VBSR Announces Newest Champion Member VEIC – VEIC will be the 16th Champion Member of Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility

Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility (VBSR) announces this week that VEIC will join the organization’s Champion Members. VBSR is a business association with over 700 members who advocate for policies which support workers, Vermont communities and the environment. The support of Champion Members is essential to their year-round statewide efforts to foster a business ethic that sets a high standard within the Vermont professional community, for protecting the natural, human, and economic environments of the state.

In 1986, VEIC was founded by Beth Sachs (awardee of the VBSR Terry Ehrich Award for lifetime achievement) and Blair Hamilton, with the purpose of conserving precious natural resources, reducing energy costs for consumers, particularly low-income consumers, and engaging in economic development activities which benefit the community as a whole. In 2008, VEIC announced a goal to reduce 20 million tons of greenhouses gas emissions per year by the year 2027, generating $1.5 billion in economic benefits. VEIC operates a full-service consulting business as well as three large-scale energy efficiency utilities: Efficiency Vermont, Efficiency Smart in Ohio, and the DC Sustainable Energy Utility in Washington, D.C. Through these efforts VEIC is transforming energy systems and reducing energy burden on low- and limited-income people.

“We are excited to become a Champion Member and to continue our partnership with VBSR,” said Jim Madej, CEO of VEIC. “I believe that positive and lasting change is driven by socially responsible business. Our efforts to deliver economic, environmental, and societal benefits of clean energy to all people align with VBSR’s work to support ethical business practices.”

VBSR produces dynamic education and networking events around the state, including the annual Changemakers Table in partnership with The High Meadows Fund and a new intensive workshop series Measure What Matterslaunching in March 2019. VBSR also advocates for Vermont businesses at the State House on issues of sustainable economic development and social equity. In December, VBSR announced their 2019 legislative agenda, which includes initiatives supported by the organization for decades, such as decarbonization and universal health care and newer aims to establish systems for paid family medical leave and for employers to contribute pre-tax earnings to workers student loan debts.

“VBSR has a 29-year legacy of change-making at the legislative level and in the marketplace. The forward-thinking values-led business ethic pioneered by VBSR has entered the mainstream lexicon. However, we feel there is more and ever pressing work to be done in using business as power for good,” said VBSR Executive Director Jane Campbell, “that is why it so critical that we find growing support from innovators within the Vermont business community – like VEIC.”

To learn more about VBSR’s policy work, upcoming events, staff and board, or how to become a member please visit vbsr.org.