The Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund (VSJF) was created by the Vermont Legislature to identify and fund market driven solutions to our pressing economic, social, andenvironmental issues.
What’s New
8-31-2009
Local Growers Hope to Harvest Flower Power
A new article by Stephanie Peters appearing in Sunday's Rutland Herald highlights the work of Woods Market Garden, one of VSJF's Vermont Biofuels Initiative grantees.
"Bursts of brilliant yellow sunflowers have added some pop to the scenery along Routes 3, 7 and 73 in Brandon and Pittsford this summer, attracting photo seekers and causing more than a few passers-by to slow their vehicles and crane their necks to take in the fields of flowers..."
8-20-2009
Sustainable Wood Guide Specification UPDATED
Short and Long Forms for Certified Wood Sheathing, Shop-Fabricated Structural Wood, Wood Windows, Wood Flooring, and Wood Furniture are now available.
Sustainable Wood Guide Specification documents, or “Green GuideSpecs”, were created to assist architects, designers, specifiers, facility managers, green builders, Vermont wood product manufacturers, fabricators, and communities interested in supporting third-party certified, Vermont forest products.
As Sustainable Wood Guide Specification author Jonathan Miller points out, the " easiest path to practicing “due care” is to specify the use third-party certified wood and wood products for all of your projects or products."
8-13-2009
The Future of Food in a Peak Oil World
Free lecture by best-selling author Paul Roberts at the Dudley H. Davis Center at the University of Vermont.
When: Monday, September 21, 2009
Time: 5:00 pm
Free and open to the public: Parking available in the Gutterson Garage after 3:30 pm.
More information at uvm.edu/aiken
8-11-2009
Energy Atlas Application Deadline Extended
The application deadline and subsequent timeline for the Renewable Energy Atlas of Vermont website design/development project has been extended:
Deadline for RFP Applications August 24, 2009
VSJF Staff Completes Review of Applications September 1, 2009
Finalists Interviews (possible days) September 3, 4, 8, 9, 2009
Notice of Funding Decision September 10, 2009
Date Funds Available (approximately) September 2009
Beta Version of Atlas Within 3 Months of Contract
Answers to frequently asked questions are posted here, and the deadline for questions is now August 19th.
7-31-2009
Revised FAQs for Renewable Energy Atlas RFP are now Posted
Click here to read questions and answers regarding the Renewable Energy Atlas of Vermont website designer / developer RFP.
7-31-2009
P2P Client MSI in the News
The Vermont Economic Development Authority has approved $3 million in financing to support business and agricultural development projects totaling $7 million. Included is a $825,000 loan to Manufacturing Solutions, Inc. (MSI) in Morristown to partially finance a $3.5 million project to purchase and renovate the 95,000-square-foot HA Manosh, Inc hardwood sawmill property and the adjacent 22,000 square foot former Lamoille Valley Railroad Engine House.
MSI assembles, tests and ships products for Concept II and other companies. The project will allow MSI to consolidate production from three other buildings in Morrisville and Hyde Park, making that space available for lease to other small businesses. MSI employs 81 persons, a number expected to grow to 95 within three years of the project. Union Bank is also participating in the project.
VSJF's technical assistance program--Peer to Peer Collaborative--worked with MSI in 2007-2008 to help the company manage growth, develop better cost accounting, and provide leadership development to CEO Garrett Hirchak.
The Peer to Peer Collaborative was created in 2003 to provide strategic advisory services to growth stage companies in Vermont. By providing critical leadership development to the entrepreneurs of companies with $1 – 15million in sales, these entrepreneurs should see increased company profitability - thereby providing an opportunity for improving employee wages and benefits.
P2P matches accomplished Peer Advisors (CEOs, COOs, and CFOs) in teams of three with CEOs of growing companies over a 12 to 18 month period. Peer advisors encourage entrepreneurial learning by sharing experiences, triumphs and failures, and offering our clients an outside perspective on growth challenges. Drawing on the talents of Advisors who have “walked in your shoes” has helped accelerate the growth of these companies. Our P2P clients come out of the program with a plan to build stronger operations, improve profitability and support livable wages for their Vermont employees.
7-20-2009
Request for Proposals: Renewable Energy Atlas of Vermont Website
Click here to access the RFP.
The Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund (VSJF) is soliciting the best proposals for the development of the Renewable Energy Atlas of Vermont (Atlas) website.
The Atlas is intended to be a robust and user-friendly website, with a strong geographic information system (GIS) component that will enable Vermonters to explore and analyze five types of renewable energy resources: biomass, geothermal, hydroelectric, solar, and wind via select spatial boundaries (e.g., their hometowns, multiple towns, counties, and other spatial boundaries). The GIS portion of the Atlas has been under development by VSJF and the Vermont Center for Geographic Information (VCGI) for several months and will be completed by October 2009. The GIS work underway by VCGI will map existing renewable energy locations (e.g., net metered sites) and analyze plausible new locations for renewable energy development. Each of the nineteen energy layers under construction are being filtered or screened with a set of “suitability metrics” that will illuminate likely locations while masking areas unsuitable for a particular type of renewable energy development.
7-20-2009
Montpelier, VT –– The Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund (VSJF) announced today that is has officially launched the Farm to Plate Initiative, has named a 15 member Strategic Planning Process Team and has hired Kit Perkins as the Initiative’s project manager.
“The Farm-to-Plate Initiative aims to bolster Vermont’s food system by quantifying market potential and pin-pointing critical bottlenecks, especially in processing and storage infrastructure and distribution systems so that more of Vermont’s agricultural products can be enjoyed by Vermonters and throughout the Northeast,” said Ellen Kahler, Executive Director of the VSJF. She went on to say that, “A ten year strategic food system plan, which will be one of the main deliverables from this initiative, will help determine where future investments should be made, thereby leading to more jobs and overall agricultural economic activity.”
