VBSR Logo Vermont
Businesses
for Social Responsibility
September
2008
E-News

Tara Pfeiffer-NorrellHappy Fall!

Here in the office we are all busy gearing up for our Fall Conference in the beautiful Latchis Theatre in Brattleboro on October 30th.  I hope you can make it. 

This year's conference will focus on the opportunity that we all have to effect positive change in our community and environment with our business decisions  ("The Power of Choice").  We've asked Mary Powell, CEO of Green Mountain Power, to describe the impact that they have been able to make with their "choices".

We're happy to report that our Internship Program has been very successful.  We've placed 18 interns in member businesses so far and our grant from the Vermont Department of Labor has been renewed for a second year.

We have an abundance of upper class students at Vermont colleges that are anxious to explore career opportunities in Vermont.  We are currently placing students for spring semester.

We also understand that businesses have little time to explore how interns could benefit them or to write job descriptions and interview candidates.  So we are revising the process to make it easier for you.  Check out the new process on the Internship Program Page on our website (www.vbsr.org). 

Finally, be sure to read the article in this month's Enews about ECOLOGIA's fine work in China.  VBSR is now looked to as a model for economic development in Sichuan Province!

Thank you,

Will Patten
Executive Director
Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility
willp@vbsr.org
802.862.8347

In This Issue
VBSR Events
VBSR's 2008 Public Policy Forums
One World, One Dream... ECOLOGIA's China-Vermont Exchange
A Socialist CEO Grows Up... His company tries to, too
Sovernet Announces the Deployment of 4 New ADTRAN 5000s
Know Your Source Nears Launch
Vermont Woodworking School Expansion Project Receives USDA Grant for Bio-Mass Furnace
VBSR Businesses Overwhelmingly Support Marriage Equality
Member Services Corner - How to share your news!
Networking, Social Responsibility and Service Events
Conference - Choices for Vermont: Rebuilding the Foundation of Prosperity
8:30 - 4:00, Thurs, Oct 2, Capitol Plaza Hotel, 100 State St, Montpelier - How can we balance the need to produce wealth through private enterprise with the imperative to maintain public structures - from schools to roads to courts to health care services - that ensure both Vermonters' quality of life and a healthy business climate? Public Assets Institute and Voices for Vermont's Children explore a new vision for shared prosperity at this year's conference.  Visit www.PublicAssets.org for details and registration.

VBSR Fall Conference
8:30 - 4:30, Thurs, Oct 30, Latchis Theatre, 50 Main St, Brattleboro - This year's conference will feature keynote speaker, Mary Powell, CEO of Green Mountain Power.  View the list of event sponsors in the right column of this ENews.  Visit the event listing for more details.  To register, contact Rita Bevacco at ritab@vbsr.org or call 802-862-8347.

VBSR Get-Together Hosted by Vermont Coffee Company
5:30 - 7:30pm, Thurs, Nov 6, Vermont Coffee Company, 1197 Exchange St, #3, Middlebury - Visit the VBSR event listing for more details.  To register, contact Rita Bevacco at ritab@vbsr.org or call 802-862-8347. 

VBSR Get-Together Hosted by Ben & Jerry's
5:30 - 7:30pm, Wed, Dec 3, Ben & Jerry's, 30 Community Dr, S. Burlington - To be preceded by a Community Service Project during the day.  Visit the VBSR event listing for more details.  To register, contact Rita Bevacco at ritab@vbsr.org or call 802-862-8347.

If you are interested in sponsoring or hosting a VBSR event, contact Rita Bevacco at 802-862-8347 or at ritab@vbsr.org.

VBSR 2008 Public Policy Forums
We hope you will join us at a public policy forum in your area as we get together with our legislators to discuss our public policy priorities for the upcoming legislative session.  Please RSVP to Andrea Cohen, VBSR's Policy Director at andreac@vbsr.org or by calling 802-862-8347.

