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April Ambrose doesn’t garner the same credit her clients do when their buildings achieve LEED certification – although she deserves the same applause. Her work as Sustainability Consultant/Senior Project Manager for Viridian, a Little Rock-based, sustainable building consulting firm, has facilitated the design and implementation of more than 30 LEED projects. She’s coached clients, like Hewlett Packard, all the way to desired levels of LEED certifications in core and shell, commercial interiors, existing buildings, new construction, neighborhood development, residential construction and schools.

“I used to only want businesses to take sustainability actions if they were doing it for the ‘right reasons,’ but now I try to find the right [reasons] for them,” Ambrose said. “There are so many potential benefits. Businesses that don’t [take action] will be left behind by those that [do.] The cost of inaction has become greater than ever before.”

Her role behind the scenes includes coordinating LEED and sustainability consulting projects and training owners, architects, engineers, and contractors to budget, plan, design, and finance a facility that respects occupant needs, financial responsibilities and the environment. “I see myself as a facilitator for the owner to achieve their goals for the building in the most efficient, healthy and environmentally safe way possible,” she said.

Her Viridian clients aren’t the only ones seeking her guidance. National and state organizations looking to better understand what she’s mastered – like the Arkansas Governor's School, the Sierra Club, RePower America, the U.S. Green Building Council's Sustainable Arkansas Expo, media and universities to name a few – solicit her for countless speaking engagements. “I’m constantly thinking of ways to educate, share and inspire sustainability actions,” she said.

Perhaps her proudest eco-exploit is the Arkansas Earth Day Foundation, which is a non-profit coalition she helped found to educate Arkansans about sustainability through the annual Earth Day Festival. Ambrose helped increase attendance from 300 at the inaugural festival in 2004 to more than 15,000 in 2009. “Producing Arkansas Earth Day introduced me to the entire environmental community in central Arkansas and beyond,” she said. “It took me from an idealistic, recent college graduate to a realistic professional, but always without losing my passion for a more sustainable future.” Today, she remains an advisory board member to the foundation and also finds time to chair the Little Rock Sustainability Commission and the educational non-profit, Elevate.

If it isn’t apparent, Ambrose really believes in the cause. “I can’t imagine a time when I won’t be working in the green industry.” she said. But “what I do is not a job. This is my purpose in life. I selfishly want humanity to continue to thrive as long into the future as possible.”