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“Everyone has a green-collar job,” according to virid.us, an online networking site for green-collar professionals launched this summer by Perillon Software alumni Furqan Nazeeri and Mike DiPietro. But not just anyone can become a member.
Participation in the web community is limited to “those who have a direct responsibility for environmental issues at work,” according to the site. Nazeeri believes, however, that such a population is growing fast as sustainability efforts move beyond simple practices like not printing e-mail.
“Everyone has basic stuff but it gets more complex,” he said. “So if I’m a purchasing professional at Wal-Mart, how do I think about sustainability in terms of buying?”
Nazeeri, who in 2004 founded financial software company Pivot Inc., came up with the idea for Viridus Inc. in 2007 over Mexican food with DiPietro, an executive at Winchester-based HR software company HealthcareSource HR Inc.
“There’s this huge responsibility and there’s not many of these folks, so there’s a real need for sharing best practices and collaborating,” Nazeeri said, recalling that conversation.
The site, which launched in private beta early last summer and opened to the public a few months later, offers forums, surveys, blogs, document sharing and event calendars for professionals to find and share information on how to make their companies more environmentally friendly.
Unawareness and lack of information are, in many cases, the only factors stopping companies from taking conservation steps like weatherization of buildings, said Gary Kaplan, executive director of the Boston-based job-retraining nonprofit JFYNetworks.
Viridus is funded with private angel investment and so far has not sought institutional investors. It has no revenue, but Nazeeri said he believes it has potential for “venture returns.”
Nazeeri said paid premium services are now in internal testing and are planned for rollout later this year. The site has thousands of users, he said, adding that Viridus has accepted only 10 percent to 15 percent of membership applications.
“When you’re launching a community like this, it’s really important in the early days to focus on quality and not quantity,” he said. “It’s about getting the thought leaders who really are shaping the industry to join and collaborate.”
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