Vermontivate launches fun challenge for building hope and community sustainability
Vermontivate, an on-line/real-world game, brings fun and creativity to the serious and important work of tackling climate change. Players from around the state will spend six weeks from March 23 – May 2, 2015 racking up points on a wide range of challenges ranging from installing energy efficient light bulbs and starting composting piles to establishing community solar CSAs, test driving electric vehicles, and inventing hybrid modes of transportation.
“Climate change is one of the most significant issues we face as a society,” says Vermontivate co-founder Kathryn Blume, “and most people don’t know what they can do to make a difference. Vermontivate is an entertaining, educational, and competitive way of taking meaningful action and building strong communities. Plus, we celebrate the end of the game with a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream party on the State House lawn in May. Climate action doesn’t get much better than that!”
From global warming newbies to well-educated sustainability mavens, people of all ages and experience levels are invited to play. People who don’t live in Vermont can also register to play on behalf of their favorite Vermont team.
The game, now in its fourth year, has kicked it up for 2015. Thanks to increased funding from a wide range of donors, foundations, and state agencies, they’ve built an entirely new website that looks like a quirky, old-fashioned board game. Challenges have been created to align with
Vermont’s highest-level climate goals, and are designed for maximum real world impact. The game will also feature a video contest, team challenges, and the chance to win a wide range of prizes including gift certificates from local restaurants and free pints of ice cream.
“There are a lot of great energy saving games out there,” says Blume, “but Vermontivate is one of the few gamification strategies that tackles full spectrum sustainability. The core challenges are around energy, transportation and food, but we also play with everything from waste reduction and water conservation to Gross National Happiness and the sharing economy.”
“We have something for everyone,” says game co-founder and Vermont Energy Investment Corporation consultant Nick Lange. “As we say to our players: Play Well, Do Good, Be Great!”
For more information and to get on the registration mailing list, visit vermontivate.com
Vermont Technical College is committed to educating students as the workforce to support renewable energy systems and infrastructure development in Vermont. A number of technical “green trainings” are being offered in the coming months ranging from solar PV, solar hot water, waste water, OSHA standards, and wetland delineation.
Vermont Tech is offering introductory and advanced classes that serve as a great opportunity for individuals to enter the growing field of solar installation and for the existing workforce to advance their skill set. By successfully passing the NABCEP Entry Level exam, students at an introductory level will demonstrate the basic knowledge necessary to apply the fundamental application principles, design installation, and operation of grid-tied and stand-alone PV Systems. Renewable Energy Vermont (REV) recently approved this 40-hour training to qualify any individual for Provisional Partnership, regardless of their status of an electrical license.
For the more advanced PV installer, an upcoming one day course on April 15th will provide continuing education for the Electrical S license in solar technology. Taught by Dan Kiney, in compliance with the Vermont State Electrical Board, this class has been approved by the VT State Electrical Board for 8 S License Continuing Education Hours.
The 16 hour Introduction to Solar Hot Water being held May 2-3 has been approved for licensed plumbers by REV for Provisional Solar Hot Water Partnership and only requires a basic knowledge of electrical systems.
Additionally, a BPI Dual Certificate Training scheduled for June 1-5 will focus on the building sciences related to physics and control strategies for air, heat, and moisture and will prepare students to test for their Building Analyst and Envelope Professional Certifications.
Learn more about these and other Vermont Tech Continuing Education & Workforce Development Green Trainings.
Burlington, VT, March 16, 2015– Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility (VBSR)
announced that it secured funding to continue the Business Energy Action (BEA) program through 2015. BEA works with companies to help them implement energy efficiency strategies that help to save 5% per year.
This additional funding for BEA is provided by the Vermont Bioenergy Initiative, a program of the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund. The Vermont Bioenergy Initiative connects diversified agriculture and local renewable energy production for on-farm and community use by supporting research, technical assistance, and infrastructure development in emerging areas of bioenergy, and overall education on the benefits of renewable energy and energy efficiency. Funding was made possible by the Office of US Senator Patrick Leahy and the US Department of Energy.
“We’re grateful for the support of Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund as we work to help Vermont businesses reduce their need for fossil fuel,” said Andrea Cohen, Executive Director of Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility. “Business Energy Action helps businesses be not only more responsible consumers of energy, but also helps their bottom line to create a more vibrant economy here in Vermont.”
