VBSR Young Changemaker Award:

Ashley Reynolds
President and Co-Founder of Elmore Mountain Therapeutics

Meet Our 2021 Awardees:

VBSR Terry Ehrich Award for Lifetime Achievement:    

Cindy Turcot – CEO and President of Gardener’s Supply

Cindy Turcot is the CEO and President of Gardener’s Supply Company.  Cindy has been with Gardener’s since its inception in 1983.  She started in data entry and has had many roles including Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer.  She has played a key role in creating the company’s unique and innovative management style that reinforces the emphasis on a triple bottom line – people, profit and planet.

Gardener’s Supply is 100% employee owned through an ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan). Cindy was a key player in the transition from the founder to the ESOP and is a driving force for a strong employee ownership culture.  Nationally, she is well known for her commitment to employee ownership, empowerment and wealth equality.  She is a sought-after speaker on ownership culture, corporate governance and open book and participatory management practices.

Cindy is currently Chair of the Employee Ownership Foundation located in Washington DC whose mission is to promote employee ownership.  She is past Chair and current Board member of the national ESOP Association and past President of the New England Chapter of the ESOP Association.  In addition, she was the founding Chair of the Vermont Employee Ownership Center (VEOC) at its inception in 2002.  She continues to serve on the Board of the VEOC as Treasurer.  She is a past member of the Board of Directors of the Employee Expansion Network (EOX), a non-profit whose mission is to create state centers for employee ownership in all states.  Cindy also serves on the Board of Directors of several ESOP owned companies.

VBSR Innovation and Inspiration Award:

HELM Construction Solutions

HELM Construction Solutions is an innovative Vermont-based firm providing business consulting, coaching, estimating, project management, and specialized training to high-performance design and build companies across the U.S. and Canada. HELM’s purpose is to “revolutionize the construction industry, centering the triple bottom line principles of planet, people, and prosperity to become a catalyst for climate justice.” HELM is a majority woman, trans, and non-binary owned and operated company. They work to disrupt toxic masculinity and advocate for the participation of women and LGBTQIA people in the trades. HELM leaders are active members of their communities, engaged in social, environmental, and racial justice struggles locally and within their professional networks. With remote offices in Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, and Chicago, HELM’s growing team has a vision of transforming the built environment one company and one project at a time. Where some view the construction industry as a major contributor to global warming, violators of worker’s rights, a driving force in gentrification, with a culture of entrenched racism, sexism, homophobia, and ableism, we see an undeniable opportunity to support our industry (and our clients) to become leaders and participants in the movements for climate justice.

VBSR Young Changemaker Award:

Ashley Reynolds – President and Co-Founder of Elmore Mountain Therapeutics

Ashley Reynolds is the President and Co-Founder of Elmore Mountain Therapeutics. Ashley and her husband Colin established EMT in May of 2017 after Ashley’s personal struggle with postpartum anxiety. Finding relief through the use of CBD, Ashley saw a need for cannabis advocation to all. Reynolds believes the strong household decision makers of the world stand to benefit the most from the use of cannabis and has worked tirelessly empowering women to make smart, safe decisions around cannabis use. By providing science backed education and high quality lab tested CBD products, Ashley and the EMT Team have created a loyal following of canna-experts. Ask any customer why they choose EMT over other CBD brands and they will passionately tell you EMT is more than product, it’s a way of life, it’s culture. Ashley is also a TEDtalk presenter “Cannabis a Future without stigma” and has recently been appointed by the Speaker of the House Jill Krowinski to the Vermont Cannabis Control Advisory Committee.

