Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Creating a DES in Burlington would meet the long-held goal of recovering waste heat and additional steam from BED’s McNeil Generating Station, and using those sources to provide thermal energy to UVMMC via steam pipe. This system would reduce fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions in Burlington, and mark a significant step toward Burlington’s goal to become a Net Zero Energy city. DES also has the potential to make McNeil more efficient and to modestly diversify the market for the energy produced at the station.

Patrick Patrick Leahy Since first emerging in Wuhan, China on December 31^st, the outbreak of a new coronavirus, COVID-19 (“novel coronavirus”), has spread to 25 countries, infected more than 44,000 people, caused at least 1,100 deaths, forced entire cities into lockdown, triggered hundreds of international flight cancelations, restricted hundreds of Americans to US military bases in a federal government quarantine, and caused significant economic harm to countries and businesses around the globe. All this in only six weeks, with no end in sight. So why is the White House proposing to cut funding for programs and agencies working to control the pandemic and protect the health of Americans?

Vermont Business Magazine On a cold Tuesday, music plays from a radio and workers wheel shopping bags around in a circle lined with incredible looking food items fresh from a farm or local producer, including meat, eggs, cheeses, milk, yogurt, baked goods, fresh bread, fruits and vegetables. The workers are like busy bees buzzing away in their hive. They take a list, grab a bag, and spin around the circle, grabbing items off the list and packing them into a reusable Farmers To You branded shopping bag.

by Jenn Wood “There’s nothing like 40+ degrees and raining to say Happy Holidays in New England!” Sadly, it has been a recurring family greeting of late. As someone who loves the outdoors in all seasons with a special affinity (some say obsession) to snow and skiing, this weather makes me cringe, and honestly, fight back tears of sorrow.

by Wendell G Davis, New England Regional Administrator, US Small Business Administration Transition and change are often accompanied with hope and opportunity. Here at the US Small Business Administration we just had a big transition and change. Recently Jovita Carranza was named the 26th Administrator. This is Administrator Carranza’s second tenure at the SBA. She served as Deputy Administrator from 2006-2009. Although she is new to the position, she already knows the ins and outs of how to help American entrepreneurs achieve their dreams of small business ownership. She was nominated to lead the SBA while serving as the 44th Treasurer of the United States.

Vermont Business Magazine As Dealer.com strives to achieve Cox Enterprise’s company-wide “Zero Waste to Landfill” by 2024 goal, the company proudly celebrates a best-in-class recognition on an internal ranking system analysis of waste diversion. Measured at 82% by Cox Conserves, the company’s sustainability division, Dealer.com’s diversion rate is an exemplary model representing the Burlington business community among Vermont’s own sustainability goals. In fact, Dealer.com’s latest diversion rate milestones already far exceed the statewide goal of increasing diversion rates to 50% by 2024.

Vermont Business Magazine Green Mountain Conservation Camp (GMCC) offers hands-on learning experiences about fish, wildlife, ecology, botany, forestry, hunter firearm safety, outdoor first aid, and so much more. GMCC offers opportunities for hiking, canoeing, fishing, archery, .22 rifle and shotgun shooting, orienteering, and other fun activities. Campers have a unique opportunity to meet Vermont State Game Wardens, foresters, fisheries and wildlife biologists, and others who work in the outdoors.

Vermont Business Magazine GlobalFoundries and the University of Vermont today announced they have created a partnership program which offers Vermont-based GF employees the opportunity to further their education at UVM in undergraduate, graduate and graduate certificate programs at discounted tuition rates coupled with GF’s tuition reimbursement program. For UVM, partnering with one of the largest private manufacturing employers in the state enables the university to further its land grant mission of helping Vermont address its workforce development challenges. It also creates a new pipeline of students to the university and brings experienced professionals into UVM classrooms and labs, broadening and enriching the learning environment for current students.

​Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Law School’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Center is offering free help with tax return preparation and electronic filing help to qualified Vermonters from now through April 8 at the South Royalton campus. Available from 5 to 7 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays, the VITA Center’s IRS-certified volunteers offer help to taxpayers who generally make $56,000 or less, persons with disabilities, and limited English-speaking taxpayers who need assistance in preparing their own tax returns. Walk-ins are welcome.

Vermont Business Magazine Seven Days, Vermont’s free, independent newsweekly, won 14 first-place awards in this year’s New England Better Newspaper Competition — including for general excellence and top honors in business, crime and courts, education, health, human interest, religion, science and sports-feature reporting. Eva Sollberger received first place in all four video categories. The paper also won seven second-place and one third-place awards — 22 total.

The contest is organized by the New England Newspaper & Press Association; winners were announced at NENPA’s annual convention last weekend in Boston.

NENPA members submitted more than 3,000 entries in five contest divisions. Seven Days — which circulates 36,000 print copies every Wednesday — competed against numerous other large New England weeklies.

Here’s what judges had to say about Seven Days’ 14 first-place awards:

by Jill Olson, Executive Director, VNAs of Vermont Recently, I was honored to sit on a panel with other health care leaders to discuss early successes with Vermont’s all-payer model. Dr Joshua Sharfstein, a national health care reform expert currently teaching and practicing at Johns Hopkins University, moderated the panel and put Vermont’s experience in a national context.

Vermont Business Magazine Ledyard National Bank recently donated $1,000 to The Family Place in Norwich to support their upcoming Force for the Future Luncheon on March 31, 2020. The Family Place, a private, non-profit organization and one of 15 legislatively-designated Parent Child Centers in Vermont, delivers comprehensive programs designed to strengthen positive relationships, teach essential skills and promote enduring healthy growth for families with young children in the Upper Valley and surrounding communities. As such, they play a vital role in the community’s social safety net.

Their work involves a whole-family approach to helping children thrive, working with children and caregivers together, promoting positive parenting strategies and ensuring that children have the kinds of experiences that support their physical development, their social functioning, their ability to learn, and their long-term health.