together.<\/span><\/p>\n

Where\u2019s your favorite place in Maine?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

So many!<\/span><\/p>\n

What sustains you?<\/b><\/p>\n

Being active outdoors in Maine\u2014hiking, gardening, skiing, swimming, paddle-boarding\u2014just enjoying the beauty of nature all around (except the ticks and mosquitos!).<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mitchell Center members share a passion for tackling complex sustainability problems that matter to people and communities through collaboration with diverse stakeholders and across many different areas of expertise. They come from a wide range of disciplines–from engineering and economics to fisheries and agriculture to business and communication–and take an interdisciplinary approach because that\u2019s what\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1706,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"Susanne Lee, former Executive-in-Residence at the Maine Business School, is a new Faculty Fellow with the George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions at the 91±¬ΑΟ.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","spc_primary_category":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":3,"label":"News"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"","author_link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/author\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":3,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":3,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":613,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":3,"category_count":613,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1706"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23846"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24499,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23846\/revisions\/24499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}