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Goodrich Farm, Salisbury, Vermont, Jordan Dairy Farms, Rutland, Massachusetts, and Vanguard Renewables received top honors at the 2019 American Biogas Council Awards ceremony on October 29 in Madison, Wisconsin.

Goodrich Farm, Vanguard Renewables, and Vermont Gas Systems (VGS) received the 2019 Up-and-Coming Award for the Goodrich Farm anaerobic digester project in Salisbury, Vt. The project is a unique partnership between Vanguard Renewables, VGS, Middlebury College, and the Goodrich Family. It will generate biogas from manure and food waste and convert it to pipeline quality gas for use by Middlebury College and VGS's customers. This project is the first to sell renewable gas to end customers and is now bringing diversity to the industry by developing markets for RNG.

Jordan Dairy Farms and Vanguard Renewables received the Longevity Award for the Farm Powered® Jordan Dairy Farms Anaerobic Digester project at the organization’s awards ceremony on October 29. This award recognizes a project in operation for five years or longer. Jordan Dairy Farms, Rutland, Massachusetts was the first dairy in Massachusetts to use anaerobic digester technology to blend farm manure and food waste to produce renewable power. The digester system has been in operation since 2011. In addition to the Rutland facility, Jordan Dairy Farms now hosts a second Farm Powered digester located at their Jordan Dairy Farms Heifer Facility in Spencer, Ma. This is the fifth Vanguard Renewables Farm Powered anaerobic digester project operating in Massachusetts.

“We are so honored to work with farms across the United States from the early days of biogas production, through the industry’s rapid growth, to this exemplary partnership with VGS,” said John Hanselman, Vanguard Renewables Chairman and CEO. “It’s amazing to be recognized by the American Biogas Council for our latest project at Goodrich Family Farm in Salisbury, Vermont and to receive the 2019 Longevity Award for our legacy digester facility at Jordan Dairy Farms in Rutland, Massachusetts on the same night.”

Located on more than 2,400 acres, the Goodrich Family Farm is a generational dairy farm with 900 milking cows. It is a member of the Agri-Mark Cabot Creamery Cooperative. Construction on the Farm Powered anaerobic digester will be completed in 2020. RNG produced there will travel by pipeline to Middlebury College’s main power plant and will supply about half of the energy that Middlebury uses for heating and cooling. Wellesley, Mass.-based Vanguard Renewables will build, own, and operate the digester, which will process 100 tons of manure and 180 tons of organic food waste daily into RNG.

“Our family is excited to see this project transition from a dream into a reality,” said Chase Goodrich, who is among the fourth generation of his family to operate their farm. “We want to express our thanks to our wonderful partners,” said Goodrich, “as well as countless others who helped us accomplish this goal.”

Jordan Dairy Farms in Rutland, Massachusetts is a six-generation family farm, founded in 1885. The farm is a member of the Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) Cooperative. Operated by brothers Randy and Brian Jordan, the farm has survived despite an extraordinary decline in dairy farm numbers across Massachusetts. Partnering with Vanguard on the Farm Powered anaerobic digester project, the farm now receives low-cost energy, hot water, and heat for reuse.

About Vanguard Renewables

Vanguard Renewables develops, constructs, owns, and operates farm-based clean energy systems that recycle food waste and farm waste to produce safe and reliable Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) or Renewable Electricity (RE). Vanguard’s Farm Powered portfolio of anaerobic digesters represent the largest organics recycling destination in the Northeast, processing nearly 200,000 tons per year of combined on-farm and off-farm organics. The company has single stream and co-digestion facilities in development across the US.