The Atlanta Hawks have a competitive green streak that came out when they vied with the Miami HEAT to become the first NBA team with a LEED-certified home arena.
For eight months, the Hawks worked hard to achieve LEED Certification for Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance (EBOM), and the team was awarded the LEED certification on April 7, 2009, becoming the first NBA arena in the world to achieve this certification for an existing facility. Today, many NBA arenas have achieved LEED certification including the Miami HEAT, the Orlando Magic, Houston Rockets, and Portland Trail Blazers.
To earn certification the arena invested in a variety of green improvements almost a decade after the building first opened.
These upgrades included: HVAC, chiller, and lighting retrofits; reflective roof materials that reduce cooling needs; and water conservation measures such as low-flow bathroom fixtures that have cut water usage by 2 million gallons.