Why investing in people really matters.

“Hiring and retaining great teams is hard. When we find the right people, we listen carefully to their needs and do everything to make sure they are happy. It’s important to provide the working environment and tools that team members need, but also important for them to get to know each other on a personal level. For all our employees, education is key.”?

I was delighted to speak to Daniele Horton, Founder and CEO of San Diego-based ESG (environmental, social, and governance) and sustainability consulting firm Verdani Partners. Rather than creating assumptions about what Verdani’s employees need, Daniele is highly attuned to their feedback and makes adjustments that helps the business and employees succeed. Investing in their welfare is Verdani’s priority, as they all work together towards Daniele’s central mission to flight climate change and to ensure a sustainable and resilient world. Daniele is a rare leader who understands the need to collaborate and connect with each other in our new hybrid reality. She’s an inspiration, and it was a pleasure to talk with her. The following sections are from my interview with Daniele.?

Growing a business to combat climate change?

After working on global carbon simulations during my master’s in sustainable development, I developed a huge sense of urgency around climate change. We weren't moving fast enough—we really needed larger market transformation. I started planning sustainability strategies for real estate, one building at a time during pervious roles, then we began to scale. In this industry, you’re constantly behind because as a planet tackling climate change, we’re running out of time.??

Verdani helps real estate owners scale ESG efforts faster. We embed our teams into their organisations, so they have access to all the skill sets they need to run a successful ESG program. ESG is no longer optional for real estate owners that want to stay competitive. ESG has become table stakes for many investors and more regulatory requirements are forcing companies to act. As a result, we have grown by over 100% in the last couple of years.??

Of course, there are those who aren’t ready to commit. We believe that companies can no longer ignore decarbonization as the grid transitions away from fossil fuels toward renewable energy. If you're still relying on natural gas and fossil fuels, your buildings are going to become stranded and obsolete.?

Hiring, hybrid and professional development?

The pandemic put huge pressure on companies to invest in ESG, so it boosted our business, and increased our hiring needs, nationally and internationally. We have team members all over the U.S., and are recruiting in Europe, Singapore, India, Brazil and the Philippines. We go where the talent is; as long as they have the necessary skills and we have some overlapping working hours, it doesn’t matter where they are working from.??

Before the pandemic, 70% of our workforce was local in Southern California and 30% remote. That’s now flipped, so most of our staff now works from home. We’ve implemented new technology and programs to promote productivity in a hybrid setting, including project management tools, advanced data management and stronger team engagement. Before the pandemic, we spoke with our team via phone calls, but now we use video conferencing. Seeing each other is a basic human instinct and it allows us to connect with each other on a deeper level.???

A culture of learning?

We’re a very diverse team, we speak over 17 languages, and we’re connected by our sense of purpose to make the world sustainable and resilient. Our passion and company culture are very strong, and even stronger post-pandemic because of the way we’ve ramped up our professional development and remote engagement activities.?

Millennials make up a large portion of our workforce. They want to work for companies that are purpose aligned. We do weekly ESG training for our internal team and have been doing bi-monthly external trainings for the public in the second half of 2022. ESG is a complex topic and recent market trends and more stringent regulatory requirements have greatly increased the demand for ESG consulting services. I think one of the biggest barriers for us to grow faster is finding people with the right qualifications quickly enough, so augmenting our training programs was necessary. Plus, with the help of our new tools and technology, we've been able to engage our employees through more methods of learning and engagement that were only possible in person before.??

Keeping the community spirit alive without the water cooler?

We make sure we have the office and in-person events so that employees who are local stay connected, and remote employees can also feel engaged. Except for core members of our operations team, we don’t require anyone to come to the office, which gives the flexibility for our employees to choose what is best for their individual needs. It’s so important that team members get to know each other on a personal level, so we hired an events planner to organise our in-person and remote activities. Fifty percent of our activities are now in person and fifty percent remote. We do kayaking, hiking, trivia, climate hero parties, volunteering, remote bingo, escape rooms, spa days and an annual in person retreat, among many other activities. We have educational sessions on leadership, mental health and key topics of employee interest. We're doing many different activities and our team is very engaged. I think before the pandemic, our remote team felt they were missing out on our in-person events, so now because of our hybrid mix, everyone feels a lot more connected and fulfilled. The activities have continued to strengthen our company culture and have become part of what we are known for as an employer.?

ESG remains right at the core?

Beyond our client work, through our nonprofit foundation, Verdani Institute for the Build Environment (VIBE), we are working on a series of 12 books on ESG and have published a white paper on ESG reporting frameworks. Education is very important to us. The U.S. has a serious lack of understanding of the urgency and detail around climate change, and there is so much misinformation that really holds the process back. We are doing our part to make a positive impact and help professionals understand the challenges we face, and the needed climate mitigation and adaptation solutions needed to fight climate change.??

With a focus on education, engagement and collaboration, Verdani is building a tremendously positive feedback loop that results in strong outcomes for our clients and employees that are happy and passionate about their work life. We recognize that the key to this success is investing in quality of life and life-long learning, and we’re just getting started.??

Daniele Horton is the Founder and CEO of Verdani Partners. Daniele has over 25 years of experience in real estate operations and development; sustainability strategy; and ESG management. She is a LEED Fellow, a licensed architect, and a Certified Energy Manager. She was named “Top 10 Most Powerful Woman in Sustainability” in 2014 by WSLA, and a USGBC Shero for Purpose in 2020. Daniele is an adjunct professor of Sustainable Real Estate at the University of San Diego and has a master’s in Sustainable Development from Harvard. In 2016 she founded a non-profit organization called the Verdani Institute for the Built Environment (VIBE) to advance global sustainability adoption in the built environment.

Verdani Partners is a leading full-service consulting firm whose team members have over 25 years of experience in real estate, sustainability and ESG. Verdani currently manages ESG programs for 15 national and international commercial real estate firms with over 4,500 equity properties across 1.1 billion square feet of diversified real estate portfolios, representing over $460 billion assets under management or total market capitalization. Serving as an owners’ representative for ESG management, Verdani provides comprehensive ongoing programs employing key strategies such as climate change resilience; net zero and decarbonization; healthy buildings; biodiversity; diversity, equity, and inclusion; data capture and management; framework, regulatory and sustainability reporting; and stakeholder engagement. Our clients consistently rank #1, #2, in the top five and/or in the top ten in their peer groups on GRESB, the leading ESG assessment for real estate. ?

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