Verdantas: Building the Place Where People Matter Through Diversity and Inclusion
Verdantas | June 23, 2023
We know that diversity is a catalyst to success and contributes to the overall career fulfillment of our people at Verdantas. An inclusive, diverse, equitable, and welcoming workplace is essential to living our values. Improving our efforts to attract and recruit talent from different identities, backgrounds, cultures, and experiences is imperative. This allows us to fuel innovation and connection among our employees, clients, and communities.
We are a people-focused company at our core. Inclusion creates the biggest and most effective impact on employee experience, resulting in superior solutions for our clients, making Verdantas a very special workplace.
Our goals of consistently aligning our daily practices toward equitable and inclusive behaviors for individuals, teams, and organizations and advancing women and underrepresented groups will be realized through the following:
Environment Social Governance program (ESG): Verdantas has embarked on a journey to formalize an Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) plan led by our employees and invested in by leadership. Verdantas has identified four pillars of focus for our 2023 ESG plan: Sustainability, Health and Well-being, Volunteer and Philanthropy, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I). Each pillar defines the standards and goals focused on enhancing our company’s impact on the world.
Diversity Equity and Inclusion Pillar Team (DEI): An employee-based and led team that sets the DEI programmatic and strategic approach for Verdantas in meeting our DEI goals. The DEI Pillar Team is supported by multiple individuals from the Executive Leadership Team, providing general guidance and helping to remove barriers to advancing our people-focused culture.
Peer Engagement Collaborative (PEC): A diverse group consisting of people from all levels and locations in the company and Verdantas’ Executive Leadership Team come together monthly to identify areas to improve our overall organizational health.
NextGen Training: To develop future leaders from our diverse group of people and advance women professionals and people from underrepresented groups into potential leaders, furthering our ability to innovate for our clients and our organization.
Verdantas Pave-The-Way Intern Program: We are never too busy to invest in the future! Our college program is intended to create an inclusive and mutually beneficial relationship and growth opportunity for Verdantas, its employees, and collegiate students. This program will enhance our ability to accomplish our strategic goals, recruit a diverse group of top talent, and build strong relations within the community.
Unlocking Verdantas Potential: Through a highly collaborative annual approach between our people and our managers and utilization of DEI training—we give our employees and leaders the tools and resources to enable our people with significant opportunities to grow their careers.
Our female leaders in influential positions have helped fuel our growth and advanced our culture of inclusivity and diversity. They are represented in these key positions:
Deirdre Smith, VP, Mid-Atlantic Area Manager
April Kozubal, Director of Human Resources
Nikki Delude Roy, VP, Northeast Area Manager
Cara Henegar, Director of Project Delivery Support
Alissa Urick, Director of Talent Acquisitions
Sarah Bleach, Controller
While Verdantas is only at the beginning of our ESG and DEI journey, we are working across multiple internal groups and investing in our ability to foster a workplace environment of belonging and equity and role modeling the commitment and sharing the positive impacts.