About Verdant
Restoring what can't wait.
We are an environmental non-profit working with local communities to restore forests, protect oceans and bring clean energy to the places that need it most.
Our mission
Put money where it does the most measurable good.
Verdant works where conservation, technology and community meet. We back three programs, reforestation, ocean health and clean energy, because the evidence says they create the largest lasting change for each dollar.
We are a registered 501(c)(3), audited every year, and 94 cents of every dollar reaches the field.
Our story
It started with one crew and one stretch of coast.
Verdant began in 2018 with a single coastal crew in Indonesia. The lesson was simple: lasting change happens when the people who live there run the work. We have built every program on that idea since.
- 2018A first coastal crew starts recovering plastic and growing coral in the Coral Triangle, Indonesia.
- 2019Planting begins in Chocó, Colombia, and the first village micro-grid switches on in Turkana, Kenya.
- 2022Patagonia rewilding and the Tanzanian mangrove coast join the site register.
- 202647 active sites in 12 countries, each with coordinates and a photo from the same spot every year.
What guides us
Our values
- 01
Evidence first
We fund the work the data says will matter, and publish the results even when they are humbling.
- 02
Local ownership
Communities run what we build. Crews, committees and nurseries are theirs, not ours.
- 03
Every site has an address
Coordinates, a yearly photo and an audited record. If we cannot show it, we do not claim it.
- 04
Money to the field
94 cents of every dollar reaches the work, and the books are audited every year.
The people
Meet the team
The people who lead Verdant’s programs in the field and at home.
Helen Ward
Executive Director
Spent twenty years in conservation finance before founding Verdant's first coastal crew partnership.
Samuel Kariuki
Director of Forest Science
Forest ecologist who designs the native-species mixes and ten-year monitoring for every planting site.
Dewi Anggraini
Head of Ocean Programs
Marine biologist leading the coastal crews and coral nurseries across Indonesia and Tanzania.
Arjun Mehta
Head of Clean Energy
Solar engineer who trains village technicians to own and repair their micro-grids.
Want to work with us?
Questions, partnerships, press or volunteering. We read every message.