Green Business: A Sustainable Enterprise for Vermont's
Economic Future

By Carrie L. Chandler

Vermont is the green state - we don't have billboards, our land is unspoiled (for the most part), and we are home to the Green Mountains. Heck, we even have green license plates. But green doesn't just represent a color anymore. For many in the state, green also signifies "the green economy," and growing that economy is on the minds of many business owners who call Vermont home.

For those businesses aspiring to be "green," the first challenge is defining the term. Are companies green because they're sustainable? Socially responsible? Producers of eco-products? Consumers of them? In the face of this uncertainty, Vermont businesses are forging ahead with their own definitions, guided by both strong ethics and good business sense.

Melinda Moulton, CEO and developer of Main Street Landing, a sustainable redevelopment company in Burlington, is one business leader who has charted her own way. According to Moulton, she and her business partner, Lisa Steele, never aspired to create a green business. "We started to think this way in the '80s. It was something that was really deep inside of us. It's not like we thought, 'Oh, let's be green, let's be environmental,'" she said.

Since then, the company has strived to maintain a commitment to the environment, creating and redeveloping buildings into places that are healthy for the people inside of them, healthy for the environment, energy-efficient, and comfortable. One example is their Lake and College building, which opened in 2005 on the Burlington waterfront (see Vermont Woman July 2005). The 100,000 square foot building houses a theater, shops, and offices and is built to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification standards. These standards ensure, through third-party certification, that the building is environmentally responsible and a healthy place to work.

For Main Street Landing, being green means not only creating healthy buildings but minimizing the company's own carbon footprint by using recycled paper and green cleaning products, and composting. The company also strives to be socially responsible, creating public spaces that share these same green conditions. "We do everything in our power to be green. We walk the walk," Moulton said.

Montpelier Joins the Bandwagon

Meanwhile in Montpelier, the executive office purports to head the pack in advocating for green businesses: Lieutenant Governor Brian Dubie has been spearheading the Green Valley Initiative since 2003.

In the Green Valley vision, Vermont can do with environmental technology in the 21st century what California's Silicon Valley did with information technology in the '80s and '90s. "It is an expansive vision about business practices consistent with what we have demonstrated in Vermont for generations - land stewardship and our sustainable agricultural background," Dubie said.

Dubie defines a green business as one seeking solutions to the problems caused by climate change. Because of these "challenges that we confront as a globe," Vermont businesses can export their research and development around the world. And, he added, companies that embrace green business practices, broadly defined, will remain competitive in a world facing increasingly limited resources.

But politicians are better known for their talking than their walking, and the green business bandwagon is no exception. Although Governor Jim Douglas has traveled to China in support of the Green Valley Initiative, Vermont has yet to see any benefit from the five-year-old project. A 2004 study released by students at Middlebury College noted that the initiative has many shortcomings. "[P]romotion of the Green Valley Initiative needs to be understood at many levels: economic, educational, and public awareness," they wrote. It needs "a comprehensive plan" for awareness that includes "developing a strong incentive program with consistent funding, working towards a renewable portfolio standard, formalizing and strengthening the role and visibility of the Vermont Environmental Consortium, [and] utilizing the research capabilities of the state's colleges and universities."

In his 2007 State of the State speech, Douglas laid out a plan for the "Vermont Way Forward" that included an initiative to bring environmental engineering companies into the state. Commerce and Community Development Secretary Kevin Dorn noted last April that, "This initiative to make Vermont a global center for environmental engineering is the element that brings the entire Green Valley concept together." Technically, then, Vermont has a plan to become the Green Valley of Dubie's ideal, but it still seems merely to be treading water.

What About Trade Organizations?

Closely allied with the concept of the Green Valley Initiative is the Vermont Environmental Consortium (VEC), a Norwich University-based association of green businesses, educational institutions, non-profits, and public agencies. But VEC takes a broader view of green business. Executive Director Daniel Hecht prefers the more inclusive term "green enterprise," and applies it to anyone providing a green service: "those employed by environmental companies, farmers doing sustainable agriculture, environment-related educators, green builders, renewable energy technicians, and those who work in businesses that create green consumer products." Hecht noted that VEC's definition is modeled after ECOCanada, a nonprofit that keeps tabs on the Canadian economy and trends in green business. ECOCanada defines green business based on what people do instead of where they work.

