NHL Rinks go for LEED Green Building certifications

This week, an article on NHL.com announced that Philips Arena, home to the Atlanta Thrashers and NBA Atlanta Hawks has achieved the most prominent green building certification in North America: LEED for Existing Building: Operations and Maintenance (LEED-EB: O&M) certification.  This is the first Arena in the US to have achieved LEED!  There are lots of LEED projects out there, but to get LEED for Arenas are not easy!  Basically, in order to get LEED, the project needs to get as many “environment points” as possible.  The more the project gets, the higher the LEED certification the project can get (Certified, Silver, Gold, Platinum).  And these environmental points were originally developed for office buildings, therefore not exactly suitable for arenas.  What is more impressive for the Philips Arena is that it got LEED EB (as in exiting building), which has always been difficult/expensive to get.  Just imagine retrofitting your home to be more energy efficient - it’s harder than building a new one with “green” in mind!  I’d like to know some more details about this project, and will update when I find some.

How about some other LEED arena projects?

• K-Rock Centre in Kingston, Ontario - this is an arena for the Kingston Frontenacs of the  Ontario Hockey League, part of the major junior league in Canada.  It is built to LEED Silver standard and is in the process of getting LEED certification.  I actually ran a little tour on this arena when I used to live there - the tour will be offered again in the next GreenUP! on April 19, 2009.  You should go take a look!
• AmericanAirline Arena in Miami - this arena, home for the Miami Heat also god LEED EB:O&M on April 6, 2009, same day as the Philips Arena.
• Penguins’ new arena seeks gold LEED status - still under construction, the Consol Energy Arena is seeking to get LEED gold!  They claim that they’ll be the first arena in US to get LEED NC.