Business Energy Action is currently working with more than 80 member businesses across the state.
About VBSR
Founded in 1990, VBSR is a statewide, non-profit business association with a mission to advance business ethics that value multiple bottom lines: economic, social, and environmental. Through education, public influence, and workplace quality, VBSR strives to help 760+ members set a high standard for protecting the natural, human, and economic environments of the state’s residents, while remaining profitable. Learn more or join the cause at www.vbsr.org.
Nick Meyer of North Hardwick Dairy, an Organic Valley milk producer, was able to reduce energy costs and increase self-sufficiency by growing sunflowers for biodiesel and meal while maintaining a wind turbine to help cover electricity needs.
We all know food gives us energy. But we might sometimes lose sight of the amount of energy involved in producing, processing and delivering that food to our plates. Everything requires energy: from tractors plowing and planting to producing fertilizer or compost; from milking cows and keeping that milk cold to storing and transporting vegetables. This energy costs farms real money and it is sometimes a major category of expense. Energy costs are typically one of the highest for farms, rivaling feed costs on dairy farms and labor costs on vegetable farms.
As Vermont experiences growth in food-related businesses and jobs, decisions about energy become more and more important. This has been part of Vermont’s Farm to Plate Strategic Plan and the associated network of people working on implementing that plan. The plan includes goals related to energy, including; reducing farm production expenses, reducing adverse environmental impacts from farm and food system activities, reducing energy use, and increasing renewable energy use in the food system.
One example of how this is actually working is a group called the Farm to Plate Energy Cross Cutting Team: a group of energy specialists from Efficiency Vermont, the Agency of Agriculture, UVM’s Rubenstein School and UVM Extension, The Vermont Bioenergy Initiative, USDA NRCS and private companies. The team meets regularly to learn from each other and take on specific projects such as the recent set of seven “Energy Success Stories” which were released at the 2014 Farm Show, showcasing farms, businesses, vendors, installers, and technical assistance providers who have made a difference with energy efficiency savings and renewable energy production.
Chaired by Efficiency Vermont planning manager, JJ Vandette, the energy team will continue to address the Farm to Plate Efficiency and Renewable Energy Goal to decrease overall food system energy consumption and increase food system renewable energy production and the Farm to Plate Environmental Impacts Goal to decrease adverse environmental impacts from farming and food system activities—while helping to decrease production expenses—also a goal of the Farm to Plate Strategic Plan.
The team is always interested in having new members. If you have an interest in energy, especially energy on farms and in the food system, we’d love to hear from you. JJ Vandette can be reached at jvandette@veic.org or 802.540.7915.
Data sources and analysis at www.vtfarmtoplate.com/getting-to-2020.
Sunflowers growing at Ekolott Farm in Newbury VT
2014 was a busy year for the Vermont Bioenergy Initiative as we engaged in national outreach efforts to share our work connecting diversified agriculture and local renewable energy production for on-farm and community use in ways that be applicable to rural areas around the country. These rural areas are often at “the end of the pipeline” and are subject to higher and more volatile costs for energy. The Vermont Bioenergy Initiative “local production for local use” model shows that rural communities can produce some of their own energy, thereby improving their energy security and benefitting from more predictable and affordable energy prices. Any farm in any part of the country can grow and process their own fuel, using the best practices developed by the collaborating farms and UVM Extension researchers working in partnership with the Vermont Bioenergy Initiative. Funding for our program work to support research, technical assistance, and infrastructure development in emerging areas of bioenergy was secured by US Senator Patrick Leahy and the US Department of Energy.
Recent news we distributed to local, regional, and national audiences includes:
Local production for local use is biofuel model that works in Vermont.
Vermont sunflowers to help provide biodiesel power.
We have worked with several regional and national publications to secure editorial specifically featuring oil crops for on-farm biodiesel and feed, and grass energy for heating.
Check out the recent interview with our UVM Extension consultant and agricultural engineer, Chris Callahan in Biofuels Journal.
Read about alternative energy innovations on the farm featuring farms a part of the Farm Fresh Fuel Project in Farming Magazine.
The Grass Energy Report we released summer 2014 was featured extensively in both Renewable Energy World and On Pasture Magazine.
Visit the Green Energy Times website for our ongoing column, Emerging Frontiers in Bioenergy and follow the Vermont Bionenergy on Twitter for current news, trends, and tweets on renewable energy in Vermont and beyond.
