As the council reviewed each section, we were asking ourselves how to educate the field on how to best utilize this report to grow their businesses. Given its broad range of topics and huge amount of information, one could easily get overwhelmed by its magnitude. In an effort to ensure that each of you understand how to spike out the gold nuggets that lie within, council members Donna French and ASC chairwoman Sabrina Allard put together a comprehensive conference call highlighting the report’s Top 5 themes to help you navigate the pages, put sustainability at the forefront of your business and show your prospective clients who and what our company is all about.

In this call, you will get recommendations for specific pages that highlight what sets us apart from our competition and solidifies our title of category creator. The Top 5 themes are:

• Transparency
• Collective impact
• How we support local economies
• Local and global change
• Generation V stories

Take some time to sharpen your sustainability skills and give a listen to the recorded call found here: 760-569-7699 code #: 133835

Here’s to building long-term and very sustainable businesses!

Yours in success,
Associate Sustainability Council (ASC)

**Associate Sustainability Council member and Executive Associate Chris Schipper recently attended the largest climate rally in history, held in Washington, DC. Below he reflects on the noteworthy sustainability event.**

Recently, I had an incredibly rewarding experience that captured the power and passion behind the green energy movement as we move away from the fossil fuels of the past.

On Sunday, Feb. 17, the largest climate rally in history was held in our nation’s capital. People traveled in buses chartered by environmental organizations or in groups of their own from all across the country. At final tally there were an estimated 50,000 people who gathered at the National Mall around the Washington Monument, and then marched to and around the White House and back.

Every generation was represented. There were elderly marchers and there were babies. There were college “kids” and there were businessmen.

Every race and ethnicity was represented—a panoply of cultures which bless our great land.

All of these individuals—each of a different age, race and culture—was there to send one clear message: “We want clean energy and we want it now. We do not want the keystone XL pipeline. We don’t want fossil fuel.”

Attending the rally and feeling all of the passion and energy from this event made me even more confident that Viridian’s renewable electricity is an integral part of manifesting a cleaner, better future into reality.



Of course there were still many signs opposing mountain top removal coal mining and all the destruction that coal extraction, transport and burning causes. There were also people protesting because their drinking water has become contaminated by unsafe and unregulated natural gas drilling. Some of them carried around jugs of their own tap water which is now undrinkable.

It’s a sobering reality.  But I still have hope. My takeaway from the event was the fact that just as we embrace this growing movement—a movement that was 50,000 strong on a cold, windy day—we must embrace the knowledge and understand that it’s only going to grow stronger. We must prepare to harness its strength and passion not just because this trend is profitable, but because the trend is right. Our core mission is to promote and drive innovation in clean renewable electricity. That being said, we must also continue as individuals, and as a company, to fight for responsible natural gas extraction.

I believe that Viridian will continue to set a course away from fossil fuels and away from the most dangerous forms of extraction for the one cleaner-burning fossil fuel we do sell. With the momentum of this movement and its wind in our sails, I look forward to navigating to our shining destination where there are clear skies, clean streams, oceans full of lots of fish and healthy surfers.

So set your sails well my friends, because our cause is the same: We want clean energy and we want it now. I’m setting my sail just as I add my voice to the wind behind it.
 

As a member of the Associate Sustainability Council (ASC), a council dedicated to spreading Viridian sustainability messages, my goal has been to personally hold a sustainability event every month this year. A few weeks ago, after another sustainability event that I had planned fell through, I was inspired to start a food drive. Having to think last minute, it hit me that collecting food donations at opportunity meetings was a great way to involve more people in sustainability and to help others understand our greater mission and purpose as a company—individual choice, collective impact.  
 
This October, I—along with several Massachusetts leaders—am asking Associates and guests to bring a nonperishable food item to each opportunity meeting. By incorporating sustainability into opportunity meetings, our prospects are getting a glimpse of Viridian’s culture of giving back.   

Knowing that the holidays are around the corner, I’ve decided to extend the drive several months so that we can collect food as well as coats and toys to bring warmth and fun to those in need this winter.

For those of you in Massachusetts, please contact your local leaders or me if you have any questions or would like to assist in coordinating this project. Below are the meetings that are already working to collect donations:

• West Yarmouth: Thursdays at 6:30 pm, Atlantic Group Energy, 550 Willow Street
  
• Foxboro: Thursdays at 7 pm, The “V” 337 Cocasset St.
  
• Somerville: Mondays at 7:30 pm, Oliveiras Steak House, 120 Washington St.  
• Worcester: Mondays at 7:30 pm, Elbasha Restaurant, 256 Park Ave.
• Wilbraham: Wednesdays at 7 pm, Abruzzo Restaurant, 2589 Boston Road. (downstairs in the Banquet Room)

Project coordinators are being asked to weigh and count donations and submit data to sustainability@viridian.com along with a photo and the name of the organization they’ve chosen to donate the goods to so we can track the progress and impact of this project!

For those of you who think planning a sustainability event is complicated, I encourage you to take a look at my story. My vision for this project can easily be replicated in all our markets. Collectively we have the opportunity to greatly impact the lives and holidays of so many people. By being part of Viridian, I have really learned that by making a few simple choices such as donating a food item, coat or toy, we can make a huge collective impact. Please contact me at powerfulwind@gmail.com if you would like help duplicating this project in your market.

We can all help feed the hungry, clothe the needy and make the holidays special for children. Together we can clean up the air we breathe, create jobs and be energy independent. Each one of us can make this happen! I am so proud to be a part of GENERATION  V.

On behalf of the Massachusetts Field Leadership and the Associate Sustainability Council, thank you so much in advance for your donation!