Current News

Vermont Business Magazine How can responsible forest management help create vibrant habitat for Vermont’s birds? Join Ethan Tapper, the Chittenden County Forester, and Audubon Vermont for a free, public walk of a forest management project at the Westford Town Lands. We’ll walk an area of the WTL which is currently being managed and talk about forests, forest management, birds, and forest ecology. Audubon Vermont’s Foresters for the Birds program, a partner of Vermont’s Department of Forest, Parks and Recreation since the program’s establishment in 2008, is an innovative project that works to keep forests as forests and common birds common by advancing principles and on-the-ground projects that integrate the practices of timber and songbird habitat management across the state of Vermont.

Vermont Business Magazine Ten million tennis balls have been recycled by South Burlington-based RecycleBalls, the leading tennis ball recycling organization in North America. Equating to 639 US tons of repurposed and recycled tennis balls. More than 1,000 tennis facilities and 5,000 individuals have been involved in the recycling effort with tennis balls contributed from 48 states and Canada. Tennis balls come from many sources including the US Open and community groups that clean them from waterways. These collaborations underscore the growing importance of sustainability in sports and highlights the impact that organizations and individuals can make when they work together.

Vermont Business Magazine Fidium’s multi-gig fiber internet with WiFi 6 is now available to small businesses in all Fidium communities, including: California, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Texas and Vermont. The simple, affordable service gives entrepreneurs control over their internet network and WiFi empowering their business. Startups and small businesses in Vermont that have outgrown residential internet service now have access to Fidium Fiber’s new Fidium@Work offering. The service is available in more than 40 Vermont communities.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Fish and Wildlife has announced that three fish caught in 2022 were certified as new state records. In February, Swanton angler Matt Gingras landed a new Vermont record burbot while fishing on northern Lake Champlain in the West Swanton area. The burbot, caught on a live golden shiner set under a tip-up, weighed 10.9 pounds and measured 32 ½ inches long with a 17-inch girth. It beat the previous state record burbot caught in 2012 by 2.1 pounds. Unfortunately for Matt, his reign as the state record burbot holder lasted just two months.

Vermont Business Magazine Efforts by the South Royalton Legal Clinic at Vermont Law and Graduate School (VLGS) have secured the first-ever non-binary gender marker to appear on an initial birth certificate in the state of Vermont. This is a historic moment for Vermont, allowing for the first time individuals to use the gender X marking on initial birth certificates. Until now, gender markers could be amended to reflect X, but the identifier was not recognized on the initial, at-birth document. The appeal was filed on behalf of Vermont parents who submitted a birth certificate for their newborn child with X gender, abstaining from assigning the child a binary gender at the time of birth.

Vermont Business Magazine Norwich University has been recognized as one of the best schools for online learning at the master’s level by OnlineMastersDegrees.org (OMD). Norwich’s programs earned top honors for overall quality, affordability, and commitment to student success. In concert with the top recognition from OMD, Norwich University's College of Graduate and Continuing Studies (CGCS) announced the new online Bachelor of Science in Business Analytics program and four new master's programs: defense policy, global affairs, management, and museum administration, which are set to start in March 2023.

Vermont Business Magazine Nomad Transportable Power Systems’ innovative mobile storage solutions will be part of an EPRI study to determine how microgrids and clean energy technologies can benefit National Guard sites by offering energy resilience, cost savings, emissions reductions, and reliability during times of emergencies. EPRI is an independent, non-profit energy research and development institute. The DOD 2022 Environmental Security Technology Certification Program selected the EPRI project team, which also includes Blue Frontier, ClearFlame Engine Technologies, and Helia, to deploy integrated microgrid systems at three National Guard sites in Delaware, Mississippi, and Texas. NOMAD is based in Waterbury.

Vermont Business Magazine In a letter signed by all the Democratic members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA), Bob Casey (D-PA), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Tina Smith (D-MN), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), and Ed Markey (D-MA) on Tuesday invited Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz to testify at a hearing in front of the panel on March 9 about the company’s lack of compliance with Federal labor laws.

Vermont Business Magazine Today, housing leaders across Vermont are releasing a proposal for the future of emergency housing for Vermonters experiencing homelessness. Bridges to Housing: Accelerating Progress on Homelessness in Vermont lays out five strategies to guide action on emergency housing in the state. Newly-released federal data shows Vermont has the second highest per capita rate of homelessness in the United States behind only California. This sobering news brings national attention to our state’s housing crisis. Many more Vermonters are struggling to remain in their homes or live in substandard housing. Recent estimates indicate that Vermont will need to add 40,000 units of housing by 2030 to return to a healthy housing market.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Federal Credit Union has been named a Top 5 Lender for Volume by the Vermont Housing Finance Agency (VHFA) in 2022. Vermont Federal was the only Credit Union in Vermont to receive the award and was recognized in combination with four other mortgage lending partners in Vermont. Vermont Federal Credit Union has received this award for the past five consecutive years.