What an honor to have such a progressive team at Atlanta's anchor for convention business! The GA World Congress Center (GWCC) was recently awarded a $2.3 million grant for a major lighting retrofit and controls system upgrade through the State Retrofit Program. As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the funds were secured through GEFA's (GA Environmental Finance Authortiy) State Energy Program.
The funds will be used to replace nearly 1,500 lighting fixtures in the GWCC's 12 exhibition halls and 3.9 million square foot facility. Each bulb will potentially result in up to 25 percent savings per usage and will last 20 percent longer than the bulbs currently in use. With an annual power bill of more than $4 million, the potential savings is tremendous both in usage and dollars, the other green. The project is set to be complete in September, 2011.
As the fourth largest mega convention center in the nation, the GWCC's sustainable practices are important to Atlanta's economic vitality. Atlanta is a convention-driven city and the health of our convention business is integral to the overall health of our city. With the GWCC leading the pack as a Charter ZWZ Participant and now with state of the green art lighting, Atlanta is staged to be the winner with strong future convention bookings.
In a ZWZ Blog Post a few weeks ago, GWCCA is congratulated on hiring Tim Trefzer as the first sustainability coordinator of their facilities. Click here to view the post, GWCCA Walks Their Talk. Click here to see the official GWCCA press release on the GEFA grant.
Stay tuned as we continue to give updates on Atlanta's flagship convention facility and their crusade to ensure Atlanta leads the pack in sustainability.
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