Lindsay Smith-Arell

| Environmental Steward |
Lindsay Smith-Arell
Sustainable Program Director,
Colorado Convention Center

Denver, Colorado
Age:  32

As a lifelong outdoor enthusiast, Lindsay Smith-Arell has been long aware of the importance of environmental stewardship, but it wasn’t until she began working as an event planner in Seattle that she became concerned about the industry’s waste. Wanting to move back to her hometown of Denver, Smith-Arell approached her former employer, the Colorado Convention Center, about creating a position for her to move the center in a more sustainable direction. Five years and a long list of progressive environmental initiatives later, the CCC has become one of the most eco-friendly convention centers in the nation. In fact, Smith-Arell was instrumental in helping the building attain LEED-EBOM (Existing Building Operations and Maintenance) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council recently, the first awarded to a convention center. When asked why sustainability is so important to her, she says, “It seems like such an obvious, simple way to fix some of the issues we’ve created. There are easy ways to make huge positive impacts.”

—L. Plummer