Creative Roustabouts is a small consulting firm in Vermont catering to environmentalist and community organizing groups.^[1] The firm may be best known for its product Vermontivate, a statewide, inter-town energy saving contest that ran from 2012-2015.^[2]

It participated in the 2017 People’s Climate March.^[3] Its founder and manager is Kathryn Blume, a liberal activist with ties to progressive groups. Blume is a radical environmental activist, erotica author, and stage performer, who describes herself as being “in a chronic, weepy panic over the fact that serious climate change is happening now.”^{[4] [5] [6]} Blume has also been active with the activist environmental organization 350.org and formerly chaired the board of 350VT, a Vermont affiliate.^[7]

Background

Creative Roustabouts was incorporated on New Year’s Eve 2012, and is headquartered in Charlotte, Vermont. The term “roustabout” refers to a temporary laborer with no specialized skills, such as a temporary circus worker.^[8] According to the Vermont Secretary of State, Creative Roustabouts was terminated in 2015, despite appearing as a partner in the People’s Climate March 2017.^[9], ^[10]

Creative Roustabouts is listed as a participant in the “Energy Efficiency Gamification Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2016-2026” report.^[11]

Vermontivate

In 2012, Blume worked with Nick Lange, a consultant with Vermont Energy Investment Corporation, to create an intercity contest to “raise awareness of global warming.” It called the project “Vermontivate.”^[12] Bill Finnegan of Tamarack Media designed the contest’s website, and Vermontivate launched on “Vermont Energy Independence Day” (March 21) and ran through Vermont’s “Green Up Day,” May 3. The contest featured teams and schools competing against one another to complete energy saving challenges from transportation, food, waste reduction, and water conservation, and the sharing economy.^[13]

Sponsors of the contest included the Ben and Jerry’s Foundation, an endorser and major financial supporter of 350 Vermont (the state affiliate of 350.org) which Blume formerly chaired.^[14], ^[15] The Vermont Community Foundation awarded Creative Roustabouts $20,000 for the contest through its Innovations and Collaborations Grant, a biannual grant which normally went to non-profits.^[16]

In September 2016, Vermontivate announced via Twitter that its creators were shutting the game down and moving on with other things and encouraged followers to follow Kathryn Blume’s personal profile.^[17]

People

Kathryn Blume

Blume received a self-designed B.A. in Environmental Studies from Yale University. She has contributed to numerous articles, blog posts, and books for left-leaning organizations, including Moveon.org and Code Pink.^[18]

She has taught workshops, spoke on behalf of environmentalist causes, and organized lobbies and protests. She participated in the walk from environmental activist Bill McKibben’s hometown of Ripton to Burlington in 2006 with the early organizers of 350.org. In 2011, along with other 350.org activists in Vermont, she helped organize 350VT. ^{[19] [20] [21]}

Apart from her environmental activism, she is an ordained minister for Universal Life Church, a writer, and stage performer. She co-founded the anti-war Lysistrata theatrical project during the George W. Bush administration and authored Ginger Honey 269, a collection of erotic stories and poetry that she published through Creative Roustabouts. In The Boycott, she played a First Lady of the United States who sparks a nationwide sex strike “to fight global warming and save the world.”^{[22] [23]}

Since the end of Vermontivate, Bloom has continually supported left-leaning causes such as the Women’s March in January 2017, during which she retweeted support for the anti-Israel activist Linda Sarsour’s speech. She was a supporter of the People’s Climate March on April 29, 2017, of which Creative Roustabouts was listed as a sponsor.^[24], ^[25]