Northwest VT Public Policy Forum
Thurs, Sept 25, 8 - 11 am
Main Street Landing Film House
Sponsored by Main Street Landing

Southwest VT Public Policy Forum
Wed, Oct 8, 5:30 - 7:30 pm
Northshire Bookstore, 4869 Main St., Manchester Ctr
Sponsored by Northshire Bookstore

Northeast VT Public Policy Forum
Thurs, Oct 16, 8 - 10 am
Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium, St. Johnsbury
Co-Sponsored by Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium and Barry Lawson Associates

Central VT Public Policy Forum
Mon, Oct 20, 3 -5 pm
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Facility, Waterbury
Local Host- Green Mountain Coffee Roasters

Southeast VT Public Policy Forum
Thurs, Oct 30, 7:30-8:45 am (prior to the fall conference)
Latchis Hotel, 50 Main Street, Brattleboro
One World-One Dream:
ECOLOGIA's China-Vermont Exchange, August 2008
China Exchange Photo
What do China, the world's most populous country, and the state of Vermont, which would be a small municipality if it were in China, have in common?  You could have felt the answer if you had been sitting in our kitchen on the evening of August 8, 2008. We were fixing dinner with our three Chinese guests while the daz zling Beijing Olympics opening ceremony played on television. Three days earlier one of our guests, Ren Xuping, had carried the Olympic torch through the streets of Chengdu, in Sichuan Province.  Ren had been chosen for this honor because he had risen from poverty, made a fortune raising rabbits, and then, along with Zhang Shuping, his wife, has helped over 300,000 rural Chinese to rise out of poverty. Ren and Zhang are known as the "Rabbit King and Queen" in China. They, along with ECOLOGIA's China Program Director, Du Heng, came to Vermont bearing the sustainable development and social responsibility torch. Why Vermont? Why now?

For the past two years, ECOLOGIA has been working with the Rabbit King and Queen on sustainable development and poverty alleviation projects in their home region of Sichuan Province. 

Read more...
A Socialist CEO Grows Up.  His company tries to, too.
Inc. Magazine Article about Paul Millman, CEO of Chroma Technology
by Hannah Clark Steiman, Inc. Magazine on Sep 4th, 2008

Chroma Logo

Leadership


The problem with socialism, Oscar Wilde reportedly remarked, is that it takes up too many evenings. Paul Millman concurs and adds his own bit of wisdom: "The problem with socialism is all the socialists." Millman, 61, knows a thing or two about socialists; he was raised by two of them in a Brooklyn, New York, housing project. His father taught high school and sold rare books, while his mother worked to overthrow the government of the United States. In high school, Millman spoke up at a school board meeting he attended with his parents. "I could hear people saying, 'Another Millman,'" he says. "We knew we were different."

Millman has learned another thing or two about socialism while founding and running Chroma Technology, a Rockingham, Vermont, company that makes optical filters, which are components in scientific microscopes. Namely, he has learned it doesn't fit that well with capitalism.

Read more...
Sovernet Announces the Deployment of 4 New ADTRAN 5000's
Bellows Falls, VT
September 15, 2008 - Sovernet, a leading provider of telecommunications services in Northern New England, further enhances its Nextgen capability by announcing the deployment of 4 new ADTRAN 5000's to Keene NH, Burlington VT, Brattleboro VT, and Winooski, VT.
 
"By adding Adtrans to these target areas, we're able to offer our residential and business customers higher bandwidths at extremely competitive rates", says Stu Livolsi, Sovernet's Director of Engineering. "This new technology allows us to support legacy applications as well as cutting edge solutions for high bandwidth users, all in the same unit."

Read more...
Know Your Source Nears Launch with Support from Two Prominent VBSR Members
Company Seeks Accredited Phase II Investors
Know Your Source Logo
Know Your Source, an exciting start-up and VBSR member with national ambitions, aspires to be the premier business-to-business direct marketing supplier of holistic-oriented medical products. It was seed funded in May 2007 by like-minded Gardener's Supply Company and Seventh Generation. The company is currently located at Gardener's with five employees; its distribution center is next to FedEx headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee.

Read more...
Vermont Woodworking School Expansion Project Receives USDA Grant for Bio-Mass Furnace
VWS Logo
The USDA has awarded Fairfax Woodworking, LLC an energy-efficiency grant to install a bio-mass furnace at its Vermont Woodworking School VWS expansion project. 

The school is moving from its industrial park location in Colchester to a 15,000 square foot red barn in Fairfax just 4 miles west of Cambridge on Route 104.  As part of this expansion, this three-story cattle barn that was being used as a venue to sell books and other thrift items is receiving an energy efficient fit-up and will be a modern shop for woodworking students and residents. 

Read more...


