The document provides information about sustainability initiatives in the Greater Burlington area of Vermont led by the University of Vermont (UVM) and partner organizations. It discusses UVM's Regional Center of Expertise (RCE) Greater Burlington, the scholarship of engagement work done through UVM courses, and community partners like Shelburne Farms and the Intervale Center. It summarizes some of the Intervale Center's key programs that support local agriculture and food systems work.

1. RCE Greater Burlington
(Vermont portion of the Lake Champlain Basin)
Walter Poleman, University of Vermont
Tom Hudspeth, University of Vermont
RCE 2017 Conference of the Americas
Vancouver, BC, CA
13-15 September 2017

2. Vermont in U.S.

3. Vermont in New England

5. What is the Geographic Region of RCE Greater
Burlington?
Vermont portion of the Lake
Champlain Basin

6. RCE of the Americas presentations
2015, Grand Rapids
• Megan Camp:
– Shelburne Farms's Sustainable Schools Project
– Sustainability Academy at Barnes Elementary School: only elementary school in U.S.
using sustainability as a lens for teaching all subject areas
• Tom Hudspeth:
– Use of Ernest Boyer’s “scholarship of engagement” in many UVM service-learning courses
partnering with various sectors
– UVM’s “Greening of Aiken”: LEED Platinum remodeled building with ecomachine for treating
human wastes, green roof used in research, wood sustainably harvested from research forest;
and interpretation of campus sustainability initiatives
– Sustainability Stories
2016, Curitiba
• Anne Bijur:
--Burlington Electric Department: municipally-owned public utility with 100%
renewable energy portfolio (solar, wind, hydro, biomass)

7. Shelburne Farms

9. Ernest Boyer (1928 – 1995)
… means connecting the rich resources of the university to
our most pressing social, civic, and ethical problems, to our
children, to our schools, to our teachers, and to our cities….
The Scholarship of Engagement

10. Scholarship of
Discovery
Scholarship of
Integration
Boyer’s Model of Scholarship (1991)
Engagement Scholarship of
Application
Scholarship of
Teaching

15. Green Roof

17. Sustainability Stories
• The stories seek to operationalize
sustainability, make it more concrete,
make it come alive, humanize it, and
put a face on it.

18. Creating Environmentally Sustainable
Communities course
Stories of individuals or groups in the
Greater Burlington area who can serve
as a role model or example for others
to follow or emulate in bringing about
the transition to more environmentally-
sustainable communities

19. Creating Environmentally Sustainable
Communities course
People who inspire, encourage, and
empower others; people who have a
positive vision of a sustainable future
environment--an alternative to the
dominant social paradigm, the status
quo--and take action to achieve that
vision, to turn that vision into reality.

20. Transferability of Sustainability
Stories Model
• Sustainability Stories model developed over
more than two decades has been presented to
other classes at UVM, other
colleges/universities, schools, and conferences
in the U.S. and abroad.
• It has been shown to have transferability; it
has been used effectively in urban or rural
settings, in a variety of cultures and
bioregions, and by K-12 youth and their
teachers and non-governmental organizations
as well as by university and college students.

21. Burlington Electric Department:
100% Renewable Energy Portfolio

22. RCE of the Americas presentations
2017, Vancouver
• Walter Poleman:
– Burlington Geographic/PLACE Program
– Burlington City and Lake Semester
• Tom Hudspeth:
– Collective impact
– One of many Vermont Farm-to-Plate initiatives: Intervale Center’s
“incubator farmer program”
– Vermont Learning for the Future
– Valuing ecosystem services re: pollination
– UVM Sustainability Faculty Fellows Program
– Crow’s Path: nature education for youth

23. Collective Impact
To improve effectiveness and create tangible
improvements in its communities, our RCE uses collective
impact--a framework for cross-sector
coordination/collaboration to initiate large-scale social
change—to connect research and practice, to promote
the work of sustainability practitioners, and to be
inclusive, where all participants help “consciously create
the future they want,” “tell the world of the future into
being,” and devise a shared vision of change. We stich
together v. create from scratch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-9POjzF9bM

24. One of many Vermont Farm-to-Plate initiatives:
Intervale Center’s
“incubator farmer program”

25. Context: Community-based
Agriculture
Vermont is a national leader in
community-based agriculture.
Vermonters want to know where their food
comes from and how it is cultivated and
feel connected personally to the people
who produce their food and sell it at
farmer’s markets, CSAs, food hubs,
farmstands, pick-your-own, area Vermont
Fresh Network restaurants and
stores,food coops, UVM, and the hospital.

26. Understanding Food Systems
When one carries out food miles
assessments, she finds immediately
that transportation using fossil fuels
(2400 kilometers/1500 miles on
average, from farm to plate) is a major
contributor to greenhouse gases
related to food. So consuming food
grown as close to home as possible
makes good sense from a sustainability
perspective.

27. Understanding Food Systems
And there are many other factors as well,
such as better taste, more nutrition,
knowing who grew your food and his/her
approaches (organic, using IPM, using
chemical fertilizers and pesticides and
herbicides, etc.). The last relates to social
capital—getting to know your grower
personally and on a first-name basis
through farmer’s markets, CSAs, food
hubs, farmstands, pick-your-own, etc.

28. Intervale Center
Unique community model and resource
built around healthy, locally grown
food; incubator farms, conservation
nursery, food hub, historic Calkins
Farmstead, and diverse working
landscape at the urban edge.
www.intervale.org.

