A New Chapter for Viridiant — and a Note from Our New Executive Director
By Stuart Nuckols, Executive Director
This spring, Viridiant is marking a genuine turning point — and as we step into our 20th anniversary year, it feels like exactly the right moment to share it.
New leadership. A sharpened strategic focus. A new home in downtown Richmond. These aren’t separate developments that happened to arrive at once. They’re the visible results of deliberate work, and we think they add up to something worth celebrating.
The Foundation Andrew Built
Before we talk about what’s next, it’s worth taking a moment to reflect on how we got here.
Over the past year, Viridiant made one of the most significant strategic decisions in its history: we returned administration of the EarthCraft program to Southface. For an organization that has been deeply associated with EarthCraft since its earliest days, this was not a decision made lightly, but the reasoning was straightforward. Having two programs, two administrators, and varying compliance requirements wasn’t serving our partners or the market well. Consolidating administration under Southface was the right call for clients, and it gave Viridiant the clarity and capacity to grow in the ways we’d long wanted to.
That decision also prompted a deeper question: where does a mission-driven nonprofit add value now that the market has matured and private providers have grown in capacity to deliver green building certification at scale? Sitting honestly with that question, and acting on the answer, is what this next chapter is built on. It meant returning EarthCraft administration to Southface, and it meant deliberately scaling back our own multifamily certification portfolio to focus our energy where our nonprofit identity and technical depth matter most.
Andrew Green and the board made those calls with conviction. The result is an organization that is sharper, more purposeful, and better positioned than ever to invest in what comes next.
Andrew Green, outgoing Executive Director and Stuart Nuckols, incoming Executive Director
Where We're Going
A Personal Note
The work that excites me most right now is the work nobody else is doing.
- Post-occupancy building performance. Virginia has tens of thousands of LIHTC-financed affordable homes that were certified and then never supported with ongoing building science expertise. Energy costs rise. Systems degrade quietly. Owners absorb operating costs they weren’t underwritten for. Residents pay the price. We’re developing a scalable commissioning model to address that gap.
- Strategic Membership. We’re formalizing what our best long-term relationships have always looked like: embedded expertise, proactive engagement, and real capacity-building for the architects, developers, and owners who want a trusted partner in this work — not just a vendor on a project. If you’ve worked with us and wanted something deeper and more consistent, this is for you.
- Policy and workforce development. The conversations happening right now around Virginia’s Qualified Allocation Plan, energy codes, and green building incentives will shape what gets built for the next decade. Viridiant’s independence and credibility belong in those rooms. We’re also investing in the next generation of building professionals who need to understand building science, not just building code.
- Technical services. We continue to deliver pre-review analysis services and utility allowance studies — available as standalone services or wrapped into a Strategic Membership. Multifamily green building certification support remains available for the right projects and partners, with design engagement scoped and contracted first and certification following when the project is ready to break ground. Our Community Energy Services division will continue to offer energy audits and consulting to homeowners and commercial properties – on the open market and in coordination with government, utility, and NGO partners.
I’ve been part of Viridiant at nearly every stage of its story. What excites me most about this next chapter is simple: being the kind of partner our clients actually need. Present early, invested in their outcomes, and focused on the long game rather than the next transaction.
Twenty years in, we’ve never been clearer about who we are and what we’re here to do.
If you’re curious what any of this looks like for your work specifically, reach out. I’d love to talk.
Stuart Nuckols, Executive Director