In Vermont, a “sustainable” job is one that not only can endure but can boost environmental protection, social justice, and economic equity. Today business competitors collaborating on sustainable goals are doing well by doing good.Job creation - Vermont

Bruce Seifer

English

Research Papers in Economics

Communities & Banking    7
Jobs Fund
Vermont
by Bruce Seifer 
City of Burlington, Vermont
Vermont’s Green   
Economy Speeds Up
In the summer of 1994, a group of approximately 15 
business leaders convened for a daylong retreat in a 
rural meadow to discuss their long-term vision for the 
state of Vermont. All were members of an organiza-
tion called Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility 
(VBSR), an organization whose mission is to support 
and encourage socially responsible business practices 
and  public  policy  initiatives. The  leaders  committed 
to a vision that included the idea of creating a state 
entity  to  support  the  development  and  creation  of     
“sustainable” jobs, which were defined as jobs consistent 
with VBSR core values—protection of the environment,   
social justice, and economic equity. (See “What Sus-
tainable Means to Vermont.”) These leaders formed 
the  Sustainable  Jobs  Coalition  to  pursue  legislation 
that would translate their vision into reality.1
Sustainable
Photograph: Ellen Ecker Ogden, The Vermont Cheese Book8    Winter 2009
Since  the  1960s,  Vermont  has  had  a   
reputation as a national leader on conserva-
tion, thanks to laws protecting the environ-
ment, including a landmark land use law, 
the  billboard  ban,  the  bottle  deposit  law, 
Green-Up Day, and the Scenic Preservation 
Council. Most companies that rely on Ver-
mont’s green image and fertile land to grow 
and sell their products approve, and many 
company leaders are in VBSR. They see an 
opportunity  for  growth  through  coopera-
tion and networking, particularly in the area 
of marketing and advertising, where pool-
ing resources can really pay off. 
Consider  one  industry  example  of   
collaboration. Vermont’s artisan and farm-
stead cheese makers rode a wave of nation-
al popularity in the 1990s. But as Cabot 
Creamery’s director of marketing, Jed Davis, 
recalls, they were “really pretty darn insig-
nificant compared to big states like Califor-
nia. We knew that we weren’t going to gain 
as much by being competitors as we are by 
cooperating.”  To  grow  their  businesses—
and create new jobs for Vermonters—par-
ticipants in the state’s cheese industry knew 
they would need to work together to build 
their reputation as the premier source for 
small-batch, farmstead cheeses.  
So VBSR developed the idea of a sus-
tainable jobs fund. The fund would support 
growing enterprises and business networks 
that demonstrated commitment to a dual 
bottom  line—making  profits  while  pur-
suing social responsibility for the environ-
ment, social justice, economic equity, and 
an increased number of jobs. 
The purpose of the Vermont Sustain-
able Jobs Fund (VSJF) was to create a non-
profit arm of the state that, with an initial 
state investment, would be able to attract 
funding from the federal government and 
private foundations to support the develop-
ment of sustainable jobs. VBSR, in concert 
with allies such as those in the Sustainable 
Jobs Coalition, crafted and passed the legis-
lation in 1995 with the modest appropria-
tion of $250,000. 
Grantmaking
The VSJF’s  initial  approach  was  twofold: 
plant as many seeds as possible by provid-
ing grants, and build networks to support 
existing or emerging businesses. VSJF has 
acted as a catalyst, leveraging good ideas, 
technical know-how, and financial resourc-
es  to  propel  innovation  in  sustainable 
development,  especially  in  the  realms  of 
organic agriculture and local food systems,   
Photographs: Ellen Ecker Ogden, The Vermont Cheese BookCommunities & Banking    9
sustainable  forestry,  and  biofuels  (locally 
grown for local use). 
Since 1997, the VSJF has made grants 
of more than $2.7 million to 150 recipients. 
Grantees have utilized these funds to lever-
age an additional $11.8 million to imple-
ment projects, test ideas, and assemble the 
building blocks of a green economy. Their 
combined efforts have created approximate-
ly  800  local  jobs,  supported  community 
development initiatives, preserved resilient 
ecosystems, filled vital needs in Vermont’s 
economy,  and  provided  new  models  for 
moving forward.
VSJF funding in 1998 and 2003 was 
used  to  help  form  the  Vermont  Cheese 
Council (VCC) and to help its first 12 mem-
bers  market  their  products,  share  techni-
cal assistance, develop quality standards for 
Vermont cheeses using the Council’s label, 
develop a fund-raising plan, complete the 
VCC web site, and produce a logo. Today, 
two-thirds of VCC’s now 36 members have 
won awards. At the 2006 American Cheese 
Society Conference, the Clothbound Ched-
dar collaboration between Jasper Hill Farm 
and Cabot Creamery won best in show. 
“People were scratching their heads,” 
laughs  Davis.  “Cabot  makes  the  cheese? 
And Jasper Hill ages the cheese? And you 
don’t fight about this? For that cheese to win 
best in show provided validation for every-
thing that Vermont is all about. Not that 
there’s just great cheese coming out of here, 
but that our whole approach to it is innova-
tive and unique.”
The VCC represents a transition from 
commodity to value-added agricultural pro-
duction, which yields a higher rate of return 
for farmers and a more diverse range of local 
products for consumers.
Network Building
With  limited  funds,  VSJF  was  forced  to 
become innovative in supporting business-
es. VSJF saw that every successful business is 
embedded in a network of relationships, and 
the stronger the network, the more sustain-
