Driving Viridien’s Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives: Meet Natalie and Christine
Viridien Stories | Nov 3, 2025
Five thousand miles and four time zones apart, Natalie Goodchild, global ESG specialist, and Christine Halsey, ESG advisor, both play integral roles in supporting the company’s CSR initiatives. Drawing from backgrounds in geophysics, education, and health & safety, they’ve also helped shape corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs that connect employees to meaningful community initiatives, which feed into the Social Pillar within Viridien’s Environmental Social Governance (ESG) Framework.
We caught up with Natalie and Christine about their individual journeys, how the field of CSR has changed over the past decade, and what Viridien is doing today to champion local and global initiatives.
What are your backgrounds and how did you both become involved in CSR programs at Viridien?
Natalie: I’m currently Viridien’s global ESG specialist but I originally started out as a geophysicist. After being very focused on my geophysical career, living and working in several countries, I transitioned into marketing and studied internal communications (which included PR) and this is where I was introduced to Corporate Social Responsibility, which resonated with me.
Later, whilst on maternity leave, I had a moment of realization that so much happens outside the corporate world that companies can and should be helping with. When I returned, I started looking for ways our operations could positively impact local communities. Starting with STEM outreach, it has grown from there.
Christine: I started out as a high school teacher in Texas before moving into oil and gas. I joined CGG, now Viridien, 12 years ago in a Health, Safety & Environmental (HSE) role. I teach new hire orientation, develop training programs, and have always enjoyed creating something out of nothing when it comes to education.
Long before CSR metrics were being recorded and used by the company, we were already doing things like volunteering and hosting community events. Once CSR became more formalized, it aligned perfectly with the work I and other team members were already passionate about. My role recently shifted to ESG advisor, so I still handle training but focus more heavily on collaborating with Natalie on CSR initiatives now.
How have these CSR initiatives evolved at Viridien over time?
Natalie: When I first started working on CSR, the term ESG wasn’t used then, and there wasn’t such a structured framework. If an employee was passionate about something—like running a marathon for a nonprofit or a local charity—the company might support them with a donation, but there wasn’t a broader strategy to facilitate any kind of growth or metrics recorded.
Using my internal communications skillset, I worked with HR and senior management to open two-way communications between them and the employees. We have such a diverse workforce with so many different passions, it was clear that we could offer more opportunities for them to make an impact. We started building a network to connect people to causes and over time this grew into more structured CSR programs, which now sit under the social pillar in our ESG framework.
A great example of this is when Viridien became the inaugural Big Bang Southeast sponsor in the UK and over the years worked with the local STEMNetwork hub to grow it from a small regional student event with around 2,500 attendees in a local theatre and 5-6 Viridien volunteers, to the largest UK Big Bang regional event with over 15,000 attendees held at a local showground across two days involving 27 Viridien volunteers. In 2014 our efforts were recognized with a national STEMNetwork award presented at an event at the House of Lords in London!
Christine: In Houston, we were always doing things like Earth Day recycling, volunteering at the Houston Food Bank, and MS-150—a major charity bike event. We’ve supported that for 22 years. We only recently have seen how those types of actions are starting to get formally recognized as CSR.
The ESG framework has brought more structure, we now log activities into our reporting systems, track volunteer hours, and are aligning efforts globally. It’s not that we’ve changed what we’re doing, but now other entities are seeing the value. We’re just capturing what we’ve already been doing.
What role have employees and leadership played in supporting these efforts?
Christine: One of the best examples is the Ballard House project. It’s a facility for families traveling to Houston for cancer treatment. Every year, we volunteer to clean rooms, do yard work, and donate supplies. It’s emotional and personal for so many of us.
The level of commitment is incredible. Employees bring their own lawn equipment, pressure washers, and cleaning supplies. They ask months in advance if we’re going to do it again. It’s really created a bond across departments—you might be scrubbing a bathroom with someone you’ve never met before, and by the end of the day, you’re friends.
Natalie: I agree. Senior leadership’s support and involvement has been crucial. In the UK our managers not only attend launch events but over the years they have also approved some very unusual expense forms, including ones for thousands of a certain chocolate bar (used to demonstrate geology and structure of rocks under pressure) and jelly beans (for 6m long jellybean wave machines)!
They have also volunteered at our interactive geoscience booths, working alongside new graduates and colleagues from across our business lines and sites, helping to break down business silos, and creating cross-function relationships while also setting the tone for everyone else. The cohesive culture this creates is the great return on investment for Viridien.
Our employees are achieving great things, with our global employee community volunteering over 2,200 hours for CSR activities in 2024. Employees do not only participate they also initiate ideas and encourage their coworkers to join in and bring ideas too. In 2024 these included:
- educational outreach events with UK employees attending career fairs at local schools/colleges and STEM events for local families and our Oman teams building and running a two-day geoscience workshop at a local college
- environmental initiatives such as native tree planting (Perth) and beach cleaning (Singapore & Llandudno in Wales)
- community service activities such as supporting local food banks (Houston, UK and Singapore), volunteering at local animal sanctuaries (Kuala Lumpur) and using their internal teambuilding activities to benefit our local communities e.g. bike building challenges by our UK teams and wheelchair building by our Perth teams
As a business, Viridien continued to support our CSR activities by granting over US$110,000 towards CSR activities in 2024. A new 1-day Volunteering policy was also launched at our UK sites, enabling employees to request to use a workday per year to volunteer their time and skills towards something that they are passionate about. This has resulted in employees being able to support the Association for Black and Minority Ethnic Engineers (AFBE), UK Scouts and Girlguiding, and the RSPB South Stack Nature Reserve.
With employees across the company showing such incredible enthusiasm and Viridien’s continuing support, I am excited to see what the future holds!
How do employee ideas shape your programs?
Christine: We get ideas all the time. We can’t always say yes for safety or legal reasons, but we do our best to adapt and make them happen. Often, a department will adopt an idea and lead it themselves, which makes it even more powerful. For Earth Day, for example, we had employees who wanted to plant trees at the Houston campus location. While we couldn't plant trees on-site due to property restrictions, employees took the initiative to plan a woodland park cleanup offsite. They organized everything themselves and did an amazing job.
Natalie: Our role is about enabling. We want to empower employees to bring their passions forward. The fact that they feel comfortable suggesting ideas is a win in itself. And once something takes off, it usually spreads organically.
How would you sum up the cultural impact CSR initiatives have had at Viridien?
Natalie: It’s become part of who we are, with the company’s CSR initiatives being used in recruitment, corporate reporting KPIs, and as ‘Viridien’s Social Impact’ which is asked about in business tenders. It is no longer seen as an add-on, but becoming a strategic priority with over 100+ CSR initiatives held across the globe each year. Our employees expect Viridien to be active in our communities and enjoy bringing ideas to the table. It is great that Viridien is working to ensure that they are heard, and that they have the space and support for them to act on them.
Christine: It’s also brought people together. Whether it’s cross-site volunteering or department-led projects, the relationships that form are genuine. People feel pride in what they’re doing—and that’s invaluable.
At Viridien, our commitment to our social responsibility is more than a statement—it’s a shared effort. Through employee-led initiatives, leadership support, and a culture that encourages action, we’re coming together across the globe to help turn our values into everyday impact.
Find out more about Viridien’s commitment to sustainability here: https://www.viridiengroup.com/company/sustainability
