Climate Resilient Jobs

Climate-resilient workers and entrepreneurs are finding purpose in a greening economy

A conversation with Taj Eldridge, managing director, Jobs for the Future (JFF)
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In this episode of the Work in Progress podcast, I’m joined by Taj Eldridge, managing director of Jobs for the Future (JFF), to discuss the growing opportunity for good-paying climate-resilient jobs and for entrepreneurs who want to combine enterprise and purpose.

The climate-resilient industry, says Eldridge, is still in an “adolescent phase” but is estimated to be valued at $5 trillion globally.

Emerging technologies and entrepreneurial activity is growing, due to federal, state, and local initiatives and funding, as well as corporate sustainability directives.

In addition to traditional green jobs such as those in clean energy, climate-resilient jobs can be found in all industries, creating career opportunities with family-sustaining wages and benefits.

This is attracting workers and jobseekers who are looking for good jobs that give them a sense of purpose.

Eldridge and I discuss the job-creating initiative CREST, short for Climate-Resilient Employees for a Sustainable Tomorrow.

The goal of the initiative funded by Ares Charitable Foundation is to train and place 25,000 Americans in quality green jobs, while also supporting entrepreneurial ventures in climate tech.

In the podcast, we take a closer look at some of those start-ups in the CREST Entrepreneur-in-Resident program and how they are working to make their communities more climate-resilient while creating pathways to long-term careers.

You can listen to the entire conversation here, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find our podcasts on the Work in Progress YouTube channel.

Episode 337: Taj Eldridge, Jobs for the Future (JFF) managing director
Host & Executive Producer: Ramona Schindelheim, Editor-in-Chief, WorkingNation
Producer: Larry Buhl
Theme Music: Composed by Lee Rosevere and licensed under CC by 4
Transcript: Download the transcript for this episode here
Work in Progress Podcast: Catch up on previous episodes here

Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.