2009 Greenest Office Judges Profiles

Our judges for this year’s 2009 Greenest Office Awards come from varied backgrounds:

Jim Key
Owner
Key Architecture Inc.
Fayetteville

Jim Key’s firm was honored as a ‘Greenest Office’ in 2008 largely because of the team’s dedication to retrofit a 1940s era building to its current needs.

The building’s mechanical, plumbing and electrical systems were updated, the walls were insulated and the exterior received a stucco finish. Also, a reflective coating was applied to the roof to decrease the building’s ambient temperature.

Key said his updated office space is an example of his company’s emphasis on reusing materials and estimated that improvements and renovations totaled about $80 per SF.

KAI takes part in Fayetteville’s recycling program, allowing it to prevent about 50 pounds of waste per week from entering the landfill.

The company encourages flexible work schedules and employees can work from home when appropriate.

KAI recycles all of its electronic components and uses rebuilt computers and machines.

Key, who earned his degree in architecture from the University of Arkansas in 1984, said his firm has a diverse mix of commercial and residential work.

The nature of the business has lent itself to finding new ways to go green.

Key said the company has really begun focusing its efforts on helping others understand and utilize sustainable measures in their own spaces.

Tim Snell
Associate State Director for Water Resources
The Nature Conservancy
Fayetteville

Water makes up more than two-thirds of the Earth’s surface and about 60 percent of the human body. It’s also a major part of Tim Snell’s job at The Nature Conservancy.

A great deal of his work centers on keeping Northwest Arkansas’ big drink — Beaver Lake — in good shape. That means consulting with a wide array of people involved in development of the region on how to build while preserving water resources.

“The green building idea lets you concentrate on your particular site. So you do the best job possible at your site,” Snell said. “Water conservation starts at your site, so if everybody does the best they can, the cumulative effect makes a large difference in overall conservation.”

Snell’s career also includes many years of work with forestry services and as an agricultural consultant, most recently with the Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture in Poteau, Okla., where he worked until 1999.

When it comes to protecting a body of water, some of the most knowledgeable people are the landowners and farmers along its headwaters, Snell said. He works with these people often.

“The people who live on the land are the best people to take care of it. They’ve understood conservation for a long time.”

Rand Waddoups
Senior Director of Strategy and Sustainability
Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
Bentonville

Rand Waddoups was a buyer at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. for seven years, working in dairy, frozen and dry grocery before taking his current position two years ago. As the director of sustainability and strategy at Wal-Mart, Waddoups said the best part of his job is feeling great when he goes home at night knowing the world’s largest retailer is making progress each day toward its “green” goals.

“Up until a year-and-a-half ago, Wal-Mart spent money on trash,” he said. “Today, Wal-Mart makes money on trash.”

Heading into his junior year at Brigham Young Univeristy in Utah, Waddoups landed an internship at Wal-Mart when he came across some clipboards with empty interview slots in the recruiting office.

A good interview led to a meeting with a corporate recruiter and a 1998 summer intership. Waddoups said his time with Wal-Mart then was “cool and all, but I thought there must be greener pastures.”

It turned out those green pastures were indeed in Northwest Arkansas, and when faced with a choice of Bentonville or Manhattan, Waddoups and his wife chose the Natural State to settle down and raise a family.

He said that working at Wal-Mart means, “There are more days when I say, ‘I get to go home and tell my kids about that.'”