Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The Alchemist, the Vermont maker of Heady Topper, is getting a boost from the local sun to green its brewing operations. AllEarth Renewables, a Vermont-based solar tracker manufacturer and developer of solar projects, and the Alchemist have announced a partnership that will provide the brewery solar energy from a portion of a 150kW Vermont solar orchard. The new solar project will provide nearly 100 percent of the energy the Waterbury brewery needs annually with emissions free, net metered solar and provide the company long-term annual savings on its electric bill.

Vermont Business Magazine Putney Mountain Winery, located in Putney, has been named a Vermont Green Business by the state of Vermont for their environmental stewardship and sustainability efforts. The Vermont Green Business Program provides assistance to businesses desiring to “green up” their operations and recognizes businesses of all sizes for meeting a set of environmental standards. These standards are posted on the program websites (www.vbep.org).

In addition to participating in an environmental assessment, Putney Mountain Winery is: 100% solar powered, purchases all ingredients of its products from local family farms, composts all waste from its production, recycles as much as possible and pursues the myriad of details that go into committing our business to improving the environment.

Vermont Business Magazine GlobalFoundries has invested $55 million into its Essex Junction plant to make another 5 million chips a day, the semiconductor firm announced today. Those semiconductors will mostly go into most cell phones and tablets used around the world. The investment was announced today with a press conference featuring plant executives and Governor Peter Shumlin. The capital investment in the company’s Essex Junction facility has been in the works for nine months. It was initiated by former plant owner IBM shortly after it was announced that GlobalFoundries would buy IBM’s chip making plants in Vermont and New York State.

Most of the investment went into the purchase, upgrade or moving of massive tools (some 12 by 12 feet) into its 200mm (8-inch) wafer fab in Essex Junction. Much of the rest of the expenditure went into the associated infrastructure the tools required.

CLICK HERE: https://iframe.dacast.com/b/56792/c/75084 to watch the Rising Stars Class of 2015 accept their award LIVE at The Hampton Inn on November 5, 2015.

Vermont Business Magazine Attorney General William H Sorrell joined a coalition of 25 states and various cities and counties in filing a motion to intervene in legal challenges by several states and industry groups to the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan. The Clean Power Plan requires mandatory cuts under the Clean Air Act in emissions of climate change pollution from fossil fuel burning power plants – the single largest source of these emissions in the nation.

“The Clean Power Plan protects Vermonters and all Americans from emissions of climate change pollution,” Attorney General Sorrell said. “These emissions must be reduced to protect our economy and the environment.”

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont’s “Wheels for Warmth” broke all records in its 11^th year, thanks in large part to its additional location in Rutland County. Final numbers for 2015 show the program collected a total of $55,801 for emergency fuel assistance programs, sold 2,200 safe tires, and recycled 3,775 donated, unusable tires. This year, in addition to the traditional collection and sale location at Dubois Construction in Montpelier, collections and sales also took place at Casella Construction in Mendon, with the aim of better serving people in the Central/Southern Vermont region. The Mendon sale was made possible in large part by local support in that community from new sponsor VSECU, a credit union for everybody in Vermont.

Vermont Business Magazine Healthy Living Market – Burlington, Hunger Mountain Coop – Montpelier, and Commodities Natural Market – Stowe have been named as Vermont Green Grocery Environmental Leaders by the state of Vermont for their environmental stewardship and sustainability efforts. The standards to meet this designation were developed by multi-state environmental agency workgroup members of NEWMOA (Northeast Waste Management Officials Organization, as part of the Northeast Sustainable Grocery Environmental Leader program and include energy efficiency, water and waste reduction, recycling, environmentally preferable purchasing, and facility operations.

Vermont Business Magazine FairPoint Communications, Inc (Nasdaq: FRP), Vermont's largest communications provider, today announced its financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2015. “Our financial results in the quarter were in line with our expectations reflecting the progress in our business, the acceptance of CAF Phase II related funding as well as the completion of our headcount reduction plan initiated in May,” said Paul H Sunu, Chief Executive Officer. Shares were up modestly Tuesday following the news at $16.88 (52-week range: $13.30 - $20.98), despite posting a profit against losses last year. Net revenue also was positive in the second quarter.

Vermont Business Magazine The Brattleboro Retreat announced today that its board of trustees has appointed Louis Josephson, PhD, as the hospital’s new president and chief executive officer. He will start on March 1 after moving to Brattleboro. Josephson, a native of New York City, comes to the Retreat from Los Angeles, CA, where he has served as the president and chief executive officer of Vista Del Mar Child and Family Services since 2013. Prior to moving to Los Angeles he served for eight years as president and CEO of Riverbend Community Mental Health in Concord, NH. During that same period Josephson was also vice president of behavioral health at Concord Hospital, also in New Hampshire.

Vermont Business Magazine University of Vermont start-up company EASY LLC has received a $1 million Phase II Small Business Technology Transfer grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop a commercial prototype for a digital printer that will translate conventional graphics to raised-line versions readable by the blind. Under a Phase I version of the grant, intended to demonstrate product feasibility, the company developed the first working prototype for the printer. EASY originated in an engineering class at UVM.

Vermont Business Magazine Two years ago, the Vermont Department of Health launched an informational outreach campaign called ‘049’ that asked women and health care providers to become more aware of how alcohol can cause health problems for babies. A new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) identifies prenatal exposure to alcohol as the leading preventable cause of birth defects and intellectual and neurodevelopmental disabilities in children.

by Erin Mansfield vtdigger.org Regulators will hold three more days of hearings to hear testimony over an embattled natural gas pipeline project, following allegations from opponents that ratepayer advocates and Vermont Gas were trying to thwart the legal process. The Public Service Board ruled Monday that it would hold three days of hearings starting Dec. 1 to hear testimony on a memorandum of understanding that Vermont Gas and the Public Service Department submitted Oct. 15. Under the agreement, ratepayers would pay for $134 million of the Addison Rutland Natural Gas Project.