Climate Resilience for Businesses NOW: How Data, Law & the Grid Can Support Adaptation
Wednesday, February 5th from 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm
Join VBSR and Vermont leaders to explore insights, data, law, the grid and systems of support for businesses adapting to climate change. This event is a part of the VBSR People.Planet.Prosperity. Speaker Series, where we come together to learn from experts and innovators in the Vermont business community.
Our changing climate is having increasing impacts on Vermont’s businesses and our economy. Warming temperatures, more precipitation, and the frequency of extreme weather events are impacting businesses across the state and across industries. Whether you’re a bricks and mortar general store or a virtual marketing team, on a dirt road or downtown, climate-related business disruptions are likely impacting your staffing, customers, operations, and supply chains, making climate adaptation and preparedness essential to business viability.
While our changing climate is affecting all businesses, small businesses are particularly vulnerable. According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), 75% of small businesses without a continuity plan will fail within 3 years of a natural disaster. The best strategy for minimizing these disruptions is to “have a plan and be prepared,” yet most small businesses do not have a plan for adapting their business to our changing climate and preparing for climate-related business disruptions.
Join experts from across Vermont who will share data on the effects of climate change in Vermont, systems of support, and strategies for climate adaptation that are geared towards small businesses. Our panel will include:
- Gibbs Eddy, UVM SI-MBA Graduate
- Nicole A. Killoran, Director at Vermont Small Business Law Center
- Rebekah Owens, Founder & President at Tiny Home Helper
- Peter Plumeau, Founding Partner at Reframe Lab; Co-Facilitator of ClimateReadyVT
- Rebecca Towne, Chief Executive Officer at Vermont Electric Cooperative
We will meet in the beautiful Hayes Room at the Kellogg-Hubbard Library in downtown Montpelier. The panel will run from 5:00 – 6:30 PM. We hope you will join us afterwards for networking at Three Penny Taproom across the street!
This is a great opportunity to catch up with colleagues, make new connections, gain new ideas and inspiration, and have some fun! This event is open to everyone interested in working toward a just, thriving, and transformative economy that works for all people and the planet.
Food & Drinks
There will be food and drinks available for purchase at Three Penny Taproom after the panel.
Three Penny Taproom operates one of Central Vermont’s busiest and most popular full-service restaurants, serving creative and frankly delicious adaptations of classic pub fare, along with incredible cocktails and one of the most well-regarded and award-winning draft lists in the Northeast.
Thank you to our panel!
Gibbs Eddy
UVM SI-MBA Graduate
Gibbs, a 2024 SI-MBA graduate from UVM, is a systems-oriented strategist. His professional experience spans product management, UX research, and customer experience at organizations ranging from government and non-profit to corporate institutions and startups. He strongly desires to contribute to supporting vibrant communities, including Burlington, Vermont, which he calls home.
Nicole A. Killoran
Director at Vermont Small Business Law Center
Nicole originally hails from Alaska and Utah. Like many of Vermont Law School’s graduates, she came to the Green Mountain State to explore environmental law. During her time at VLS, she served as an academic mentor, a teaching assistant, and a managing editor for the Vermont Law Review. She also completed externships with the Vermont Supreme Court, the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, and the Montpelier firm then known as Tarrant Gillies Merriman & Richardson (presently Tarrant Gillies & Shems). She graduated in 2012 with a JD and Masters of Environmental Law and Policy (with a Certificate in Energy Law).
After graduation, Nicole was admitted to practice in Vermont and in the United States District Court for the District of Vermont. She joined the Burlington firm of Bauer Gravel Farnham, where she practiced administrative and environmental law, land use, municipal, and environmental permit appeals, collections, and landlord-tenant law.
In 2017, Nicole joined the VLS faculty, with the JD Externship Program. Each semester she works with students to find their placements across the country, and teaches them during their externship semester. In 2022, Nicole joined the Vermont Law School Entrepreneurial Legal Laboratory (VLSell), which she now directs. Through VLSell, and its partner the Vermont Small Business Development Center, she works with students and small business clients to provide legal education, public presentations, and referrals to the private bar for direct services.
Nicole is a member of the Vermont Bar Association. She runs the Superior Court, Environmental Division’s, monthly pro se clinic, providing advice to land use, zoning, and environmental permit litigants representing themselves in court. She regularly collaborates with other pro bono providers throughout the state to coordinate free legal services. She is also an advisor with the VBA’s Incubator Program, which supports attorneys in their first year of solo practice.