As a founding member of VBSR,Gardener’sSupply not only believes that social, environmental, and human policies are essential for a regenerative economy but that a business has the responsibility to drive change with their own business practices and platform. Gardener’s Supply makes this change through community action, employee volunteerism, sourcing sustainable products and building healthy soil.With food security being a crucial need in Vermont during COVID-19, the company’s employee-owners are combating food waste and hunger in their communities through a variety of gleaning and donation programs. All of their four locations have company gardens where they grow, harvest and donate fresh vegetables to local food shelves.Each employee-owner is gifted eight hours of volunteer time for work in community gardens or local non-profits and schools. Gardener’s Supply shows support for the community and future generations by donating 8% of its profits to school gardens, community gardens and more.The company shows that through gardening, people learn compassion for the planet and one another, adopt healthy eating practices, understand the value of science, and learn critical skills like patience and responsibility. Through various funding streams, Gardener Supply helps non-profit organizations and schools connect educators and families, provide garden grants and gardening-related curricula, and cultivate a community of practice.

As one of the largest independent CPA and business advisory firms in Northern New England,Gallagher, Flynn & Company, LLP, (“GFC”) prides itself in offering trusted industry expertise rendered with a highly personal touch from our offices in South Burlington, Vermont andLebanon, New Hampshire. Our resources run deep–with over 75 full-time employees. We work with primarily privately held companies with varied ownership structures, private equity groups and non-profit organizations, ranging in size from start-ups to organizations with revenues in excess of $400 million. Our diverse practice offerings are the result of over 60 years of meeting the many needs of our client

Mascoma Bank was founded in 1899 by community members seeking ways to establish a healthy local economy. For over 120 years, Mascoma Bank’s foundation of mutuality has continued to be a force for positive change supporting communities to reach thriving sustainability. As a Certified B Corporation® we continue on our mission to be Best for theWorld®, a company where we don’t answer to stockholders, but respond to the needs of our communities, where we also live, work, and play.

Ben & Jerry’s was a founding member of VBSR and has remained a member since 1991. The company operates on a three-part mission that puts product, economic, and social goals on equal standing. Social mission campaigns focus on fighting for environmental and social justice, with the sweet spot landing where those areas overlap, such as climate change.From drought and devastating wildfires in the American West to accelerating sea level rise and more powerful hurricanes, the real victims of a warming planet are not just polar bears and ice sheets, but people.The cruel irony of climate change is that people in the developing world—those who can least afford to adapt—will pay the steepest price for the 200 years of industrialization and pollution from the developed world. This truly is an issue of climate justice.While there is little time to act, Ben & Jerry’s argues that we know what we need to do and have the technology to do it. With renewable energy sources like wind and solar, advancements in energy efficiency in homes and offices, electric vehicles and charging infrastructure, and regenerative agriculture which can capture greenhouse gas pollution, we have all the tools we need to get to work.But it’s going to take more than just the actions of individual companies and people to fight climate change. Ben & Jerry’s Climate Change campaigns urge people to collectively call on elected leaders to support a rapid transition to the clean energy economy of the future.

King Arthur Baking Company’s core belief is that baking has the power to make a difference for their employees, owners, community & planet. The 100 % employee-owned company believes that all their worker/owners deserve a fair and competitive wage while fostering a culture of health and wellness and community engagement.Recently King Arthur Flour announced a $15 minimum wage for everyone on the payroll with no reductions of any employee benefits or offerings.KingArthur Flour works to promote increased organic grain production in the U.S., including policy advocacy to promote organic farming, and direct engagement and grower outreach in pilot regions throughout the U.S.Their national program, Bake for Good Kids, teaches kids to bake and also to give back to their community, as the kids give their baked goods to those in need.

Awards Sponsor:

Event Photography Provided By:

About Basin Harbor

This year’s event will take place at the Basin Harbor Resort and Boat Club, stewards of the land since 1803. A fifth-generation family-owned business, this lakeside resort on Lake Champlain is an outstanding example of Vermont’s working lands. Thanks to a multigenerational commitment to preservation and sustainability, the 700-acre estate remains as beautiful today as it did over a century ago while employing 300 people each year. A dedication to improving their carbon footprint on a local and global level has earned them the designation of “Green Hotel” by the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation, and the first golf course in Vermont to become a member of the prestigious Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program. Their beautiful location – together with their robust environmental efforts, including composting all food waste; electric, fuel and water efficiency; land conservation; capturing waste heat, generating electricity from an on-site solar array, and sourcing from local farmers and food purveyors – make this a perfect venue for this annual event.