Originally published in the Monadnock Shopper News

Co-owners Valerie Piedmont and Pablo Fleischmann have announced that their business, Green Energy Options, recently earned B Corp certification, making it the seventh Certified B Corporation in New Hampshire. Using business as a force for good, Certified B Corps create higher quality jobs, improve the quality of life in their communities, address challenging environmental problems, and inspire others to measure what matters most. Over 200,000 businesses globally use the B Impact Assessment to assess, compare, and improve their impact.

Green Energy Options is an outgrowth of a vision of building a life in harmony with nature that Piedmont and Fleischmann share. They opened their business a decade ago after more than two decades of living off the electrical power grid on their eight-acre homestead in Gilsum. The business initially focused on providing solar energy system design, installation and technical support and selling energy-efficient appliances. Green Energy Options has since developed expertise that led it to expand its business to include alternative home heating products – the best available brands of wood, pellet, and gas stoves; fireplaces, and inserts.

Piedmont, director of human resources, said, “Our five employees work as a team to give customers the knowledge they need to make fully informed energy decisions. We’re passionate about the impact that our business has on improving air quality in our region and increasing the amount of renewable energy produced and consumed. We’re a small business encouraged that, with the support of the wider B Corp community, we can be part of the big change in how energy needs are met more responsibly.”

Fleischmann added, “It’s not so much about the certification itself; it’s about continually measuring ourselves against its high standards, and those of other Certified B Corporations, so that we continue to develop a better business.”

Green Energy Options draws its customers from Keene and Peterborough, Brattleboro, VT, and the surrounding towns and counties. It recently moved from its 79 Emerald Street location to 37 Roxbury Street, where it occupies a larger space in a renovated building in a revitalized area of Keene. For more details, visit www.GreenEnergyOptions.com or call 603-358-3444.