In her spare time, Nicole enjoys romping through the Vermont countryside with her family, baking fermented breads, making art with her kids, playing with Legos, boasting about her mother-of-twins superpower, and gardening.
Rebekah Owens
Founder & President at Tiny Home Helper
As I travel through life and the world, I’ve shed more and more of the baggage associated with a traditional life. Being absorbed by a moment of time and space is more fulfilling.
Peter Plumeau
Founding Partner at Reframe Lab; Co-Facilitator of ClimateReadyVT
Peter Plumeau, partner at Reframe Lab, has 30 years of leadership experience, most recently as the CEO and President of EBP US, a professional services firm that partners with public and private clients to make better economic decisions through a sustainability lens. Peter provides a deep understanding of the challenges business leaders encounter in our rapidly-changing world. With a keen eye for identifying emerging disruptions, Peter proactively identifies options and opportunities for organizations to adapt to and lead change in uncharted waters.
Peter has provided management and strategic advisory services to over 100 firms, agencies, and organizations across the US and Canada.
Related specifically to climate resilience, Peter developed and facilitated more than a dozen workshops across the US for state and regional planning agencies on integrating climate considerations into infrastructure planning. Recently, he was a speaker on small business climate resilience at the National Adaptation Forum in Minnesota. He was also part of the Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC) team that facilitated government workshops on climate change and urban sustainability in Nanjing and Shanghai, China. In addition, as a policy advisor for the National Coalition for Community Capital (NC3), Peter advocates for inclusive community investment, championing economic diversity. Peter also serves as Chair of the of the Vermont Clean Cities Coalition, which brings together public and private stakeholders from across the state to facilitate development and adaptation of more sustainable transportation and mobility solutions.
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Rebecca Towne
Chief Executive Officer at Vermont Electric Cooperative
Rebecca Towne joined Vermont Electric Cooperative as CEO in October 2018. With over two decades of utility leadership in Vermont, she brings a strong focus of team building, leadership and strategic innovation.In previous roles, Rebecca was VP of Organizational Strategy at Vermont Gas and Chief Talent Officer at Green Mountain Power.She is Chair of Vermont Business Roundtable, a graduate of Leadership Champlain, and a board member of Laraway Youth and Family Services and VELCO, Vermont’s transmission utility.
Thank you to our sponsors!
Davis & Hodgdon Associates CPAs is a full-service public accounting firm with locations in Williston and Rutland Vermont. The firm serves clients by providing progressive, proactive services through expert staff, high-end technology, and unparalleled efficiency. The firm is part of Davis & Hodgdon Advisory Group (DHAG), a one-of-a-kind financial firm with the unique ability to offer tax planning through Davis & Hodgdon CPAs, financial and investment planning through *Copper Leaf Financial, and client accounting services through Convergent Accounting. These comprehensive services address all of your business and individual needs and each has a fully dedicated staff.
*Copper Leaf Financial is an affiliated and separately registered entity.
VEDA is Vermont’s statewide economic development lender. VEDA’s mission is to contribute to Vermont’s economic vitality by providing financing programs to businesses that create jobs and help advance Vermont’s public policy goals. Since 1974, VEDA has provided over $2.8 billion in financing to thousands of Vermont entrepreneurs, manufacturers, small businesses, clean energy producers and agricultural enterprises, helping them realize their goals, create jobs, and enhance the vitality of Vermont’s economy. In collaboration with financial institutions and other lenders, VEDA's diverse loan programs help businesses and farmers grow, prosper and create a more vibrant economy for all Vermonters.
A statewide nonprofit organization founded in 1974, Vermont Humanities seeks to engage all Vermonters in the world of ideas, foster a culture of thoughtfulness, and inspire a lifelong love of reading and learning.
A state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Vermont Humanities believes that engagement with the world of ideas, in interaction with others, contributes uniquely to richer lives, stronger communities, a more humane society, and a better world.
Documentary style storytelling that inspires positive change, highlights potential solutions to complex problems, and fosters community building.
We collaborate with creatives worldwide and have worked on award-winning projects large and small.
Attendee Experience
This event is family-friendly and caretakers of any kind are welcome to attend with your dependents!
All members of New Hampshire Businesses for Social Responsibility are welcome to attend for free.
Please make note of any accommodation requests when you register.
Are you interested in sponsoring this event? If so, please contact to Molly Rand at mollyr@vbsr.org for details.