State Farm Arena, the renovated and renamed home of the Hawks and numerous other events, recently received LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.
LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a widely used green certification rating system for the design, construction and operation of buildings. Gold is the second highest of four levels of certification.
Among the factors that led to State Farm Arena’s certification: recycling 12,500 seats that were removed and replaced during the building’s extreme makeover last year; upgrading to LED light fixtures for a 41% reduction in lighting power use; installing more efficient plumbing fixtures to save 540,000-plus gallons of water annually; and becoming a 100% smoke-free campus within the arena’s property lines.