What We Do

Verdunity provides progressive city leaders with fiscally-based planning, engineering and community engagement services that prioritize civic vitality and long-term sustainability over short-term results. Our core purpose is to ensure prosperity for everyone by helping communities build neighborhoods where people at all stages of life and means can survive and thrive.

We believe that the way we have been building our places is not sustainable, and that America’s approach to how we build our communities and neighborhoods must change – immediately. We are committed to leading this change through the work we do and the lives we lead. 

vur-doo-ni-tee

Our name and accompanying tagline represent our vision, approach and company culture. Verde + Community became Verdunity

Verde represents what inspires us:

1. Fiscally Productive Places

2. Natural Systems and Green Infrastructure

3. Economic Gardening and Incremental Development

Community explains where and how we work:

1. Communities and Neighborhoods

2. Locally-Led Initiatives

3. Partnerships

Our team is more than the sum of its parts. But it’s still got some incredible parts.

Why?

Our founder and CEO Kevin Shepherd spent 17 years of his career as a civil engineer at a large firm designing projects for cities throughout Texas. Like many civil engineers Kevin operated under a system which said infrastructure expansion was the key to growth.

In 2009 he was given the opportunity to lead his former firm’s national Community Planning & Urban Design practice, where he was exposed to the world of planners, urban designers, landscape architects and economists. The combination of learning about these new perspectives and resources, working with cities across the country, navigating impacts of the 2008 recession, and some timely content from Chuck Marohn at Strong Towns led Kevin to a career defining realization.

Cities of all types across the U.S. (big and small, urban and suburban) were struggling to find the funds to maintain the infrastructure they had, yet they continued to encourage more development, much of it in the same pattern that created their fiscal gaps. If left to continue with business as usual, most cities would never have enough money to maintain all of the infrastructure being built or continue to provide quality services in an equitable manner. In 2011, Kevin started Verdunity so he could help communities and design professionals better understand and address these challenges.