The Climate Economy Programs are designed to help communities build and implement priority actions that increase economic vitality and affordability in a time of climate change.
As a former medic, police officer, non-profit manager, legislative director and values-led business executive – Duane Peterson has always been dedicated to organizing people to take meaningful action towards positive change. Duane demonstrates this commitment in his latest venture as Co-President of SunCommon – a Vermont Benefit Corporation with a mission is to make it…
In the over 40 years they’ve been in business, Butternut Mountain has built a reputation as a leader in Vermont’s maple industry. The company is also taking the lead in other ways – demonstrating that including environmental stewardship in their business model is good for sustaining the resource they rely on, their employees, the community,…
For ten years now, Washington Electric Co-op has been generating power from the stuff that Vermonters throw away. Their system channels methane gas from deep within the Coventry landfill to fuel the five Caterpillar engines that produce enough electricity to power 8,000 houses a day. That’s about 50,000 MWH a year and over half of…
In February 2015, VCRD launched the Vermont Climate Change Economy Council, a group of business and policy leaders who will convene over the course of 2015 to frame a bold platform of action to advance Vermont's Climate Change Economy. In the fall of 2015, the Council turned to the public in a series of 3 state-wids public…
The Summit on Creating Prosperity and Opportunity Confronting Climate Change brought together over 400 innovative business, non‐profit, and community leaders, elected officials, public policy advocates, students, and interested residents to begin to frame policy and investment strategies to advance the development of the Vermont Climate Economy. Over the course of the day, Summit participants developed…
By Steve Pappas, Times Argus: www.timesargus.com A summit at Vermont Technical College on Wednesday showed exactly how far Vermont has progressed when it comes to climate change, but also how far we still have to go if we want to be economically viable — and sustainable — on the world stage. “Creating Prosperity and Opportunity Confronting Climate Change” was the name of the conference…
By Laurie Caswell Burke, published in the Shelburne News: http://shelburnenews.com/?p=20752 Last month I joined 400 Vermonters from around the state to participate in the Vermont Council on Rural Development’s Summit on Creating Prosperity and Opportunity Confronting Climate Change. Business leaders, entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders and community citizens, like myself, came together at Vermont Technical College campus…
Published in the Times Argus: http://www.timesargus.com/article/20150308/OPINION06/703089979 By Brian Shupe, Executive Director of the Vermont Natural Resources Council Many people have raised alarms about the need to do something about climate change. By doing something, I mean two things. We must prepare for it, because we are already seeing the effects — and they will only…
This video captured sessions at the Summit on “Creating Prosperity and Opportunity Confronting Climate Change” held at the Vermont Technical College, Randolph Center on February 18, 2015. [Video by Rick McMahan of Vermont In Person: http://www.vermontinperson.com/ Part 1: Opening Remarks and Panel Discussion Opening remarks by Paul Costello, Executive Director of the Vermont Council on…
By Bill Laberge, owner of Grassroots Solar, and published in the Times Argus: http://www.timesargus.com/article/20150301/OPINION06/703019960/1014 Despite the thermometer suggesting otherwise, the February sun is starting to give us the sense of change, slowly melting our hibernating souls. You can feel the warmth starting to thaw out the dormancy, although maybe that is just a reaction to…