Andrea Cohen, public policy coordinator for Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility (VBSR), uses a similarly expansive definition of green business. "There are businesses whose product or service is an environmental product or service, and then there are businesses whose core mission has nothing to do with the environment, but they are acting in accordance with environmental principles in how they conduct their business," she said. "People might define it differently for different purposes. But in a resource-constrained world, [being green] is not an option; it is how you do business."

The VEC tracks approximately 260 environmental enterprises in Vermont, finding a consistently higher rate of growth than in other sectors. In 2006, Hecht's research indicated that four percent of the state's employees were involved in a green enterprise - roughly double the national average. "None of this includes the recent developments in the energy field, which grew by 2000 percent in 2007," Hecht added.

Different Definitions, Same Benefits

For Moulton, being green doesn't end with a light carbon footprint. "People talk about sustainability and separate out environmentalism, but it has a 50 percent social mission as well," she noted. "You have to sustain the heart and soul of people around you because that affects the environment. If the environment is pristine, but humans are unhappy, what have you accomplished?"

This sentiment is shared by other companies whose products often have no direct environmental affiliation, such as National Life in Montpelier. According to Chris Graff, vice-president of communications, the company's well entrenched green streak is a legacy of former Governor Deane Davis, a past president of National Life. "Deane cared passionately about Vermont and its land," said Graff. "His passion has been part of National Life's being and contributed to our own green initiatives, long before they became the in-thing for businesses." In the early '80s, for example, the company installed dark, reflective, double-insulated glass to keep heat out in the summer and in during the winter.

Five years ago, National Life embarked on a more ambitious project to turn the headquarters into a green campus, which Graff says involves "examining our whole approach to how we live, breathe, and function in our facilities." Changes included recycling; reducing, or eliminating the production and use of pollutants and toxic waste; and creating efficiencies in heating and cooling.

The company has since created one of the best storm water runoff cleansing systems in the state, according to Graff. It has also reduced its energy bills by 27 percent through the installation of a roof membrane. As part of its current campaign to be LEED-certified, the firm added carpet with no VOCs (volatile organic compounds), installed occupancy sensors to control the lighting, and new, 95 percent efficient lighting technology.

National Life is aligning their workplace with the VEC's broader definition of what it means to be a green enterprise. "We are not a green business, that is, we don't make products like wind towers," said Graff. "What we are is a business that understands the importance of being green, of being a responsible corporate citizen."

The variety of enterprises that consider themselves green doesn't stop with traditional businesses. Water Music is a non-profit based in Randolph that encourages green attitudes by using arts, music, and literature to draw attention to water sources, thereby raising money to protect them. "Water Music is at heart a green project, in that its overall focus and goal is to help protect the critically important element in our natural environment of water," said Executive Director Marjorie Ryerson. It "allow[s] people to relate to water more deeply and to, as a result, become better personal stewards of water."

A more traditional green enterprise is groSolar, a company in White River Junction that sells solar energy systems (see Vermont Woman April 2005). According to President Dori Wolfe, the company is green both in the products and service they provide, and in their business practices. "To be green is to be as sustainable as possible in our work," she declared. For the company, this involves "power[ing] our business with a 10-kilowatt PV [photovoltaic] array. Every space we have renovated includes the highest efficiency standards possible." Wolfe adds that the company participates in Green Up Day, and sells renewable products.

Like groSolar, Vermont Energy Investment Corporation (VEIC), the non-profit that provides services for Efficiency Vermont customers, offers a green service. But according to Executive Director Beth Sachs, "I never thought of us as a green business because we have always been. The term is new, but the concept is old."

By providing customers with ways to reduce the costs of energy - economically, socially, and environmentally - the company is contributing to a greener world. And, internally, VEIC is also walking the walk by embarking upon an aggressive plan to offset both the company's and each staff member's greenhouse gas emissions by 10,000 fold in 20 years. The company uses employee shuttles, offers community supported agriculture shares (CSAs) to its employees, hosts brown bag lunches on bike maintenance and car tuning for greater efficiency, and provides a $350 reimbursement each year for anything that employees do to reduce their carbon footprint.

