The Woodruff Arts Center Green Initiatives

WAC Footprint

Woodruff Arts Center reduced its use of energy in 2008 by 8%. In April 2009, we signed on to take the governor’s energy challenge to reduce our energy use by 15% by 2020.

By now most of you have noticed a difference in the parking garage in the form of lighting. In February, in part through a grant from Grants To Green, the Woodruff Arts Center replaced the high energy Metal Halide lights in the parking garage with low energy fluorescents.

Green Roof Project

The Woodruff Arts Center is making great strides in our Green Roof initiative. We now have an actively growing GreenGrid roof system on top of the High Museum of Art's Bunzl Center and the SCAD dormitories on the WAC campus. This groundbreaking program is serving as an inspiration to our Midtown neighbors, our patrons, and other arts organizations.

Green Dashboard

The Woodruff Arts Center Green Dashboard is tracking the results of its green programs over time. Click here to see a snapshot of our projects to reduce CO2, kW’s, and dollars spent.

Letter to the Woodruff Arts Center Community

Welcome to the Woodruff Arts Center Green website. We are pleased to announce we are continuing our campus green roof initiatives with the addition of a new vegetative roof atop the dorm building located at 15th Street and Art Center Way. With the addition of the Dorm Building and last year’s addition of the High Museum of Art’s Bunzl Building our total square footage amounts to 12,000 sq ft of vegetative roofing. This project was funded with the generous support of the Community Foundation of Atlanta (Kendeda Foundation) GA Dept of Environmental Resource/City of Atlanta Watershed Management, John Portman & the Weston Corporation.

We currently have two exciting energy projects recently completed in winter 2008. The High Museum of Art’s Conservatory Lab energy reduction project and the Woodruff Arts Center garage lighting retrofit. These two “Grants to Green” projects were funded with the support and assistance of the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta.

An update on our Energy Star Program partnership with the EPA, our alternative transportation options, our recycling efforts, and a snapshot of our carbon profile improvements are discussed under WAC Footprint.

Sponsors & Partners

Grants to Green
Energy Star
Home Depot
Community Foundation of Atlanta (Kendeda Foundation)
GA Dept. of Enviromental Resource/City of Atlanta Watershed Management
John Portman & Weston Corporation

The Home Depot Foundation

In 2007, The Home Depot Foundation generously pledged $1 million to build a Green Initiatives Program at The Woodruff Arts Center. The Home Depot Foundation’s Grant has helped The Woodruff focus on sustainability as a business imperative. Over the past three years, The Woodruff has made huge strides in the Green Initiative effort. The Center has reduced its energy consumption by 17% and its carbon profile by 20%. These efforts have resulted in $600K in avoided utility expenses and $343K in utility expense savings.

The Home Depot Foundation Grant has funded a number of important campus sustainability projects. The recent Garage Lighting Project converted metal halide lighting to high-efficiency fluorescent lighting which resulted in savings of 141,500 kWh per year and annual energy costs savings of over $9,400. In 2008, The Woodruff Arts Center installed 12,000 square feet of vegetative roofing on the Bunzl Administration Building & SCAD Dorms. Vegetative roofing reduces urban heat island impact, saves building energy for heating & cooling, and reduces storm water runoff.