VBSR in the News
Business Group Pushes for Change
Back when Will Patten worked for ice cream maker Ben &Jerry's, the words of founder Ben Cohen left an impression on him.
I heard Ben say, "If you want to change the world, business is the best platform. It's no longer government," Patten recalled.
The question Patten faces is whether business can change government. In his new job as executive director of Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility, he's trying to guide the organization to do just that.
The business organization is on a mission to nudge state government toward a new way of looking at economic development, taking aim at the state's more traditional approach to supporting business through cash incentives and tax credits.
It's time to question all of the assumptions of our economic development strategies, Patten said.
Good for Vermonters
VBSR is a statewide and diverse business group with 630 members that include an array of companies from Vermont-grown Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, widely recognized for its socially responsible approach to doing business, to Clear Channel Communications, a national company that owns radio stations in the state and has been criticized by state leaders for taking control of the media out of local hands.
Patten said the group is open to all businesses and there are no criteria for joining.
The push to rethink economic development strategy is part of a larger effort to raise the profile of the 17-year-old business group as a force for change, taking a more activist role in public policy and rallying its members around socially responsible causes.
Economic development is just one of several initiatives the organization has in store, said Patten, who once owned a Ben & Jerry's scoop shop and joined the company, retiring as global director of retail operations.
Other VBSR initiatives include coming up with ways that members can demonstrate their commitment to social responsibility, like taking steps to reduce carbon emissions and their waste stream. The organization is even on tap for a name change, though a new name hasn't been selected. Taking a higher profile on issues may make some members uncomfortable but will build credibility for the organization, Patten said.
To illustrate VBSR's philosophy, Patten repeats the adage "What's good for General Motors is good for America," as an outdated view of economic development. VBSR would substitute, "What's good for Vermonters is good for business."
VBSR's formula for change is fairly simple: Give every Vermonter health care. Assist businesses to be energy-efficient. Focus on job training.
"If Vermont had universal health care, addressed the escalating cost of energy and was really committed to developing the skills in the work force, there wouldn't be a better state to do business," Patten said.
Retooling incentives
VBSR doesn't discount incentives altogether. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, a founding member of VBSR, was recently authorized for up to $1.6 million in job-creation incentives. Nevertheless, the state needs to take a longer look at how businesses are supported, Patten said.
As another example, computer chip designer Qimonda, which has a development office in Williston, was authorized for $209,664 in incentives for an expansion. Qimonda is a $4.8 billion multi-national business based in Germany, and Patten thinks it's right to question whether an incentive that size really makes a difference to a multi-billion company.
To Kevin Dorn, secretary of Commerce and Community Development, incentives to companies like Qimonda are crucial. Qimonda could be located anywhere in the world and incentives are critical to keeping their office and 120 employees here, he said.
Incentives are a net positive for the state because the state gets back more in revenue from the growing company than it paid out, he said.
"There's absolutely zero question in my mind that they work," Dorn said. "It's a critical program that returns money to the state. These are net positive to the state. How anyone could argue they are not important has not sat down with business people in the state as I have."
Fresh look
Dorn defended the state's economic development strategy.
Improving the economic climate is not as simple as offering universal health care, he said. The entire spectrum of business costs must be evaluated from housing to energy to availability of technology, which has been the state's approach, Dorn said.
"We have a strategy. The real issue is nobody in the Legislature seems to be paying attention to the cost drivers, those things that make the state less affordable," Dorn said.
Don Mayer, president of VBSR, and president and chief executive officer of Small Dog Electronics in Waitsfield, said the state needs to step back and rethink its approach to supporting businesses, he said.
"It's really a question of taking a fresh look at the priorities. Most of those incentives tend to go to larger businesses, yet the bedrock of the Vermont economy is the smaller business, the solo practitioners, the country stores, the gas stations, the stores on Main Street. We need to find a way to have those businesses prosper," Mayer said.
VBSR's new approach makes sense to Tom Stearns, president of High Mowing Seeds in Wolcott, a member of the organization. He's happy to see VBSR take a more activist role and hopes the organization's efforts help attract new, young companies. Stearns was a founder of a group of socially responsible minded businesses in the Northeast Kingdom and none of the businesses, except his, are members of VBSR.
Issues like health care and the environment are ones that these smaller companies would rally around, however, he said."Maybe it can actually act as a bridge builder for businesses that don't otherwise have things in common," Stearns said.
