Current News

by John McClaughry Last week I went on a journey of exploration into the exciting world of climate change activism. My entrance portal was the Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group. VPIRG has blossomed into a political action juggernaut with aggressive leadership, thousands of contributors, unquestioning media support, and a $2 million annual budget.

Vermont Business Magazine Casella Waste Systems, Inc (NASDAQ: CWST), a Rutland-based regional solid waste, recycling, and resource management services company, in partnership with TerraCycle, a New Jersey-based recycling company that specializes in hard-to-recycle materials, have launched TerraCycle Pouch by Casella. Through this pilot program, households and businesses in and around Burlington can subscribe to the service for a wide array of items that are not accepted in curbside recycling bins. Materials accepted through the service include coffee capsules, cosmetic packaging, eyewear, office supplies, pet food packaging, toys, and various types of plastic packaging.

The Vermont Council on Rural Development (VCRD) announces the call for Climate Economy Resilient Communities participants for 2023. Community leaders and volunteers submit a simple online application by November 7 to be considered. VCRD’s Climate Economy Resilient Communities (formerly known as Climate Economy Model Communities) will support three to five communities per year that are working on local climate action solutions. The change reflects new opportunities to work within more communities and for each to self-identify the area of support needed to move projects forward. Through this program, VCRD will provide assistance to communities to make strong forward movements toward a community engagement process, communication outreach planning, strategic planning, technical assistance, and/or project implementation.

Vermont Business Magazine For the second year in a row, socially responsible investment firm Greenvest has been named a Best for the World™ B Corp™ in 2022 in recognition of its exceptional positive impact for its customers. Specializing in clean impact investment management for individuals, Trusts and employee retirement plans, Greenvest’s main offices are located in Vermont – Montpelier and Wells – with additional offices in the Boston and San Francisco Bay areas.

Vermont Business Magazine On Tuesday, students, school staff, and the Vermont Farm to School and Early Childhood Network gathered at Crossett Brook Middle School in Duxbury to thank United States Senator Patrick Leahy for his leadership and commitment to the farm to school movement that has expanded nationwide. The day included a presentation of student projects, a school garden tour, a visit to the school’s chicken coop, and a delicious school lunch featuring foods from Vermont producers! Some of the producers selling to the school—Green Mountain Harvest, Red Hen Bakery, Vermont Bean Crafters, and Roscioli Foods—joined the students in thanking Senator Leahy.

Vermont Business Magazine The majority of New England continues to experience drought into the fall, and the US Geological Survey is helping monitor conditions to inform those impacted and provide officials with near-real time updates for drought mitigation decisions. The USGS conducts real-time monitoring of the nation’s rivers and streams and collects continuous groundwater data. A few areas of New England have been in drought since last year, and a portion of all six states were in drought by this June. This spring and summer, several states experienced severe or extreme drought.

Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife Hunters embarking on their first deer season are encouraged to take advantage of Vermont’s third annual novice weekend. Novice weekend this year is Saturday, October 22 and Sunday, October 23.

The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department held its annual permit lottery for muzzleloader antlerless deer permits in September and says it now has unallocated muzzleloader antlerless deer permits available for use in the antlerless-only October 27-30 season and the regular December 3-11 muzzleloader season. The unallocated permits are available because not enough people applied for them in the lottery.

Vermont Business Magazine The Agency of Education (AOE) announced today that it has selected Cognia as Vermont’s new Statewide Assessment vender after an open and competitive bid process. Cognia will develop and implement new statewide assessments for English Language Arts (ELA), Math and Science, beginning in the spring of 2023. The tests developed by Cognia will replace the Smarter Balanced Assessment and the Vermont Science Assessment (VTSA). Cognia will provide the full suite of testing services to Vermont, including formative resources and annual summative assessments.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Technical College’s Architectural Engineering Technology Bachelor of Science degree program received The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Zero Energy Design Designation (ZEDD) inaugural seal of recognition. ZEDD designation was awarded to 17 leading educational programs that are preparing tomorrow’s architectural and engineering leaders to design and build the most sustainable buildings possible. Vermont Technical College is the only Vermont program to be awarded the designation.

Vermont Business Magazine In response to a group of faculty members issuing a letter of no confidence, the Board of Trustees of VCFA has reached out to provide additional information related to the piece that VermontBiz published Tuesday regarding the school. The trustees responded to those faculty and also sent a letter from other faculty members offering their full support to the trustees and president. They also wanted to correct an error in the article published Tuesday.