The Verdani team is proud to show our diversity and heritage as we cheered for different teams during the Olympic games in Rio. Our founder is a U.S citizen that was born and raised in Brazil. We were proud to see that the Olympics were a success despite all the issues the country faces. We were also excited to have Climate Change highlighted at the opening ceremony and to know that many of the buildings and facilities will be dismantled and rebuilt into structures that will benefit the local community. Our international team is also happy to have our headquarters and first office in the U.S. — a country built by immigrants and which thrives and is made stronger from its diversity.
We were inspired by Elaine Hsieh, VERGE Program Director & Senior Analyst, when she said:
“The Summer Olympics are underway coming to an end, and despite serious concerns about the current environmental, political and economic challenges in Rio, I am enjoying the incredible demonstrations of athleticism and the unifying power of sport at this level. Like no other human activity, sport brings people together in the spirit of friendship and respect — building bridges and meaningful connections. And while the contemporary Olympics business model may be broken, we can still ‘love the players while hating the game’ (with apologies to Ice-T).
My favorite events are the team-based competitions. As seen in yesterday’s gold medal performances by U.S. athletes in the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay and the particularly epic women’s gymnastics team finals, each individual relies on the others’ complementary strengths to contribute toward the final scores. Optimizing individual abilities to create a stronger unified team makes the sum greater than its parts.
Similarly, many stories this week show how connecting different complementary solutions can accelerate more sustainable outcomes — from symbiotic strategies for carbon rebalancing to synergistic opportunities between net zero buildings and the power grid.”