Catch up on Verdani Vitals: Spring 2019 UpdatesCelebrating Earth Month, ENERGY STAR and Fitwel awards, and welcoming new employees to the Verdani Partners team!
It has been a great start to 2019 for the Verdani Partners team! Our firm experienced incredible growth with several new client portfolios and seven new associates joining the team to provide additional support. As we move quickly into spring, reporting season is well underway! For the past six years, we are proud to have continuously improved all of our clients' scores on GRESB and other reporting standards. In this issue: Earth Day and Earth Hour events, ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year, Science Based Targets, Fitwel awards, Verdani associate recognition, and an International Women's Day article from our Founder. We are also thrilled to introduce you to our new team members who joined within the last quarter!
Celebrating Earth Day & Month
Monday, April 22nd is Earth Day, a worldwide movement to celebrate the beauty of our earth and inspire action to preserve our environment. The theme for 2019 is ‘Protect Our Species’ and focuses on how human activities have led to the destruction or reduction of plant and wildlife populations. Many of our clients participate in Earth Day events and activities to raise awareness of how we can collectively create positive change. Activities include environmentally focused building lobby events, e-waste collection, and presentations about energy and water efficiency, alternative transportation, water smart landscaping, and more. Learn about specific actions you can take to protect threatened and endangered species such as bees, insects, coral reefs, elephants, whales and others. Learn More
Observing Earth Hour
Millions of people around the world join together to observe Earth Hour each year. This global event is intended to bring awareness to the (excess) energy we consume and the negative impact it causes to our planet. This year Verdani's team and our clients employees, tenants, and residents observed Earth Hour on Saturday, March 30th for 1-hour from 8:30-9:30pm. Building occupants switched off all non-emergency lighting to contribute to the cause. More Info
CommonWealth Partners
ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year!
Congratulations to our client CommonWealth Partners for earning ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year for the 2nd year in a row! They ranked among five other ULI Greenprint members for making outstanding contributions to protecting the environment through superior energy achievements. Namely, Commonwealth Partners has reduced portfolio-wide energy use intensity consumption by 21.9 percent from a 2013 baseline, equivalent to the annual energy use of 3,974 homes! We’re proud to support such an innovative and forward-thinking portfolio. Way to go! Learn More
Real Estate Leaders Set Sustainability Goals Grounded in Science
With buildings accounting for an estimated 40 percent of the world’s carbon emissions, real estate companies can take solace in knowing there are ways to reduce those emissions and address the global risk, while increasing asset value. Leading real estate companies like Kilroy Realty Corporation, Prologis, Brookfield Properties and Verdani's client CommonWealth Partners have set their own Science Based Targets (SBTs). We are proud of our Verdani team members Jessica Loeper (VP) and Valerie Chan (Energy Engineer) for their participation in this new ULI Report. Learn More
Verdani Employee Recognition
The Center for Active Design included Ruby Gonzalez-Jimenez in their list of honorees on International Women’s Day as part of a key group of women responsible for implementing Fitwel and energizing the healthy building movement. Ruby, who serves as the Director of Certifications for Verdani Partners, was recognized for her “commitment to the healthy building movement to clients and encourages use of Fitwel across a range of sectors, real estate portfolios, and asset types.” We are proud of Ruby for being included in such an impressive group of women who are transforming the real estate industry as a key driver of health.
Fitwel Award recipients, Clarion Partners' Joe Leahy and Harris Markowitz along with Ruby Gonzalez-Jimenez from Verdani.
Fitwel Awards
Verdani Partners was recognized by Center of Active Design and Fitwel in the Best in Healthy Building category as a Professional Consultant with the Greatest Number of Certifications in 2018. Our client Clarion Partners was recognized as one of two real estate managers with the greatest number of certifications in 2018. Clarion also earned the highest score (2-Stars) for Multifamily Residential for its property Montclair Residences. Learn More
The Verdani Partners team celebrated International Women's Day, assembling personal care gifts for a local women's shelter.
Championing Women
In honor of International Women's Day 2019, our Founder and President Daniele Horton wrote an article in which shares her personal journey from working in the corporate world to launching her own consulting firm. She describes her top 10 tips championing women in the workplace as they build their careers and launch their own businesses. Read Article
Industry Reading
Solar Farms Habitat: In honor of Earth Day's 'Protect Our Species' theme, here's a hopeful message of how planting wildflowers on solar farm sites could maintain habitat for disappearing bees and butterflies.
Social Board of Directors: The idea of a Social Board is that the voice of society is included as a key stakeholder in the boardroom to keep an eye on broad ESG issues at the board level.
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI): “Twenty years ago, only a handful of businesses disclosed their environmental performance. Today, 93% of the world’s largest companies by revenue report information on their ESG, of which three quarters use the GRI framework.”
World Green Building Council: Green buildings yield 30-80% lower utility costs compared to standard buildings, finds GBC Indonesia and IFC study.
ESG In Real Estate: The top commercial real estate developers, owners and managers are embracing the ESG trend that makes their companies and portfolios more responsible and more attractive for institutional capital.
Image credit: World Green Building Council.
New Verdani Associates
Joey Rund – Administrative Assistant
Michael Kloha – Certifications Coordinator
Jasmine Lomax – Sustainability Manager
Tim Swaney – Director of Operations
Lindsay Clark – Communications Specialist
Erin Simpson – Sustainability Analyst
Kelly Krezek – Sustainability Coordinator
Learn more about Verdani Partners -- our values, our services, our clients and company culture at www.verdani.com