VBSR Businesses Overwhelmingly Support Marriage Equality

In the most recent VBSR public policy member survey over 98% of the respondents supported legalization of marriage for same-sex couples.  In June, the VBSR Public Policy Committee met with the Vermont Freedom to Marry Task Force to hear about their efforts to pass a bill in 2009 that will eliminate discrimination in Vermont's marriage laws and provide full equality to same-sex couples.

Extending these equal rights to Vermonters will help businesses recruit and retain quality employees and demonstrate Vermont's commitment to fair and equal treatment of all of its residents. VBSR will continue to collaborate closely with the Freedom to Marry Task Force and request that individual members take a minute to go to the Vermont Freedom to Marry website and show your support by signing the Businesses For Equality Statement of Support.
Member Services Corner
Share Your News, Job Openings and Events on www.VBSR.org

Post Your News

When you have something to tell about your business, be sure to share it with your fellow VBSR members.   E-mail it to info@vbsr.org and we will post it online.

Post Your Job Openings
Let VBSR help you fill those vacant positions.  If you have a job to fill, post your job on the member job posting page

Post Your Events
Invite VBSR members to your events.  If you are holding an event that is open to VBSR members, login and post it on  the member event posting page.

Lost your password?
If you have forgotten your VBSR login and password, you can reference your 2008 VBSR Member Directory for the password and directions on how to reset it.  Can't find the directory?  E-mail info@vbsr.org or call 802-862-8347 for guidance. 
Newsletter Sponsorship
November is
"Upstream Waste Management" Month!

Get To Zero Logo
www.GetToZeroCO2.com

Conference Series
focusing on
Environmentally Friendly Purchasing Practices (ERP)

November 14
North Conway, NH

November 17
Montpelier, VT

Partnerships and Exhibiting Opportunities

Contact
Blue Sky Environmental Strategies
914-588-7274 or
BSES@GetToZeroCO2.com




Ef VT Click Here logo
 


INTERESTED IN SPONSORING VBSR'S NEWSLETTER?  E-mail info@vbsr.org or call 802-862-8347 to secure a space today.



Welcome New VBSR Members!
The Intervale Center

Legitify

Capital Connections, LLC

Balance Chiropractic & Acupuncture

sponsorsVBSR Fall Conference Sponsors
Underwriters
Brattleboro Food Co-op
Brattleboro Savings & Loan
Marlboro College MBA Program
Prentiss Smith

Sponsors
Burak Anderson & Melloni, PLC
Green Mountain College
Lake Champlain Chocolates
LineSync Architecture
Microsoft
Mocha Joe's Roasting Co.
Northeast Delta Dental
TruexCullins

Co-sponsors
2much Media
A. N. Deringer, Inc.
Antioch University New England
Black River Produce
Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Vermont
Business Culture Consultants
Cabot Creamery Cooperative
Castleton State College
City Market
Clear Channel Communications
Community & Economic Development Office (CEDO)
Concept2
Dinse, Knapp & McAndrew, PC
Farrell Distributing Corp.
Goddard College
Hubbardton Forge
KeyBank
King Arthur Flour Company
Marketing Partners, Inc.
McKenzie Country Classics
Merritt & Merritt & Moulton, Attorneys at Law
Middlebury College
National Life Group
New Chapter
The Orvis Company
The Point, WNCS-FM
RecycleBank
Shems Dunkiel Kassel & Saunders PLLC
SymQuest Group Inc.
Toyota Motor Sales, Boston Region
University of Vermont
Vermont Artisan Designs & Gallery 2
Vermont Butter & Cheese Company
Vermont Country Store
Vermont Energy Investment Corp. (VEIC)
Vermont Public Television
Vermont Pure Holdings, Ltd
Vermont State Employees Credit Union
Vermont Teddy Bear Co.
Zutano, Inc.

VBSR Bookshelf
$1,000 and an Idea

by Sam Wyly


Book 1000 dollars
 

VBSR Bookshelf Information Courtesy of Northshire Bookstore:

2007 Employer Guide Banner
CONTACT US
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60 Lake Street, Suite 3G
Burlington, VT 05401
802-862-8347

Our mission is to foster a business ethic in Vermont that recognizes the opportunity and responsibility of the business community to set a high standard for protecting the natural, human, and economic environments of our citizens.

We are commited to a multiple bottom line approach to business that values people, planet and profit.  For more information about our organization visit info@vbsr.org

Membership Information