6-11-2009
Pew Charitable Trusts Report on Clean Energy Finds Vermont "Small and Growing".
A new Pew Charitable Trusts report finds that Vermont has 311 clean energy businesses (2007), 2,161 clean energy jobs (2007), and a 15.3% growth rate from 1998-2007.
It classifies Vermont as small and growing, a middle of the pack type of ranking: "Another 12 states have small and growing clean energy economies, with fewer than average jobs and some annual job growth, although their rates of growth— less than 2 percent—lag behind states with similarly sized clean energy economies. These states are Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and Vermont."
Click here for more information.
2-4-2009
VSJF 2008 Annual Report is Now Online
Click here to read about our major activities for 2008.
12-30-2008
The Vermont Woodworking School is getting ready to open its new facility on Route 104 in Fairfax, just three miles west of the town of Cambridge. We have completely fit up a late 1800's, three-story, 15,000 square foot, high drive barn to house our woodworking school. We have space for woodworkers and artists. All shop residents and members will have access to place their items in our gallery.
12-10-2008
Support Local Tourism!
Tough economic times are driving the Vermont Outdoor Guide Association's web traffic way up, as more people decide to take local vacation trips, reports VOGA Executive Director Gray Stevens. VOGA, a VSJF grantee in 1999, continues to provide the most complete directory of outdoor services and adventure travel resources in Vermont. Please consider visiting the VOGA website for your family's next vacation.
12-4-2008
VSJF in the News
Two new articles about VSJF activities have just come out! An overview of VSJF by one of our co-founders, Bruce Seifer, appears in the latest issue of Communities & Banking, a publication of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. And an overview of VSJF's market building approach to small-scale, sustainable biodiesel production appears in biodieselSMARTER.
11-24-2008
P2P Client Union Street Media Wins Entrepreneurial Spirit Award!
Heartfelt congratulations to Union Street Media, a VSJF Peer to Peer Client, and winner of the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce's Entrepreneurial Spirit Award!
The award is presented annually to a local business that exemplifies entrepreneurship, leadership, creativity and business expertise. Click here to read more about Union Street Media.
11-21-2008
Vermont Grass Energy Symposium a Big Success
Where is Vermont today in its knowledge and capacity in the production, processing, and combustion technology of grass and other pelletizable fuels? What don’t we know in this emerging yet rapidly growing area? And, where do we want to be in the next couple of years to position ourselves to depend less on petroleum imports and more on our wood and herbaceous energy resources?
To start to answer these questions, VSJF, the Biomass Energy Resource Center, and the University of Vermont Extension held a Grass Energy Symposium on November 12th, 2008 at Shelburne Farms.
Click here to download presentations from Roger Samson, Executive Director of R.E.A.P.-Canada, and many others on growing, harvesting, processing, pelletizing, and combustion.
10-29-2008
Energy conservation and renewable energy production are increasing the bottom line for businesses in Vermont and New Hampshire. USDA Rural Development can pay for up to 25% of eligible efficiency or renewable energy system costs with grant funds and help finance an additional 50% of the project costs with a guaranteed loan. Biofuel production equipment is also an eligible program purpose. The maximum grants are $500,000 for renewable systems and $250,000 for efficiency projects.
10-28-2008
New State Line Biofuels and Borderview Farm Webpage Updates
Check out the history and development of Vermont's first two small-scale on-farm biodiesel facilities.
State Line Biofuels
Borderview Farm
Vermont currently meets most of its demand for oilseed co-products and substitutes through importation: Vermont farms import over 100,000 tons of livestock meal and over 6 million gallons of diesel fuel per year. On-farm energy production offers opportunities for Vermont farmers to develop new value-added revenue sources (e.g., organic, local livestock meal), reduce on-farm expenditures and greenhouse gas emissions, ensure their energy security, and circulate money locally.
10-14-2008
New Solar Powered Grain Dryer at State Line Farm
Vermont's marquee on-farm biodiesel production facility, State Line Biofuels, has experienced a significant challenge posed by the need to dry and store oilseeds. A new feasibility study completed by Chris Callahan Engineering at State Line Farm has shown that the use of a solar hot water system to power a grain dryer dries the grain in half the time compared to an ambient air drying system. Additionally, the solar hot water system will be used to heat the biodiesel barn, raise the temperature of pressed oil for conversion to biodiesel and may be used for the recovery of methanol following biodiesel production.
Click here to download the new report.
10-6-2008
Former Peer to Peer Client Danforth Pewter Named Addison County's Business of the Year
The Addison County Chamber of Commerce has announced that Danforth Pewter was the recipient of its Business of the Year award.
The Business of the Year award is given to a business located in Addison County that has shown a significant improvement in the development of their business, positively impacting the economy on a local, regional or international level. According to Andy Mayer, Chamber President, "Danforth Pewter, and its owners Fred and Judi Danforth, have been active in serving the Addison County community by expanding their business through the years, and they have created an environment that their employees love being a part of. Danforth Pewter has donated time in the community and contributed to many events. Additionally, Fred and Judi encourage their employees to donate time back to the community."
...Click here to read more...
9-29-2008
Unassuming Algae Eyed as Green Fuel
Click here to read a recent MSNBC story on algal biofuel.
VSJF's grant-making and technical assistance programs support innovative enterprises and business networks. Our current efforts focus on the intersection between the biofuels / renewable energy, sustainable forestry and agricultural sectors. We work to accelerate the rate at which products (and the businesses that make these products) from these sectors become firmly established in the marketplace. 
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