able, flexible, and resilient the business. The 
power of networks was a notion derived in 
part from Robert Putnam, author of Bowl-
ing Alone, who refers to social capital as “the 
connections among individuals (social net-
works)  and  the  norms  of  reciprocity  and 
istockphoto
What Sustainable Means to Vermont
The Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund was established by the 
Vermont Legislature in 1995 to build markets within the 
following natural-resource-based economic sectors: 
• environmental technologies;
• environmental equipment and services;
• energy efficiency;
• renewable energy;
• pollution abatement;
• specialty foods;
• water and wastewater systems;
• solid waste and recycling technologies;
•   wood products and other natural-resource-based 
or value-added industries;
• sustainable agriculture; and
•   existing businesses, including larger manufacturing 
companies striving to minimize their impact; and
•   waste through environmentally sound products and 
processes.
The VSJF works with entrepreneurs and consumers 
to develop both the supply of and demand for goods and 
services that provide sustainable alternatives to economic 
practices that could cause negative impact over time.
Success has come through a combination of targeted, 
early-stage funding, technical assistance such as business 
coaching and the Peer to Peer Collaborative, and a focus 
on the long term.*
* See http://www.vsjf.org/peer_collaborative/purpose.shtml.
istockphoto10    Winter 2009
trustworthiness that arise from them.”
Social capital can be linked positively 
to  innovation,  to  sales  growth,  return  on 
investment, international expansion success, 
and the like. Given Vermont’s size and con-
nectedness, it’s not surprising that the state 
is ranked third in the country according to 
Putnam’s  social  capital  index.  And  VSJF 
saw that creating a supportive environment 
to nurture and sustain these kinds of busi-
ness  networks  and  organizations  would   
be a prudent way to use limited develop-
ment resources.
VSJF grants helped enable more than 
a dozen networks, representing 1,600-plus 
businesses,  to  do  the  kind  of  strategic 
planning,  capacity  building,  information   
sharing, market research, joint marketing, 
and policy development that are crucial to 
developing a unified voice and competitive 
advantage in a sustainable economy. 
Market Building 
VSJF  also  recognizes  the  importance  of   
developing markets for existing businesses. 
They take the perspective that markets are 
made through interactions among business-
es,  government,  nonprofit  organizations, 
communities,  and  other  resources.  For 
example, four years ago biodiesel was not 
available in Vermont. VSJF and its partners 
conducted  pilot  projects  and  educational 
activities that introduced biodiesel to large-
scale  institutional  and  commercial  diesel 
users,  in  addition  to  residential  heating   
oil customers. 
To realize this success, VSJF in cooper-
ation with the University of Vermont Exten-
sion  Service,  conducted  on-farm  oilseed 
production  and  feasibility  studies  to  help 
farmers  familiarize  themselves  with  these 
new  crops.  They  helped  a  small  nascent 
biodiesel producer expand his capacity with 
new equipment, enabled several farmers to 
construct on-farm production facilities, and 
assisted the installation of biodiesel pumps 
at a fueling station. With a little over $2 
million  invested  over  the  past  four  years, 
more than 30 locations in the state now car-
ry biodiesel, many farmers are in the process 
of developing farm-scale biodiesel produc-
tion  capacity,  and  over  4  million  gallons 
were consumed in 2007.2 
VSJF also has committed to extending 
its influence outside Vermont borders. It is 
now in the process of codifying Vermont’s 
model of local production for local use into 
a set of sustainable biofuel principles, poli-
cies, and practices that could be applicable 
in other rural states. 
VSJF’s  experimentation  has  affirmed 
that a little goes a long way. With invest-
ments and technical assistance targeted at 
the development of markets for sustainably 
produced  goods  and  services,  the  build-
ing blocks of Vermont’s green economy are 
ready to go mainstream. 
Bruce Seifer, Burlington’s assistant director 
for economic development, has worked for the 
city since 1983. He was instrumental in craft-
ing the original concept for both the Vermont 
Businesses  for  Social  Responsibility  and  the 
Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund. 
Endnotes
The author floated the original idea and included it in 
1 
a Burlington, Vermont, economic development policy 
paper. Next it was presented to VBSR and discussed 
at  their  board,  policy  committee,  and  visioning 
meeting. The result was the Sustainable Jobs Coalition. 
Collaboration with a variety of organizations led to the 
passage of state legislation. 
The biofuels initiatives of Vermont Sustainable Jobs 
2 
Fund (www.vsjf.org) have been supported by several 
foundations, state and federal sources (such as the High 
Meadows Fund and the U.S Department of Energy’s 
Biomass Program), and U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy.
Photographs: Ellen Ecker Ogden, The Vermont Cheese Book
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by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. The views 
expressed are not necessarily those of the Bank or 
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Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund: Vermont’s green economy speeds up

http://www.bostonfed.org/commdev/c&b/2009/winter/Seifer_Verrmont_Sustainable_Jobs.pdf

Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund: Vermont’s green economy speeds up

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Research Papers in Economics