Vermont Business Magazine Five hundred creative entrepreneurs, investors, and thought leaders gathered at the University of Vermont for a three-day innovation summit hosted by the Vermont Council on Rural Development (VCRD) to focus on the opportunities presented by the Climate Economy this week. The Climate Economy Initiative is built on the premise that confronting climate change through innovative economic development can be a competitive strategy, one that will build national reputation, create jobs, and attract youth and entrepreneurism.
The summit, cc:econ, kicked off Wednesday evening with a keynote speech delivered by environmentalist, entrepreneur, journalist and author Paul Hawken, followed by a Kat Wright concert.
On Thursday, cc:econ featured a series of panels, pitches, and presentations from entrepreneurs and investors from across the country. Speakers included Jigar Shah, a co-founder of Sunedison - the largest solar services company in the world, Paul Hendricks of Patagonia, and Gary Hirshberg of Stonyfield Farm.
"It was very exciting to have so many innovators, investors and entrepreneurs fron across the country with us to think about opportunities to create new business and jobs here in VT’, said Paul Costello, Executive Director of the Vermont Council on Rural Development, which organized the summit.
At the “Incubating and Accelerating New Business Ventures panel Emily Erichert, CEO of Greentown Labs, the largest clean energy startup incubator in the United States talked about how Greentown was able to grow from just four companies in 2011 to more than 54 today. The themes of cooperation and connection were present in many of the day’s conversations.
On Thursday evening summit attendees heard pitches from business startups and a panel of judges with the opportunity to win $10,000 for their efforts. The winner of the pitch contest was Packetized Energy, a Vermont-based company that offers utilities a software-as-a-service platform for coordinated millions of connected distributed energy resources such as water heaters, electric vehicles, and battery storage systems.
A cc:econ highlight included the launch of Accel-VT--a business accelerator that will provide startup support, mentorship, and access to capital for seed stage enterprises committed to creating products and services to solve the challenges presented by climate change.
"Vermont might be a small state, but we have big aspirations to grow our economy as a part of our effort to disrupt climate change," says Kahler, executive director at the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund--a nonprofit managing Accel-VT. "We are seeking businesses to apply for the first Accel-VT cohort interested in solving the challenge of distributed energy resource integration. All details are at Accel-VT.com."
The final day of cc:econ was dedicated to innovation tours, where businesses, farms, utilities, policies, initiatives and communities were showcased as models of energy production, efficiency, and economic development working towards a prosperous low-carbon future.