Making Kentucky First in Good Business

From our headquarters in Louisville’s Portland Neighborhood, Canopy is a nonprofit working to create a more vibrant and relevant Kentucky economy that serves all folks and takes care of our beautiful landscape. 

We recognize that employees want purpose, consumers are paying attention to who they buy from, and healthy communities and a healthy landscape is good for business. Our mission is to grow Kentucky businesses to positively impact people, our planet, and our future.

Making Kentucky First in Good Business

From our headquarters in Louisville’s Portland Neighborhood, Canopy is a nonprofit working to create a more vibrant and relevant Kentucky economy that serves all folks and takes care of our beautiful landscape. 

We recognize that employees want purpose, consumers are paying attention to who they buy from, and healthy communities and a healthy landscape is good for business. Our mission is to grow Kentucky businesses to positively impact people, our planet, and our future.

The Good Business Movement means that it’s time for businesses to be better. Not only do they need to provide services, offer products, and create jobs —they also need to positively engage in the larger social and environmental spheres. There is a paradigm shift that is redefining success in business to include positive social and environmental impact in addition to profit. Through education, certification, and connection, we help Kentucky businesses participate and succeed within the Good Business movement.

Our Team

scott koloms

Scott Koloms

Founder & CEO

Scott Koloms has passionately advocated for a socially conscious and impact-driven business movement in Kentucky for the last two years. He dreams of Kentucky having the strongest, most effective group of for-profit social enterprises in the country. Over the last few years, Koloms played a pivotal role in the passage of the Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) legislation in Kentucky. As President and owner of Facilities Management Services (FMS), PBC, Koloms also led FMS to become the first public benefit corporation in Kentucky and the first janitorial services company in the world to become a certified B Corp.

Stephanie Kelley

Chief of Staff

Hometown - Shepherdsville, KY

Education - MA in Critical and Curatorial Studies from the University of Louisville | BA in History of Art from Vanderbilt University

What I Love about Our Work - I'm excited to support and celebrate the companies that are doing good business in communities all across the state. As a lifelong Kentuckian, I'm so proud of my state and I value the opportunity to empower businesses that enact positive social and environmental impact into their practice.

Favorite Thing about Kentucky - The people! Kentuckians are the nicest people in the country.

Ben Smock

Ben Smock

Director of Development

Hometown - Louisville, KY

Education - MBA from the University of Louisville | BS in Business Management from the University of Kentucky

What I Love about Our Work - Good business practices become increasingly more important by the day. Our future depends on it. It's not just the work of individuals, nonprofit organizations, or governmental entities, it must also be a sincere focal point of the business sector. Catalytic solutions to social and environmental challenges must be creative, collaborative, and ultimately focused on people and planet in addition to profit. I love being part of this transformational movement in Kentucky where I can use my business acumen and nonprofit experience for Good.

Favorite Thing About Kentucky - Hiking and camping in Red River Gorge

Adam Watson

Education Director

Hometown - Louisville, KY

Education - BA from Centre College | JD from the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law

About - Founder/Owner/Etc. of Against the Grain Brewery | Founder of the Kentucky Guild of Brewers

What I love about Our Work - Movements can be started by an individual or a small group caring an awful lot, but they grow by incentivising action. I love that Canopy works to make the right choice easier to make. Showing business leaders that Good Business is a smart choice that improves the bottom line rather than harming the bottom line is the way to cause serious investment in improving the Commonwealth.

Favorite thing about KY - Kentucky has this wonderful, almost indescribable sense of fictionality. We may seem easy to underestimate, but you don't have to be here long to see that this beautiful state is absolutely brimming with brilliant, thoughtful, tenacious, interesting people. Every nook and cranny of Kentucky holds some fascinating person willing to tell you some fascinating story. Some of them are even true.

Claire Jensen

Verification Specialist

Hometown - Louisville, KY

Education - BA in Sustainability from the University of Louisville

What I love about Our Work - I love belonging to an organization whose expectations for Good Business uplift others, help coalesce the community, and integrate the value of nature into business practice. And as inspirational as the mission are the people leading this movement, both at Canopy and in the businesses we certify.

Favorite thing about KY - Aside from the character, culture, and cuisine, the kindness you find in a stranger is what makes me proud to call old Kentucky, home.

Brittany Lowe

Platform and Design Specialist

Hometown - Elizabethtown, KY

Education - BS in Economics & BSBA in Marketing from the University of Louisville

Work History - Kentuckians for the Commonwealth | Mary Byron Project | University of Louisville | Kentucky Association for Environmental Education

What I love about Our Work - I love Canopy’s mission, and how Kentucky-centric it is. This state has so many people who are doing wonderful things for their communities, the environment, and more. Canopy does a wonderful job at recognizing and helping them to embrace it.

Favorite thing about KY - The people and the world around them! Kentuckians are so caring, diverse, and beautiful. Just as the state itself is from the bluegrass to Appalachia.

ben sollee

Ben Sollee

Production Specialist

Hometown - Lexington, KY

Education - BFA from the University of Louisville

About - A cellist and composer with an strong background in environmental advocacy

What I Love about Our Work - I love that I get to connect my passion for storytelling, the environment, and the arts with Kentucky’s business community. I particularly love finding the “aha” moment when business owners discover that they share values and can agree that they want to have a positive impact through their products and services.

Favorite Thing about Kentucky - The land. The hills and hollers create incubators of culture, ideas, and, sometimes, innovation.

Jenny Stekardis

Curriculum Specialist Intern

Hometown - Prospect, KY

Education - Pursuing a BA with majors in Economics and Medicine, Health and Society and a minor in Sustainability Studies from Vanderbilt University

Work History - Resident Adviser at Vanderbilt University | Legal Intern at Ferreri Partners, PLLC | Student Research Assistant at Vanderbilt University | Intern at the Borgen Project

What I love about Our Work - I love being part of an organization that is helping lead the movement toward social responsibility in Kentucky's businesses: it is fulfilling to know that our work makes a positive impact on others every day.

Favorite thing about KY - I have never seen sunsets more beautiful than the ones in Kentucky - watching the sun set over the Ohio River never gets old!

Our Board

  • Co-ChairJill Wilcox, J.P. Morgan Chase, Louisville 
  • Co-Chair: Seema Sheth, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Louisville 
  • Secretary: Adam Back, Stoll Keenon Ogdon PLLC, Louisville 
  • Treasurer: Kevin Trager, Run with Craig 2022, Louisville
  • Delene Taylor, DMLO CPAs, Louisville
  • ✸ Raechele Gray, Endeavor, Louisville 
  • ✸ Christy Jarboe, Louisville Forward, Louisville 
  • Brandi Harless, PreventScripts, Paducah
  • ✸ Tom Williams, Stoll Keenon Ogdon PLLC, Louisville 
  • Carlos Hernandez Ocampo, Emergence Law PLLC, Louisville
  • Kent Oyler, OPM Services, Louisville
  • Rhonda Shladand, Life Coach, Louisville
  • Sam Ford, Accelerate KY, Bowling Green
  • Brian Schneider, Greater Louisville Inc., Louisville
  • Ex-Officio: Scott Koloms, Canopy, Louisville 
  • Emeritus: Brad Flowers, Bullhorn Creative, Lexington 

✸ indicates founding Board Members

2021 Annual Report

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