Like Main Street Landing, VEIC realizes that being green also includes a social component. "We need to be treated as adults in our workplace," said Sachs. "We try to have fun and create a nice environment for people to work in." VEIC's building relies on natural lighting and open spaces, and the company makes sure that employees have the ability to be flexible in their work schedules. Satisfied employees make the workplace more enjoyable - one of the goals of being green for many of these companies.

Is It Worth It?

Regardless of their personal definitions of green business, these enterprises all benefit from their commitment to the environment - both through growth and economic savings, and through putting values into practice. Graff noted, for instance, that National Life is going green because: "One, it is the right thing to do. Our CEO, Tom MacLeay, is a Vermont native. He believes, as Deane Davis did, that by being an environmentally conscious company, we are a more responsible company. And, two, it makes good business sense. Saving 27 percent on your heating fuel bill is huge."

Ryerson said that her choice to make Water Music green comes from the fact that she "care[s] passionately about doing what I can to help protect water." The benefits for her come from being a part of the greater conservation effort. "It is a matter of doing what all of us can to help preserve this one aspect of our planet for future generations."

The leaders of these enterprises also note that, while other companies in Vermont struggle to recruit people, being green has helped them grow. Wolfe noted that groSolar has grown 3500 percent in the past five years, due to the fact that they are "providing good-paying, rewarding jobs for Vermonters." VEIC has also seen an influx of new employees. In 1986, when the company began, there were only two employees and an $8,000 budget. Now the company is home to 140 employees and boasts a $6 million dollar budget. "We have attracted fantastic employees," said Sachs, and attributed it to the fact that "we are a mission- and values-driven organization. We can attract people to that because we can articulate it. In the end, it's all about the people."

Location, Location, Location

Living and working in a place that aligns with an employee's personal values plays a large role in the success of these enterprises, according to Hecht. "People enter these fields because they have personal values," he said. "On a psychological level, you are doing what you believe in."

Wolfe also noted that opening groSolar in Vermont was a conscious choice. "Ten years ago when we started the company, we purposely moved to Vermont because of its progressive history, with Act 250, billboards, etcetera. Vermonters also were more amenable to renewable power sources than where we were, a suburb of Chicago."

Whether Vermont is friendly to green enterprise seems to be based on perspective. Cohen of VBSR noted that "We need to capitalize on Vermont's green brand and be a mecca for green business, but it's very hard to compete with other states in incentives." That is a sentiment echoed by the Legislature, who is working on a bill to create financial incentives for green business called the Green VEGI (Vermont Employment Growth Incentive) Program. Cohen does believe that some growth is happening as green businesses hire people and bring money into the state.

Others in green enterprise think Vermont is a great place to do business. "I don't believe Vermont is unfriendly to green businesses," said Moulton. "The businesses here in Vermont are here because they want to be here, and their employees want to live here. If they have to pay more for that, they will." She points to growth in the membership of VBSR as an indicator of the willingness of people to do business here. She also noted that "having to pay doesn't mean that Vermont is unfriendly to business. Here, it is about the environment and the human psyche and having a good life. In that light, Vermont is a great place to do business."

"This is a growth industry," said Hecht. "It is attracting entrepreneurs of every sort. Vermont can experiment with things because it is easier to do on a small scale, and we have a prevailing green ethic."

Moulton noted that women will play a key role in growing Vermont's green businesses. "Women are breaking the glass ceiling and have more of an opportunity to run their own businesses," she said. The green business model is a perfect place for those women to start, according to Moulton, because "the thing about women is that they are nurturing and tend to think long-term. When it comes to social responsibility and the environment, there are women involved in leadership because that is what they believe."

Ryerson agrees that green businesses hold potential for women, but noted that, "The green business movement needs all of us: men and women, children, retired people, working professionals, old and young. Being green isn't a matter of gender or sexual preference. It is a matter of treating our planet with ethics and nurturing."

Although there is no single definition of green business, these enterprises show that progress and growth is occurring. The difficulty lies in providing evidence of that progress. Without a definition, there is no way to measure where green enterprise is going. "We need to be able to measure growth and we need the feedback that comes from measurement - it is critical," said Sachs. "People and business want that kind of feedback and need it."

Carrie Chandler is a freelance journalist living in Barre.

To comment on this article, email editor@vermontwoman.com