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Vermont Business Magazine NPI, a Technology Management company in South Burlington, has complteed a technology project for YWCA of Vermont and Camp Hochelaga. The office in Essex Junction received an upgrade of their wireless capabilities as well as improvements in their network performance; the Camp’s wireless was also upgraded.

Deb Sawyer Jorschick, Executive Director, found project leader Drew Larsen to be a true asset during the assignment, saying “he kept us informed and used (technology) terms we could understand.”

The $6000.00 project included donated equipment and the work of several members of the technical team.

“We couldn’t have done this on our own,” Jorschick states, adding “they went above and beyond what was expected and we are very grateful that everything fell into place at the right time.”

Source: NPI. 8.13.2015

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin and US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 1 Administrator Curt Spalding, standing today on the shores of Lake Champlain at North Beach, shared the formal Plan to reduce phosphorous runoff into Lake Champlain and the agreed upon “Total Maximum Daily Load” (TMDL) that will place a cap on the maximum amount of phosphorous that is allowed to enter the Lake and still meet Vermont’s water quality standards.

The TMDL sets new pollution reduction targets and pairs with Vermont’s final draft implementation plan to prevent pollution from flowing into Lake Champlain and its tributaries. The EPA opens a 30-day public comment period on the TMDL with its release.

Vermont Business Magazine The Green Mountain Care Board on Thursday announced its decisions on 2016 rate increase requests for health insurance plans offered on Vermont Health Connect (VHC), Vermont’s online health benefit exchange. The GMCB reduced the rate requests and approved a 5.9 percent annual increase for Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Vermont, and a 2.4 percent increase for MVP. The rates were filed by insurers on May 15th and were subject to a 90-day technical analysis and review by the GMCB. The review process included two days of rate hearings open to the public, input from the Office of the Health Care Advocate, and public comment from almost 500 Vermonters.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont (BCBSVT), which insures more than 65,000 Vermonters through VHC, requested an 8.6 percent average annual rate increase for its VHC plans beginning January 1, 2016.

Vermont Business Magazine Burlington Electric Department and Green Mountain Power today are warning customers about an ongoing bill payment phone scam that threatens customers with disconnection if they do not pay immediately. In a new wave of calls today, BED customers received calls claiming to be from GMP and giving the customer a fake toll free number to call, which is answered by a recording claiming to be Green Mountain Power.

These calls are not from BED or GMP, and customers should call only the legitimate, listed phone number from their utility, not the number left on the message. The authorized phone number for GMP customers is 888-TEL-GMPC (888-835-4672) and for BED is 802-865-7300.

by Seven Days Nearly 9,000 Vermonters weighed in on the state’s 2015 “best of Vermont” awards, with a whopping 590,000-plus individual votes in 171 categories.

Vermont Business Magazine Attorney General William H Sorrell joined with 16 other states and cities in announcing their intention to oppose a request that would stay EPA’s Clean Power Plan. The Clean Power Plan is a result of a decade-long effort by states to require mandatory cuts in emissions of climate change pollution from power plants – the single largest U.S. source of these emissions. Significant reductions in these emissions must occur to prevent increases in the adverse impacts of climate change such as heat-related deaths and illnesses, smog, asthma, pneumonia and bronchitis, extreme weather, threats to agriculture and forest productivity, and threats to our energy, transportation and water resource infrastructure.

Attorney General Sorrell and the other states and cities issued the following joint statement:

Vermont Business Magazine Marketers, including those focused on Gen Z and Millennials, routinely use demographic analysis to help craft a brand's message, positioning and marketing. By grouping consumers mainly by age, geography, ethnicity, gender, income and family status, marketers have been able to draw conclusions about that group's shared interests and consumption behaviors, according to Fuse, a marketing agency based in Burlington. But the assumptions we've grown to accept from traditional demographic segments are often no longer reliable. We've entered a new era of how we must study consumers -- what trendwatching.com calls "post-demographic consumerism."

Vermont Business Magzine Vermont Student Assistance Corp today announced it has selected Intuition College Savings Solutions to manage the Vermont Higher Education Investment Plan, the state’s 529 college savings plan. Intuition College Savings Solutions, located in Tallahassee and Jacksonville, Florida, has provided comprehensive, customized plan management solutions for over 25 years to 10 different 529 plans.

“Intuition offers VHEIP account holders some strategic advantages and we believe families will value lower investment fees, a wider range of investment choices from Vanguard, TIAA-CREF and others, as well as expanded online services,” said Scott Giles, president and CEO of VSAC. “All Vermonters will need some form of education or training after high school to be qualified for Vermont’s future jobs. And, we know that students from families that save even a small amount for education are three times more likely to go.”

Vermont Business Magazine The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is making available for public comment the Phosphorus Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) for the twelve Vermont segments of Lake Champlain. Too much phosphorus pollution is reaching Lake Champlain primarily from the streams and rivers draining into it. The primary concern is polluted runoff – rainwater or snowmelt that drains off of parking lots, roads and streets, logging roads, farm fields and croplands, and lawns. The runoff carries pollutants – sediment, nutrients such as phosphorus that are naturally present in soils, pet and animal wastes, fertilizers, and other pollutants – and deposits these pollutants into streams and rivers or directly into Lake Champlain. Phosphorus concentrations have not decreased significantly in any areas of Lake Champlain, despite reductions in the amount of phosphorus entering the Lake from several of its tributaries.

Vermont Business Magazine In celebration of National Breastfeeding Month, Seventh Generation, a leading household and baby care company, is turning to moms across the country to determine the location of two new Mamava pumping and nursing pods. The national crowdsourcing campaign aims to give moms more choices for breastfeeding on-the-go. Seventh Generation has opened a call to moms nationwide to submit the location they'd like to have access to a lactation pod. Created by Mamava, a company dedicated to transforming the culture of breastfeeding, the self-contained, mobile pods offer comfortable benches, an electrical outlet and door that can be fully shut for privacy.

Vermont Business Magazine All across Vermont, architects are playing with Legos. They are putting together models for the City Center: Creating Place booth at South Burlington’s upcoming CityFest, Saturday, August 15 in Veteran’s Memorial Park open from 11 am – 9 pm. The idea originated in a City staff member’s accidental engagement with Olafu Eliasson’s Collectivity Project in New York. The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Vermont was excited by the idea of bringing architects into the City’s sesquicentennial celebration, and sent out a request on South Burlington’s behalf for voluntary participants. Within minutes, architects began responding, with Donna Church of StudioBlue the first, and Steve Roy of Wiemann Lamphere right behind.

Vermont Business Magazine The State of Vermont and UVM will be working together to reduce the harmful effects of stormwater runoff into Lake Champlain. The Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the Lake Champlain Sea Grant Program (LCSG) of the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Vermont are pleased to announce a new Green Infrastructure Collaborative (GIC). The Collaborative will promote Low Impact Development (LID) and Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) practices as the preferred methodologies to manage stormwater runoff from developed lands.