Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Champlain College Online (CCO) is excited to announce a new truED Partnership with Hula, Burlington’s technology-driven co-working campus located on the shores of Lake Champlain in Vermont. Through this partnership, eligible Hula tenants and their family members, as well as Hula staff, qualify for reduced tuition for more than 60 degree and certificate programs offered 100% online by the regionally accredited college.

CCO’s career-focused undergraduate and graduate programs in healthcare administration, business, IT, and cybersecurity are well-matched with the tech-focused members Hula hosts in its Burlington-based workspace. With Hula’s focus on emerging technology companies, their goal to accelerate small and high-tech businesses is a natural fit with CCO’s goal to continue the growth of knowledge and careers of employees.

Vermont Business Magazine The Employee Misclassification Task Force will hold two public hearings on the topic of employee misclassification on Thursday, August 26, 2021 and Friday, August 27, 2021 from 11am-1pm (both days). Any member of the public is welcome to attend. The Task Force invites testimony from labor and/or employees on the 26^th and employer testimony on the 27^th. However, anyone may participate on either or both days, and the Task Force will hear from anyone on either day if scheduling conflicts so require. The Task Force will strive to be as flexible as possible.

Vermont Business Magazine Joy is not a word often associated with work. However, in the view of author and organizational health expert Patrick Lencioni, joy “is the leading indicator” of whether an organization is healthy and is something he can gauge just by walking around a workplace.

“Are people talking to one another?” Lencioni asks. “Are they engaged in what they’re doing? Does it seem like there is joy? Or do they look like they can’t wait to be gone?”

“If good people are staying at an organization and bringing other people in, that’s a really good sign that the company is healthy,” Lencioni said. On the flip side, the inability of a company to keep its best people is a sign of an unhealthy organization, he said.

Vermont Business Magazine The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently finalized a settlement with Cargill, Inc., a Minnesota based company with a facility in Vermont that produces animal feed, for alleged violations of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA)’s Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) Program.

Cargill, Inc. agreed to pay a penalty of $40,294 for allegedly failing to timely file TRI reports for zinc and manganese compounds processed at its plant in Swanton, Vermont.

“To inform the public and protect communities, EPA requires companies and organizations that manufacture, process, or otherwise use certain chemicals to report this information publicly every year. This reporting is an important part of ensuring that local communities have access to information about the presence of chemicals in their area,” said EPA New England Acting Regional Administrator Deborah Szaro.

Vermont Business Magazine The Nature Conservancy in Vermont (TNC) is pleased to announce that Lauren Oates will assume the role of Interim Director of Government Relations and Policy, following the departure of Phil Huffman in early August. Oates has been with TNC since 2019, where she has proven herself a leader in advancing climate-forward policies, programs, and initiatives. In her new capacity, she will further elevate the role of science in decisions and policymaking, as well as leverage our natural and working lands to comprehensively address the dual crises of unprecedented biodiversity loss and accelerated climate change. Oates will continue to serve on Vermont’s Climate Council, following her appointment by the Senate last year as an expert on resilience to climate impacts.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Electric Cooperative (VEC) is encouraging members to conserve electricity Thursday and Friday evenings as demand for electricity across New England is expected to spike because of high temperatures. Specifically, VEC asks members to conserve electricity both evenings from 4-9 pm. That’s when demand is expected to be highest.

When VEC can reduce the cost to buy and transmit electricity during these periods, it helps control electricity rates for all co-op members over the long term. Since the electric grid is regional, the co-op can save money by reducing demand when there are high temperatures throughout the region.

Members can help “beat the peak” by:

· Delaying the use of major appliances such as dishwashers, washing machines, and clothes dryers as well as the charging of electric vehicles until the peak period has passed.

Vermont Business Magazine FreshTracks Capital has launched a new venture fund designed to help grow business in Vermont. The FreshTracks Growth Fund – the fifth fund in FreshTracks Capital’s family of Vermont-based investment funds – will target investment in approximately 10 growing companies over the next few years.

While the first four of FreshTracks Capital’s funds were focused on local start-ups, this new fund is geared towards larger investments in growth-stage businesses that already have some traction in the marketplace, and can benefit from additional capital investment to accelerate further growth and scale. The FreshTracks Growth Fund has already invested in five area companies, DealerPolicy, Zero Gravity, Mamava, Caledonia Spirits, and Faraday. FreshTracks is looking for additional growth-stage companies in the area that could benefit from new investment to help them grow further.

Vermont Business Magazine This afternoon Protect Our Care’s “Care Force One'' arrived in Burlington to demonstrate the need for lowering Vermonter’s health costs, expanding coverage, and reducing healthcare disparities. Headlined by Rep. Peter Welch and Lieutenant Governor Molly Gray, the event highlighted how Democrats are leading the charge to advance American health care and held Republicans accountable for continuing to reject measures to improve care and lower costs for all Vermonters.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott today announced a series of walk-in vaccination clinics that will be open at schools and other sites across Vermont this week. You can either walk-in, or visit healthvermont.gov/MyVaccine to make an appointment, either online or by phone.

“Vermont continues to have the highest vaccination rate in the nation and among the highest in the world,” said Governor Scott. “This is helping to dampen the impacts of the Delta variant, as we see its effect across the country. If you have not been vaccinated yet, now is the time to protect yourself.”

Below is a list of the vaccination sites available this week.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) is hailing Senate passage Tuesday of a bipartisan bill to help build back the United States’ crumbling infrastructure. The infrastructure package includes $550 billion in new federal investments over five years and $650 billion in authorizations.

Leahy, who chairs the Appropriations Committee, said: “Once again, the Senate has shown that infrastructure is – as it always has been – a bipartisan issue. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act offers a once-in-a-generation vision for America’s infrastructure that is long overdue. This bipartisan infrastructure package makes the largest federal investment in public transit, passenger rail and bridges in more than 50 years.”