By Michael Bielawski

Vermonters are being offered thousands in subsidies via the Vermont Council on Rural Development to take on projects that the VCRD says will mitigate climate change.

“VCRD’s Climate Catalysts Innovation Fund provides small grants to local innovators developing solutions that move Vermont closer to its climate and energy goals,” their release states.

Public and private entities have access. There were two rounds of the Climate Catalyst Innovation Fund so far, one in 2021/22 and another in 2022/23, totaling $76,000 for 32 projects and then $82,912 for 25 projects respectively. Now applications are being taken for 2024. The source of the funding is non-profit organizations, including the Vermont Community Foundation’s Sunflower Fund.

“Grants range from $500-4,000 and will be awarded based on a mix of innovation, resilience, collaboration, replicability, and addressing Vermonters in need. Eligible applicants include municipalities, town committees, schools, businesses, and non-profit organizations,” it states.

To date, they have awarded more than $200,000.

“This fund helps community projects move from an ambitious idea to an implemented climate-based solution,” it says. “The first three rounds awarded a total of over $200,000 to 68 local innovators for a diversity of projects including a floodplain public food forest, frontline emergency preparedness kits, climate economy workforce training, e-bikes at local libraries, solar with back-up battery storage for a library community hub, and more.”

There is also a social justice component. On the VCRD website under “criteria for successful projects include” it states that projects should be equitable. It says that folks should ask, “How does this project address the needs of frontline communities and historically marginalized Vermonters?”

E-bikes, heat pumps, and more

There are details of some of the projects that have been invested in thus far. For instance, a town manager of Enosburg Falls had EV chargers installed.

“The Village of Enosburg Falls wanted to go green and show care for their local environment, and after learning about the Climate Catalysts Innovation Fund Village Manager John Dasaro took the opportunity to bring an EV charger to town,” it states.

Other examples include e-bikes for Middlebury and in Middlesex there was an energy fair called “Let’s Get Together to Kick Some Gas”. They created the Shelburne Climate & Energy Committee to promote electric heat pumps. There was also the Addison County Relocalization Network to “create a farmer-led network for climate resilience.”

In a statewide effort, there are small eco-friendly modular homes called Vermods being distributed to address housing.

The VCRD has been in the news over the years for promoting social justice activism and climate activism. In 2021 True North Reports noted, “The Vermont Council on Rural Development held a summit [in May of 2021] on the future of Vermont, and the series of discussions ranged from developing a climate economy to educating kids on equity and inclusion.”

Local or global agenda?

In at least one case, VCRD has divided a community based on their proposals. TNR covered when some residents in the Town of Pownal pushed back against some agenda items.

The 2017 report says, “But while [VCRD director John Copans] hopes to roll out his Montpelier-based group’s agenda in local communities, some Pownal residents say the town is fine as is, and doesn’t need outside change agents to turn it into someone’s idea of ‘a model community.’”

Pownal resident Bob Jarvis is quotes in the story talking about a document called “Progress for Vermont”, created in 2016 by the Vermont Climate Change Economy Council. Jarvis expressed concern that what was being advertised by VCRD to locals as their own unique ideas were actually prepackaged agenda items largely from this document.

The author is a writer for the Vermont Daily Chronicle