Viridis Strategy Group officially relaunched as an experienced player in the growing sustainability marketplace. Formerly known as Esty Environmental Partners, Viridis will continue to evolve and apply to businesses’ environmental challenges the systematic frameworks-based approach originally presented in Green to Gold (by Dan Esty and Andrew Winston, 2006). The firm will maintain its mission focus to make sustainability executives more effective in delivering business value. As the keystone of its relaunch, Viridis debuts a strong set of packaged solutions offerings aimed at sustainability managers, which adds to the firm’s existing strategy advisory, data and benchmarking, and executive education services. Angel investor John McCall MacBain, chairman of European Climate Foundation, is backing the new approach.

Viridis has a long roster of multinational clients and deep experience in applying management consulting discipline to environmental and sustainability opportunities. The firm has worked in diverse industries, including transportation, energy, retail, industrial, and consumer packaged goods, with clients such as Boeing, CH2M HILL, Coca-Cola, Caesars Entertainment, FedEx, P&G, Johnson & Johnson, HanesBrands, and Xerox.

The experienced management team of George Favaloro and Amy Longsworth, partners and co-founders of the original firm in 2006, will continue to provide leadership at Viridis Strategy Group. The third founding partner, Dan Esty, accepted an appointment as head of Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) in 2011 and concluded his involvement with the consulting firm.

“In response to the rapidly maturing needs of the sustainability sector, we have expanded our mix of offerings and redesigned how we deliver them,” said George Favaloro, Viridis managing partner, based in Boston. “Our new solutions respond directly to the challenge that the Chief Sustainability Officer faces in ensuring that the sustainability function creates measurable value within the global enterprise. Based on our extensive experience in working with sustainability leaders, we have created specific, actionable programs that we tailor for the unique sustainability challenges of our clients. Our heritage is still in Green to Gold, but we’re pushing into new territory.”

Viridis recently deployed its Breakthrough Acceleration solution, which speeds the sustainability innovation process, to assist Procter & Gamble in defining a road map to achieve its ambitious renewable energy goals. By engaging top experts from its network and running an on-line innovation tournament followed by a live workshop, Viridis enabled the consumer goods giant to dramatically condense what could have been many months of work. The result was breakthrough energy plans for three P&G manufacturing sites that can be used as models for plants around the world. “The process was very effective. One hour into the workshop discussion we were discovering new things” said Stefano Zenezini, P&G’s Family Care Product Supply Vice President. “We made strong connections to the outside experts and developed a much better understanding of the challenges. We discovered new opportunities, and we developed solid plans to move forward.”

Other Viridis solutions include Sustainability Goals 2.0 (enterprise goal setting); Sustainability Traction (gaining alignment at the business unit level); and Employee Engagement (creating business value through sustainability culture). For more information about the industry-first solutions see www.viridisstrategy.com/solutions.

“Viridis has a singular focus, which is to make sustainability executives more successful in delivering business value,” said Amy Longsworth, Viridis partner in Washington DC. “Sustainability leaders in a global enterprise break new ground every day – that’s the job description. We want to help them execute effectively in what is a very dynamic environment. So we conduct research, track data, run working groups, and continually evolve solutions – often in partnership with our market-leading clients – that enable sustainability to be better managed, measured, and integrated into the business. We have decades of experience in our staff and affiliates, and we plan to grow and advance the industry with cutting-edge services.”

The Viridis model highlights core staff plus an affiliated network of sustainability thought leaders and experienced practitioners. Participants in consulting projects and the Sustainability Innovators Working Group, now in its second year, include Andrew Winston (co-author of Green to Gold and author of Green Recovery), Steve Ramsey (former VP Environment, GE), and David Lubin (co-founder, Palladium Group and chairman, Sustainability Innovators Working Group). They join a staff of more than a dozen analysts, environmentalists, researchers and strategists at offices located in Washington DC, Boston, New York, and Sydney.

Viridis also announced that it has the financial backing of angel lead investor John McCall MacBain, chairman of European Climate Foundation. The funding will be used for staff and market expansion, as well as continued service solution development. MacBain is optimistic about Viridis Strategy Group’s future. “They have solidified a great team, with great clients,” he said. “We are pleased to be investing in their expansion.”

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