Coleman Announced as ‘Greenest Office’ Featured Speaker (Corrected)

John Coleman, former city of Fayetteville sustainability director, will be the featured speaker at the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s annual Greenest Office and Sustainability Awards event on Oct. 11.

This year’s event will be held at the Waste Management Sustainability Center in Rogers, from 5-7 p.m. Nominations are being accepted through 5 p.m. today, and winners will be announced at the event.

To nominate a business, entity or individual making the most positive impact on both the environment and bottom lines, visit www.arkansasbusiness.com/green_office.asp.

Coleman worked for the city of Fayetteville from 2007-2011, working on a variety of issues that included energy management, economic development, and green building policy. He eventually assumed the expanded title of sustainability & strategic planning director, which included project management and policy development across a wide spectrum of areas including waste diversion, building codes and energy.

Coleman currently serves as the director of Viridian’s Northwest Arkansas regional office. Viridian is an independent sustainable building consulting firm based in Little Rock. It specializes in LEED consulting, commissioning, building testing and cost segregation, among other things.

A graduate of the University of Arkansas’ engineering school, Coleman spent five years as an environmental engineer in the Chesapeake Bay and Mississippi River delta watersheds before moving to Austin, Texas, to study environmental policy and sustainable development at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas. While in Austin, he worked in the city manager’s office developing Austin’s Climate Protection Plan and Austin’s CarShare program.

The Oct. 11 event is free and open to the public.