30. Intervale Center’s Mission
To strengthen community food
systems. Since 1988, we’ve been
dedicated to improving farm viability,
promoting sustainable land use, and
engaging our community in the food
system. We’re helping to build a
community food system that honors
producers, values good food, and
enhances quality of life for Burlington
and beyond!

32. Strengthen Community Food
Systems
“A community food system is one in
which sustainable food production,
processing, distribution, and
consumption are integrated to enhance
the environmental, economic, social
and nutritional health of a particular
place” (Garrett and Feenstra, 1999).

34. Programs
We accomplish our mission through:
• New farm incubation
• Farm business development
• Agricultural market development
• Agricultural land stewardship
• Food systems research and consulting
• Celebration of food and farmers! (e.g.,
Summervale)

35. Intervale Center’s Goals
• To enhance the viability of farming
• To promote the sustainable use and
stewardship of agricultural lands
• To ensure community engagement in
the food system

36. The Intervale Center Farms Program
• On 54 of the 140 hectares/135 of the 350
acres in the Intervale that IC owns or leases, it
leases land, equipment, greenhouses,
irrigation and storage facilities to small
independent farms, thereby contributing 60
full or part-time and seasonal jobs to the
Burlington economy.
• The Farms Program removes start-up barriers
that typically challenge new farmers: access to
training, land, capital and markets; knowledge
of equipment operation and maintenance; and
isolation.

37. The Intervale Center Farms Program
• 11 farms, on which > 1 million pounds of fresh
organic produce are raised annually, along with
50,000 pounds gleaned and provided to local
food shelves, soup kitchens, and other hunger-
related organizations. ~$1 million in gross sales.
• Incubator, enterprise, and mentor farms. Usually
incubator farmers—who receive subsidized rental
rates, business planning support, and
mentorship from established growers--become
enterprise and mentor farmers after 3 years, or
buy or lease their own property away from the
Intervale.

38. The Intervale Center Farms Program
• Produce is sold at Burlington’s Farmer’s
Market, through CSAs and food hubs, to
UVM and hospital, and area Vermont
Fresh Network restaurants and stores
and food coops or through pick-your-own
and farmstands.
• >15 “graduate” farms: successfully
transitioned from the Intervale and now
own or lease their own farms, often on
Vermont Land Trust conserved
properties.

65. Environmental Interpretation
Course
Students in the Environmental
Interpretation courses have partnered
with the NGO Intervale Center (IC)
www.intervale.org, which has received
international attention for its programs
dealing with food and agriculture,
especially its “farmer incubator”
program.

66. Environmental Interpretation
Course
Students in the Environmental Interpretation
courses have developed an interpretive master
plan for IC’s properties and interpretive
media—signs, brochures, self-guiding trails,
websites, etc.—to implement that plan; as well
as guiding tours for hundreds of visitors
(including 290 students in Introduction to
Environmental Studies course, focusing on
food security and local, organic food v. average
1500 mile trip from farm to plate) to explain
food systems in general and IC programs and
farmers in particular.

67. Environmental Interpretation
Course
Most recently, students in the
Environmental Interpretation courses
“put a face” on local, organic food by
telling IC farmers’ stories and
practices and contrasting them with
the “faceless” producers of food from
industrialized agriculture operations
more than 1500 miles away.

68. Learning Outcomes: Learn About
• Food systems
• Role models/exemplars
• Sustainability comes alive
• Service-learning and scholarship of
engagement

69. Intervale Center’s Programs
• Farms Program
• Intervale Food Hub
• Intervale Conservation Nursery
• Success on Farms
• Abenaki Heritage Garden
• Intervale Gleaning and Food Rescue
• Research Resources
• Land Stewardship

70. Intervale Center’s Programs
• Intervale Compost Products (now called
Green Mountain Compost) spun off to
Chittenden Solid Waste District
• Scalable methane digester system for
smaller farms spun off to Avatar
• Healthy City Youth Farm spun off to
Burlington School Food Project
• Proposed Intervale Community Food
Enterprise Center (formerly, Riverside
Ecological Industrial Park)

71. Intervale Center’s Programs
• Farms Program (see below)
• Intervale Food Hub: an online local foods
market offering convenient, year-round
delivery. We collaborate with ecological
farmers and food processors in our region to
provide the community with an array of the
highest quality foods. It is a multi-farm [>30]
CSA with workplace delivery [7 local area
businesses] and season-extending storage. It is
committed to cultivating a local economy that
sustains healthy food, farms, land, and people

72. Intervale Center’s Programs
• Intervale Conservation Nursery: dedicated to
growing native, locally-sourced trees and shrubs
for riparian restoration projects throughout
Vermont; 55,000 plants propagated each year, 35
species
• Success on Farms: a business planning program
that helps Vermont farm operations and value-
added businesses improve their viability
• Abenaki Heritage Garden: a “three-sisters” garden
with traditional corn, bean, and squash varieties
grown much as the Abenaki would have cultivated
them 900 years ago.

73. Intervale Center’s Programs
• Intervale Gleaning and Food Rescue: to improve
food access in Vermont. Utilizing primarily
volunteer labor, the program gleans and rescues
fresh food from Intervale farms and other local
farms during the growing season and packages it
into weekly free food shares for individuals,
families, and social service agencies.
• Research Resources (e.g., farmer survey to
determine the challenges and opportunities
available in agricultural production and marketing
in Chittenden and the five surrounding counties;
consumer demand from households, restaurants
and institutional markets; etc.)
•

74. Intervale Center’s Programs
• Land Stewardship: Rena Calkins
Homestead, community barn, public
access to recreation and open space