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CREST Initiative is creating quality green jobs in communities facing ongoing climate crises. Jobs for the Future, Ares Charitable Foundation, WRI Institute, WorkingNation
CREST Initiative is creating quality green jobs in communities facing ongoing climate crises. Jobs for the Future, Ares Charitable Foundation, WRI Institute, WorkingNation
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‘They know their climate risks. They know the job opportunities.’

A conversation with Sara Vander Zanden, director, Jobs for the Future
By Ramona Schindelheim
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In this episode of the Work in Progress podcast, Sara Vander Zanden, director of Jobs for the Future (JFF), joins me to discuss the Climate-Resilient Employees for a Sustainable Future (CREST), a green jobs creation initiative funded by the Ares Charitable Foundation in partnership with JFF and World Resources Institute (WRI).

Earth Day marks the third anniversary of CREST, which aims to train and place 25,000 people in quality green jobs by 2027. The program emphasizes working with community-based organizations to create these jobs, particularly in regions experiencing challenges created by climate change.

Key goals include increasing awareness of what constitutes a “quality green job” and leverages regional expertise to match job opportunities to local climate risks and needs.

“Essentially, a green job is anything that integrates green skills. You can think of any traditional industry, you can think of construction, you can think of manufacturing, you can think of textiles or energy. There are ways to make all of these industries and all of these jobs green through the integration of green skills,” explains Vander Zanden.

The jobs are being created through partnerships with six community organizations that were chosen from a pool of 101 applicants through the JFF Quality Green Jobs Regional Challenge. They will include training programs and earn-and-learn opportunities.

“They know their communities. They know the climate risks. They know the job opportunities, the industries, the employers, who’s looking for workers. They know what workers need in terms of wraparound supports. The regions are telling us here is where we need to lean in,” she explains.

The focus is on creating high-wage, benefit-rich jobs that provide flexibility and dignity. In the podcast, Vander Zanden describes a quality green job, as defined by JFF’ job quality framework.

“Some of those main components are high wages where you can sustain a family. We think about benefits, comprehensive benefits that allow you to take care of yourself and your family and your health. We think about growth opportunities within a company or organization.

“We think about flexibility to shape your schedule. Knowledge of what your schedule and hours are going to be a couple of weeks in advance, you can plan your life around that. And we also think about dignity. Does this job make you feel more whole as a person? Does it honor who you are and the skills that you bring?”

What is at stake for the communities trying to battle the negative impact of climate change by creating quality green jobs? Which communities and regions are in the CREST initiative? What progress have CREST and its job-creation partners made so far? And where do they hope to be in the next few years?

Find out in the podcast, which you can listen to here or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find our podcasts on the Work in Progress YouTube channel.

Read, watch, and listens to more stories about the CREST initiative in our WorkingNation digital magazine produced in partnership with Jobs for the Future: Quality Jobs, Green Future

Episode 361: Sara Vander Zanden, director, Jobs for the Future (JFF)
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

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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.

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