By: Simone Fraid and Kathleen Dore
While momentum in the market is accelerating around corporate ESG, Verdani and our founder and CEO, Daniele Horton, have been leading ESG in the commercial real estate sector for over two decades, driving full service ESG reporting, strategy and solutions in the built environment. We are excited to have grown our team by 90% over the past two years and our new global partnerships have positioned us to hire anywhere in the world.
As demands for ESG consulting grow, we continue to expand with opportunities for sharp, curious, purpose-driven individuals to share in the meaningful work of helping scale solutions that combat climate change. Verdani thrives on a culture of caring for our people and the planet and aspires to hire people who share similar values.
Growing a Career
Verdani is a company for professionals of all levels to learn, grow and chart their desired sustainability and ESG career path. We pair all incoming employees with a buddy to help them navigate the company in the early days of their tenure, as well as a mentor to help them identify their professional goals. We also prioritize learning and professional development for our people to help us grow as a team and as individuals. Our employees receive annual education stipends to use for development opportunities such as conferences, professional accreditations, and more. We also host weekly internal training sessions to help our team members stay current on the latest industry insights, trends and best practices. Additionally, we encourage our team to participate in lectures and presentations to grow their leadership skills and engage with the industry.
As a growing organization, we encourage our team members to bring new ideas to the table, share knowledge and help set the course for the future. We encourage employees to step beyond their current subject matter expertise and explore other areas of interest within the organization, including our committees on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), resilience, biodiversity, and decarbonization and net zero. We recognize that solutions to urgent issues such as climate change can come from many angles, and encourage employees to raise their hand and take the lead on topics they are passionate about that can also help our clients advance their goals.
We emphasize collaboration and knowledge sharing, while also honoring individual contributions and providing flexibility for employees to manage their workload in a way that helps them do their best work in a balanced environment.
Putting People First
Verdani knows that our team members are the drivers behind our ability to deliver excellent results to our clients. We value each other not only as colleagues, but as people with unique lives, needs and interests inside and outside of the workplace. We offer a high degree of flexibility in work structure with remote working options, flexible hours, compressed work-week options, casual attire and pets allowed at our Carlsbad, California headquarters. We also balance hard work with time for relaxation and play. We enjoy summer half-day Fridays and offer in-person and virtual social events such as yoga, hiking, beach picnics, trivia, escape rooms, painting and more.
As a female- and minority-owned business, DEI is a strong part of our makeup and our values. We celebrate the diversity across our team and honor the perspectives and experiences that come from our varying backgrounds. We provide training on topics such as unconscious bias to hold ourselves and each other accountable to the highest levels of respect for every employee. Our DEI committee is working together to assess and improve DEI across our organization. Their efforts include ensuring our hiring and promotion practices are fair and equitable, providing staff opportunities to provide feedback on Verdani’s DEI strengths and improvement areas, and ensuring the use of inclusive language in our employee-facing materials and job descriptions.
We also care about the holistic wellbeing of our employees—including their physical, mental and financial health. In addition to medical, dental vision and life insurance, we offer paid time off, including time off for volunteering; 401(k) contributions; public transit stipends; homemade, organic vegan meals; yoga classes; and personalized wellness care packages. Employees also have access to an employee assistance program (EAP) with mental health resources and a variety of other wellness tools.
Working for the Planet
Beyond our spirit of caring for each other, what binds us together as an organization is a common drive to create a healthier, more resilient world. While this is deeply embedded in our company mission and our daily work, it also extends to how we operate and how we give back to our community. We aspire to lead by example, leveraging our own company as a force for good and partnering with a global network of business and individuals that are tackling our planet’s most pressing environmental issues. Verdani made a science-based targets commitment to reduce scope 1 and 2 emissions by 50% by 2030, from a 2018 baseline year, and we are preparing our first ever Verdani annual report to share our ESG commitments and progress. In addition, Verdani’s Technical Services team has made a commitment to donate 1% of our annual profits to 1% For the Planet, and our B-Corp application is pending review.
Our recently launched public webinar series, "ESG Essentials," aims to provide free ESG trainings to help educate the new generation of sustainability leaders, support workforce development goals, and empower individuals to accelerate sustainable progress. Verdani’s mission and vision is also in alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Our nonprofit, Verdani Institute for the Built Environment (VIBE), is focused on providing sustainability education and workforce training on climate-related issues and published a children’s book, Earth’s Climate Heroes, in 2021. VIBE is also preparing an upcoming series of 12 textbooks that provide in-depth understanding of ESG topics.
Work with us! Verdani is proud of all we have accomplished in the last decade, and we are looking forward to a bright future led by a dynamic, passionate team. We encourage individuals who align with our culture of caring and our strong drive to help our clients better our planet to visit https://www.verdani.com/culture-careers and apply to work with us.
About the Authors
Simone Fraid is a Communications Manager at Verdani Partners. In her role, she supports annual report drafting for clients, manages Verdani marketing efforts, and provides writing and editing support to the wider Verdani team. She holds a BA in Public Relations from the University of Oklahoma, and is accredited as a LEED Green Associate and TRUE Advisor.
Kathleen Dore is an Administrative Assistant at Verdani Partners. She provides operational support for the organization, including schedule management, special projects, and development and execution of activities that build our team culture, including virtual trivia, paint nights, and more. Kathleen holds a BA in Communications from Point Loma Nazarene University.
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