LED Aisle Lights: WT Centennial Sustainability Campaign

Irwin Seating Company today (March 8, 2011) completed its installation of a key component of Wealthy Theatre's Centennial Sustainability Campaign - they replaced all our old, incadescent aisle lights with cutting edge L.E.D. lamps! These lamps will draw only a tiny fraction of the power the old ones did, and they'll last much longer than standard lighting.

Wealthy Theatre's Centennial Sustainaibilty Campaign is unprecedented among historic venues nationwide (and beyond) - we're still in the early stages of fundraising and we could use your help! Please support Wealthy Theatre's efforts to preserve this historic space - and become part of something unprecedented! Our plan will become a model for other theatres, putting a national spotlight on Wealthy Theatre as a "teaching hospital" for how to implement intelligent, cost-effective upgrades to reduce dependency on fossil fuels and lower utility costs.

We'd like to thank Irwin Seating Company for coming in early to support the WT Centennial Sustainability Campaign, which will continue through 2011. Historic venues are essentially cavernous buildings which require loads of energy during usage. Over the past three years, we've worked with engineers and consultants to identify every conceivable way we could reduce waste and provide leadership in the emerging movement to smartly infuse greening technologies in truly meaningful ways.

The WT Centennial Sustainability Campaign currently stands at around 25% completion of the goal, in large part thanks to a generous lead gift by The Wege Foundation. Mr. Peter Wege, as many people know, grew up in this area and worked as a young man at Wealthy Theatre - along with his best friend, the late Gordon Varneau. Mr. Wege is one of the reasons Wealthy Street currently enjoys a resurgence, and he played a critical role (understatement!) in the renovation of Wealthy Theatre.

In addition to Mr. Wege's support, numerous individuals have begun to support our Centennial Sustainability Campaign. Please click here to learn about the entire 30-point greening project; or click here to learn how you can support historic preservation by donating to the Wealthy Theatre Centennial Sustainability Campaign.

Irwin Seating Company is headquartered in the Grand Rapids Metro area, and employs over 450 employees right here in the United States. In fact, they place a premium on components and parts made in the USA, which sets Irwin Seating Company apart from many companies who import heavily or outsource jobs.

The WT Centennial Sustainability Campaign shines a bright light on "buying local." Part of our 30-point campaign initiative includes renewing our commitment to stock WT with locally made products, and use local service and engineer expertise. Our concessions area is increasingly local and nearly all of our tech hardware has been purchased from local vendors and installed by local experts.

We hope you are able to attend an upcoming event and see how amazing our new aisle lights look! Irwin Seating Company even had an "amber" version of the L.E.D. aisle lights, which helped to preserve the warm ambiance you've come to expect at Wealthy Theatre.

Here are some additional facts you may not have known about Irwin Seating Company:

• steel components are formed and welded in-house
• wood components are formed in-house
• upholstery and assembly work is performed in-house
• plastic components are purchased from other U.S. manufacturers

Most of our work is ahead of us with respect to the WT Centennial Sustainability Campaign; however, with the help of Irwin Seating Company we now have one of our critical upgrades "in the can," and it looks wonderful. Additional completed initiatives include: fully paperless ticketing; elimination of plastic water bottles; installation of carbon-filtered water for drinking, ice, soda, coffee and tea; and the implementation of truly recyclable vegetable-resin cups for our draught beer and water.