I’ve been meaning to blog something about the trip to Vermont.

After heavy consideration of how and what I want to share, I’ve decided to break down my Vermont trip into three parts which will each form separate blog posts.  These posts will be less about a play by play of what Buckaroo and I did on the trip, but instead a more thoughtful examination (if I’m lucky) of what we experienced.  Hopefully it will make for better blog material and a more interesting read for you.  In this first part, I’d like to look at the way of thinking in Vermont.

Perhaps the best way to get a feel for how Vermont differs from other states is to take a look at the mission statement of one of its most famous companies: Ben & Jerry’s.  Anyone who knows anything about ice cream has heard of Ben & Jerry’s; after humble beginnings starting as an ice cream parlor in a renovated gas station in Burlington, Vermont, it is today a multi-million dollar company with operations in the United Kingdom, Israel, Japan, Ireland, France, Canada, the Netherlands, Belgium, Singapore, Peru and Lebanon. Although acquired by Unilever in 2000, the company operates separately of its corporate parent with its own independent Board of Directors. 

This is Ben & Jerry’s mission statement:

Notice anything a bit unusual there?  Unlike most corporations today, Ben & Jerry’s mission statement is broken into three parts that gives equal importance to making a quality product while taking environmental responsibility, promoting positive social change, and  being a good investment of not only the money of shareholders but also the time of employees seeking a career with the company.  Where is that modern day corporate mantra of cutting costs (employees be damned), seeking globalization (another word for off-shoring), and rewarding the shareholders (that is the big rich shareholders, not people like you or me).

"But Scott," you may argue, "everyone knows Ben & Jerry were a bunch of hippies.  Of course their company is going to be kooky, but they just got lucky because everyone likes ice cream."  Only they weren’t the only lucky ones, well at least not in Vermont.

Take another one of Vermont’s very successful companies as an example: Green Mountain Coffee Roasters.  The company started in 1981 as a cafe in Waitsfield, Vermont.  Today the company is publicly traded with annual sales in excess of $137 million*.  Surely they have a more traditional business model than Ben & Jerry’s, right?  Well if by traditional you mean they have a page on their website dedicated to Corporate Social Responsibility along with a 14-page downloadable report on Green Mountain Coffee Roaster’s initiative in positive social change, then yes, they’re completely traditional… at least for Vermont.

One last example: Small Dog Electronics.  If you use a Mac or listen to Air America Radio, you might have heard of Small Dog Electronics.  They went from starting out (literally) in a garage into becoming the second-largest Apple reseller in the world.  Here’s their mission statement:

What?!?  Yet another Vermont company that feels it’s just as important to be socially and environmentally responsible while offering a quality product as it is to make money?  Just what the hell are they putting in the water up there in Vermont?

The great thing is it’s not just the large companies in Vermont.  This progressive thinking is ubiquitous.  One of the first things Buckaroo and I noticed was that there were recycling bins everywhere.  They were in places you wouldn’t expect to see them either, like outside the local Costco when we stopped by to pick up something.  Even as our waitress cleared our table after eating lunch on an outdoor patio, she took our stiff paper coasters for the drinks and threw them in a special recycling bin specifically for the coasters.  There were other specially-designated recycling bins as well.  Aside from any food we didn’t eat, there was almost no unrecycled trash from our meal.  Most large restaurant chains like McDonalds pay lip service to the importance of recycling, yet I only see one trash can.  Out it all goes into the nearest landfill.

The most unusual aspect of all this was that the Vermonters don’t even seem to think twice about it whether it be recycling, treating gay men and women like humans, or promoting positive social change.  It’s ingrained into their way of life.  It’s what they do without even blinking an eye.  I have no doubt that the state will soon enact a universal health care program for its citizens because caring for others and the planet is just the status quo in Vermont.

I guess we should have expected this from Vermont.  They gave us progressive-thinking politicians like Howard Dean and Senator Bernie Sanders (an Independent).  It was one of only two states that started out as an independent republic before joining the U.S.A., and you get the impression in talking to the people there that they wouldn’t mind going back.  I don’t blame them.  (Texas by the way is the other state, and in many ways, Vermont’s polar opposite.)

So to sum up, in many ways Vermont was a refreshing change, and not just because the temperature was significantly cooler than the triple-digits that I’m used to in Phoenix.  I just wish more states would follow its example.
 

*2004 fiscal sales

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