Current News

Ellen Kahler, Executive Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund 2023 was a big year for the clients we worked with through our Business Management Coaching Program. Our 11 coaches were fully engaged with 26 clients over the past year. Most saw increased sales into new market channels, improved profitability, new investments in equipment, and improved staff hiring and retention. All reported that having outside support and advice gave them more confidence to make tough decisions, explore new opportunities strategically, and be more intentional around leading their company. Read on to learn more about our progress in 2023 and some exciting new initiatives in 2024.

Vermont Business Magazine As it celebrates its 70th year, Hemmings, the trailblazing services provider for the collector car market, has launched Hemmings Pay + Title, a groundbreaking first in the collector car space. The service, powered by KeySavvy, provides secure payment and vehicle titling, which can often be complicated, particularly across state lines. Pay + Title is the newest offering in the Hemmings.com frictionless marketplace that helps collector car enthusiasts buy, sell, and beyond.

Northeastern Vermont Development Association The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office invites you to register for the annual National Community Solar Partnership (NCSP) Summit on February 14 from 12-4 p.m. ET. This year’s summit, ‘Community Solar – Deploying Benefits & Delivering Impacts,’ will convene community solar stakeholders from across the industry, including community-based organizations, solar developers, utilities, federal, state, Tribal, and local government, financial institutions, philanthropic organizations, housing providers, and more to align efforts toward expanding access to the benefits of community solar to the equivalent of 5 million households by 2025. The summit will feature interactive sessions, led by industry experts that explore the technical potential of community solar, including its potential to deliver meaningful benefits to households and communities at scale.  

Vermont Business Magazine One Day In July is a fiduciary financial advisory firm offering investment solutions for individuals, families, and institutions. One Day In July is on a mission to lower investment fees, while improving portfolio performance. One Day In July invests using low-cost, tax-efficient index fund investments.

Vermont Business Magazine On Friday, January 26, GlobalFoundries (GF) opened its doors in Essex Junction to seven Brown University and Dartmouth College students from the EDGE Consortium. The day featured presentations focused on GF's culture, community, and career opportunities, a tour of the fab, and a "Day in the Life of a GF Engineer" panel that left the students energized about the semiconductor industry. 

Vermont Business Magazine New England’s annual capacity auction closed with sufficient power system resources to meet forecast peak electricity demand in 2027/2028, according to ISO-New England based in Holyoke, MA. Nearly all of the new resources securing capacity supply obligations were energy storage, solar, wind, or demand-reducing resources. The annual auction of the Forward Capacity Market is held three years before each capacity commitment period. Capacity resources can include traditional power plants, renewable generation, imports, and demand resources such as load management and energy efficiency measures.

Vermont Business Magazine The Federal Trade Commission received 3,767 fraud reports from consumers in Vermont in 2023, according to newly released data. Vermont consumers reported losing a total of $8,805,393 to fraud, with a median loss of $400. The FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network is a database that receives reports directly from consumers, as well as from federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, the Better Business Bureau, industry members, and non-profit organizations. Reports from around the country about consumer protection issues—including identity theft, fraud, and other categories—are a key resource for FTC investigations that stop illegal activities and, when possible, provide refunds to consumers. Across all types of reports, the FTC received a total of 5,934 reports from consumers in Vermont in 2023.

Vermont Business Magazine The Environmental Advocacy Clinic at Vermont Law and Graduate School and public-land protection nonprofit Standing Trees are calling on the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources to reconsider its plan to log public lands in the Worcester Range, one of the most ecologically significant forests in northern New England. On Feb. 2, student attorneys filed on Standing Trees’ behalf extensive comments citing state and federal laws under which the agency’s plan for logging cannot proceed. The draft plan proposes to open 8,641 acres for logging — half of the so-called “Worcester Range Management Unit” — and cut more than 20 percent of those acres over the next 20 years.  

Vermont Business Magazine The federal district court in Burlington has granted the Attorney General’s motion to return the State’s consumer protection case against Exxon and other fossil fuel producers to state court. Using the Vermont Consumer Protection Act, the Attorney General’s Office sued Exxon and others for misrepresentations and greenwashing related to fossil fuel products. The case had been stalled shortly after it was filed in September 2021 due to this dispute over jurisdiction – whether it belonged in state or federal court. Tuesday’s remand order will allow the State’s claims to proceed to the next stage of litigation in state court.

Vermont Business Magazine "Norwich University is honored to announce General Lori Robinson as the Commencement Speaker for the graduating class of 2024,” said Norwich University Provost, Dean of the Faculty, and Acting President, Dr. Karen Gaines. In 2016, Robinson became the highest-ranking woman in U.S. military history as Commander of NORAD and NORTHCOM. While leading NORAD/NORTHCOM, Robinson was responsible for commanding 1,600 Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, Coast Guardsmen, and civilians from both the United States and Canada. Norwich University’s spring commencement celebration will once again be held in Shapiro Field House on April 27.

by Aubrey Weaver, Community News Service Financial disclosure documents spanning the past four years raise questions about transparency and accountability within the state judicial system’s reporting requirements, according to data obtained by Community News Service. The disclosure documents, sourced from annual Vermont Judiciary statements between 2019 and 2022 for state superior and supreme court judges, indicate judges in recent years have provided scant information about their incomes — in part because Vermont does not require them to say much. There has been a substantial rise in judges reporting nothing since 2019 from 31% of judges that year to 49% in 2022. In the vast majority of cases, those judges checked boxes indicating they had no financial disclosures to make under the law, and only in a handful of cases did judges not specify disclosures despite indicating they had something to report. Over the four years of data, an average of 42% of judges who submitted forms said they had no required financial disclosures.

Vermont Business Magazine A new dimension to the Fairbanks Museum is about to open in St. Johnsbury, VT. The Tang Science Annex officially opens to the public on Saturday, February 17. Sen. Peter Welch is joining us for a ribbon cutting celebration to dedicate the Tang Science Annex on Thursday, February 15, at 11 AM. This annex was designed Middlebury-based Vermont Integrated Architecture. The Annex will be Vermont's demonstration mass timber structure, making use of new technology to create building materials using locally sourced Eastern Hemlock.